(Curator POV)

Sweeping up the ashes, we shoved however much we could into the moat and whatever excess was left we threw into large piles that littered the first floor. When we cleared out a majority of the floor a notification popped up in my face.

ashen fields floor theme (floor 1) Has reverted back normal cave.

Nice, just like I expected, the floor reverted back to being a normal cave, and if I’m right... bringing up Lore creature mastery I can try to summon a robin.

AAAAAnnnnnd nothing, well the summoning failed, Bringing up my status screen I noted that failing didn’t use any DP, alright on to the next part, focusing my attention on the second floor I repeated the summoning again and this time it succeeded.

Looks like I need to set the floor's theme before I can summon any creatures, good to know. Next is to test if I can summon fairytale creatures on non-magical floor themes, like on the normal desert floor theme or whatever it was classified as again.

Calling out lore floor expansion I look through the list of floor themes.

List type: Default

desert: 250 DP – a normal desert.

plains: 250 DP – a normal flat plain.

Forest: 250 DP – a normal forest.

Mountain top: 250 DP – a normal mountain top.

List type: Magical

Magical woods: 450 DP – a woodland of magical nature, who knows what predators may lurk may lurk in its shadows.

Magical Forest: 950 DP – a forest of magical nature perfect for mischievous creatures to play around in.

Magical Library: 450 DP – a library of magical nature, houses many books.

Ashen fields: 950 DP – The burnt remains of a magical land, the ashes retain the lands magical properties, creatures which have an affinity to fire are drawn to this area.

Oh Yeah, default floors that’s what they were classified as, they were a lot cheaper than magical floor variants so that’s a plus I can test all I want, and not feel like crap for using DP.

But before continuing, I asked Alice and the others to bring the ash downstairs for later use, don’t want to waste perfectly good resources, after all, once that was out of the way I bought the desert floor theme.

The whole floor was engulfed in white light, once it subsided it revealed a barren wasteland of rolling sand dunes at the mercy of a harsh unforgiving sun. It was quite basic looking when compared to the Magical Woodlands though, it was lacking in decoration things that would add charm to the floor like dead shrubbery or rock outcroppings, things along those lines.

I can always try to spice a default floor as a sort of D.I.Y project after this test, Repeating the experiment I tried to summon a robin.

And It failed again, well that’s another question answered. Next up on the list of never-ending questions is to see if I can create new floors by messing with existing ones, bringing up the ash piles I had the first-floor guardian blow it into the first floor, and soon... okay not “soon” it actually took a while, the sand and ash mixed together creating a beautiful mix of all-devouring blacks and grossly incandescent golds.

The light that was reflected off the gold-colored sand was blinding on its own but in the presence of the ash it was made it a lot more bearable, the same could be said for the ash too, by itself, it would normally be impossible to walk on it due to the heat it absorbed but when paired together it was made bearable as the golden sand reflected a portion of the heat back into the sky before it could be absorbed by the ash.

Through your own design, you have unlocked a variation of ashen fields. Shimmering desert has been added as an enhancement.

Looking through the list I confirmed that shimmering desert was now available as an enhancement, it cost 350 DP to buy, so on top of the base cost of ashen fields, it should cost about 1300 DP in total to buy it.

Once again I tried the summon test and lo and behold it worked!

Not perfectly though, the robin looked like it was having some problems by just being here, it struggled every time it tried to flap its wings and it was frantically looking for shelter away from the harsh gaze of the sun by any means necessary.

Whoops... let's guide this little guy downstairs where he’ll be safe, the poor thing was losing its color.

Well then, what’s next on the list... maybe try to alter the floor more and see what other options I can unlock?

Ehhhhhhh maybe later I should give Alice and the others some time to rest. I’ve been running them ragged all day, for my selfish experiments, and come to think of it I went on this experimenting spree right after the fire too, giving them no time to rest even after that harrowing experience.

Yeah, they definitely deserve some downtime. So while the others are resting let's check up how everyone's doing. Alice was taking a well-earned rest in the library, she was resting her head on the countertop drifting in and out of sleep.

I don't see her sleep often she usually stays awake for days on end before taking a brief naps even than it’s only after something major happens like today, I guess it has something to do with her being a dungeon avatar and whatnot, but only sleeping every so often can’t be good for her mental health.

Shifting my senses to the second floor I spotted the first-floor guardian lazily resting underneath a tree, it’s good to know that he’s not overexerting himself or anything. Big Bad Wolf, on the other hand, was gorging himself on rotting meat back at the boss room, I should get him some fresh meat when I can as a sort of boss warming gift.

As for the first-floor refugees they were fitting in just fine on the second floor since it’s just more or less a mirror copy of the first. Some of the wolves that were maimed by the adventurer's blunt weapons also made it out alive, I should look into getting them back into shape, let's just hope that they’ll fill back out in time.

Looks like everyone is settling down now, the last ones to check on are the cinder wolves and the deviants. I found them near the staircase leading up to the first floor, my eyes were immediately drawn to the cinder wolves, they were listlessly lying about looking pale like they were drained of all color, their cinders dwindled and flickered threatening to die out.

It couldn't have been a wound or anything like that they usually just shrug those off, no...this had to be something else. looking at them I noticed that they all seemed to be staring at the staircase, towards the shimmering desert, pulling up the description for ashen fields there was one part that stood out for me “creatures that have an affinity to fire are drawn to this area”.

Then it hit me this was a similar situation with the robin in the desert, quickly I had the cinder wolves move to the first floor.

As soon as their paws touched the ash-sand mix the cinder wolves demeanor changed almost instantly as they dove headfirst into the ashen sand gobbling it down by the mouth full. Finishing their feast the wolves were back to normal, with their cinders reignited and colors flushed they ran around happily familiarizing themselves with the layout of the floor.

Well looks like the desert theme is here to stay, for now at least, I can’t just go cramming all the woodland creatures all into one floor after all. I can try to create a small side room for the three cinder wolves to make their den in, instead of giving a whole floor to them.

Yeah, let's do something like that later..... Hold on if this is happening to the cinder wolves than what about the deviants?

The robin looks like it was doing just fine, but the Fox on the other hand still had that huge wound on its stomach and for some reason, it refused to heal. It might be more similar to the cinder wolves in this case.

I had a wolf pick the fox up by the up by the scurf of its neck and bring it up to the first floor, setting it down on a nice patch of sand, and like the robin before the wolf made a mad dash back downstairs. I watched over the small animal hoping that it would heal, minutes passed as foxes cinders started to flare up, mustering what little strength it had left the small fox wobbly got up on its legs exposing it’s wound.

That was when the ever omniscient paper started to flow in and strap themselves to the wound filling the wound, the little fox plopped back down to the ground, taking a well-earned rest.

The fox snuggled in on itself until it looked like a loaf, cute.

Watching over the fox loaf, I was reminded once again how important rest was, everyone here was made of paper from the wolves to the foxes to the bosses, I think Alice might be made of paper as well I have never seen her injured before but I think it’s safe to assume that she is, and of course, I’m just floating jewel.

We weren’t made of flesh and blood like normal people, so it’s easy to forget about things like rest and overexertion, but it’s days like these that reminded me of the importance of resting that even if our bodies don't tire we still had minds that could tire and wear out.

Soooooo *yawn* yeah it’s been a while, I emptied my mind and drifted off...

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(Meanwhile Zhenya and Rudi)

“Rudi, come on, today wasn’t so bad we managed to finish four requests today!” Zhenya gleeful patted him on the back.

They were currently sitting at a table in the back of the A.A, even at night the building was a bustling hive of activity even more so with the dungeon being closed down, fights for well-paying requests had become heated. Not that the duo noticed since they lived at the A.A, so they were always the first ones in line when the request board opened.

“maybe..... I guess, I did forget about my problems for a bit,”

“I can tell, that’s why picked out all the request that had to do alchemical ingredients,” the pride in her voice was easily noticeable even amidst the yelling of the crowd.

“hah! What was that? If I remember right you came you me all sheepish like and had me read to you what all the requests said.” he retorted back at full power, it was more for the sake banter than anything, though it was true he was feeling better now then when he heard the news.

“That doesn't matter I still picked them out regardless so it was all me,” she pointed out with the biggest shit-eating grin she can muster.

Bantering through the night about the day's happenings the pair managed to forget about their problems, even if for a little bit, they were having fun.

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(Curator POV)

*haaaaaaa wwwwaaaaaaa*

Well, that was refreshing, I don't know how much time passed while I was asleep but let’s just call it a new day.

Looks like the little fox is feeling better, I watched it for a while as it got into its own antics while zipping across the sand playing by itself.

Oh? it looks like it’s getting ready to pounce, hopping up into the air the little fox dove face-first into the sand, digging its way back out it continued playing, what an energetic one, it’s kind of hard to believe that this was the same fox I found.

It’s good that the event didn’t leave any lasting trauma on it. Alright, I can’t just look at a little fox playing all day, I need to actually get some work done.

First off, seeing how energetic the little fox has gotten, I am almost convinced that there is something else besides the ash on this floor that attracts fire type creatures. And now that I’m focusing in on it there’s something of a faint spiciness in the air, yeah it feels very similar to mana with a hint of spiciness to it.

If I remember right the description for ashen fields said that the ash still retains the lands' magical properties, “magical properties” being mana I assume, so that explains why I feel mana coming from it, but that spicy taste is still a mystery.

Thinking about it, “how do the creatures in my dungeon exist or move” has always been a question that has been in the back of mind, when I think about it they’re essentially paper golems, right? Golems that can move, feel and act of their own accord, it would make sense that they would have to be powered by something and that something I would hazard is mana.

And this is linked to why Alice, and by extension fairytale type creatures, rarely gets tired or sleepy. It’s just a theory but maybe Alice has a certain mana upkeep that she has to maintain to function normally and when she exerts herself, like say summoning that wolf from her tome it drains her of that mana, sleeping could be her going into a dormant state until she gets enough mana back into her system to function normally.

Going even further into this theory that means floors listed as magical must have a higher concentration of mana than default floors and that's why I couldn't summon anything when the floor was still just a normal desert.

Or maybe magical floors amplify mana more than default floors, something like a multiplier, like magical floors have a 2.5 multiplier on mana whereas default floors have a 1.2 multiplier on it, well whatever the case is it’s definitely clear that magical floors have more mana in them than default floors.

But wait I had the first-floor guardian and several others transport ash to the first floor when it was still a default desert to transform it if there wasn’t sufficient enough mana on that floor, shouldn't they have stopped moving or gone dormant until they got sufficient enough mana back into their system?

Instead, they kept moving around as if it was normal, that means they have some way to store and preserve mana, the only thing I can think of that could serve that function is the paper that makes up their bodies. It actually makes a lot of sense if a fairytale creature loses too much of its paper, it’s mana storage, they can’t keep their form and start to break down, and that explains why the little fox was so sluggish when it was injured.

Also, the paper that pops out of nowhere to heal my creatures, I think it actually does appear out of thin air or to be more specific it’s created from the pure mana lingering in the air.

Hmmm, that line of logic sounds solid, at least, but why exactly mana turns into paper is beyond me, but if I had to guess I would say it’s related to the type of dungeon I am.

Well, in any case with that brain blast done. Going back to the whole spicy mana thing I am sure the fire did something to the floors mana, something like imbuing it with the power of fire, which then became the ash and that's why fire creatures enjoy the shimmering desert so much it’s hot, dry and brimming with fire mana.

Actually, now that I think about it fire mana is probably the cause for the cinder wolves and deviants, since their bodies absorbed the fire mana and changed into what they are now, and that’s probably why they need fire mana, well the cinder wolves, deviants seem to be able to absorb both types of mana if the fire robin happily flying around the second floor is any indication.

Jeez, I just woke up and I’m starting to feel tired already ain’t that just great. Ahhhh well it was sleeping that helped me organize my thoughts anyways so I guess I can’t complain too much.

Now then where was I again, more experimentation that’s rightttttt.... actually after that bout of mental connect the dots, lets put it on hold, and start putting floors back in order now that I have a little bit of DP stored up.

On the second floor somewhere off to the side in a relatively forested area, I had the wolves and foxes dig out a den for the cinder wolves, I could do it myself but wanted to save on DP, yes DP, it’s not that I’m being lazy or anything.

Let's hope the den counts as a separate floor, it was fairly deep down and I even had my helpers dig out little steps to simulate a staircase. Opening lore floor expansion I didn’t see any notifications about the cost being doubled, so taking it as a good sign that my (really the wolves and foxes) efforts weren’t going to go to waste, I set the dens theme to ashen fields and it worked, the den was now filled with ash as little sparks of embers drifted in the air. Let's call this floor 3.1 the dead end nest or the den for short.

Going back to the first floor I moved the three wolves and the little fox down to their newly made den. Now then let's start clearing the floor out. I call Alice and the others over.

It took a while but the floor finally reverted back to being a normal cave, while cleaning we transported some of the ash and sand into the cinder wolves den to convert it into a shimmering desert, honestly, it was more like the shimmering sandpit than an actual desert though.

Going back into the menu I pick magical woods, and after the usual light show the floor was exactly how it was before the fire, the clearing was there, the tiny neck of the woods in front of the staircase that the fairies called home was there.

At least in layout, the floor was the same, I doubt the trees that the fairies messed with would still have their illusory properties or that the little dens and nests that the critters made are still present.

everything should return back to normal in time once the floor creatures and critters return, Giving the go Big Bad Wolf started mimicking various animal sounds telling them it was okay to go back to the first floor, and slowly but surely the critters and wolves started flowing back upstairs.

With that done the dungeon was more or less shaping back up. Now then let's start looking into getting some sort of lake or pond or lake enhancement for the floor, don’t want another wildfire getting out control, also this floor could use a revamp.