The ship flew over the city, drawing attention since airspace was completely limited to flying monsters and ships were very rare nowadays and most stopped at the airfield.

For one to be in the middle of the city was suicide but it flew on, unimpeded until it approached the castle and started to slow down and pull the sails in and the engines stablized in position. It was at least 200 meters in the air, very far from most buildings and would be covered by clouds if there were any.

In the air, Helix stood on air and floating in the air was a small crystal marble that flashed all the colors of the rainbow from the light that filtered through it.

On his other hand was already a glowing matrix of lines covering his fingers and everyone even remotely sensitive to magic could feel it was a spell of some kind.

He walked on air and eventually stepped upon the ship grinning.

“Are you ready for this game?” He asked.

“How will it work?” Logan asked.

“I assume you already absorbed the dungeoneer knowledge?” He asked.

Logan nodded, “Good, this glow on my arm is the prepared memory and knowledge transfer. It isn’t a lot of information but it is probably a bit more advanced then what humans on this continent know. It shouldn’t outright cripple your senses if you properly absorbed the knowledge of the grimoire you obtained.” Helix said.

“Alright then. I’m ready for it.” He said.

“Even if you were not I wouldn’t give that time.” he said and pointed his hand and shot a mean of magic into Logan’s head.

The vision of knowledge appeared and a wave ran through the entire structure of knowledge and added tiny bits here or there but that changed a bit of knowledge, likely human error, and then it reached the area with larger gaps and it caused Logan to shout in pain.

“Oh? Gaps?” Helix said.

“We’ve only gotten to intermediate level magic knowledge before leaving to set up our branch. The advanced knowledge is identification and dungeoneering.” Jade said and used some magic to try and help but it did nothing.

“I see, it will be a bit painful then.” He said as it continued.

Areas in the gaps were filled in with very persistent knowledge that would likely override human knowledge and it went to the very end and then added only a very small bit but it was like a drop of acid in his brain.

That little bit was extremely painful to engrave and lasted an hour to fully pass on until it ended.

“There we go, properly engraved. Dragons sure have the right idea to engrave memory and knowledge into a fetus compared to waiting for it to be born and having to face pain. With unformed nerves it can easily sleep through the pain unlike grown beings.” He said and shot a healing spell which slowly helped with the buzzing in his brain and he started to channel mana and finally his brain started to calm down.

Only after ten minutes could he effectively stand up on his own. “What’s next?” He said.

“You tell me?” He said.

Logan groaned but thought about dungeoneering magic until many tiny fragments in the knowledge that had changed reacted and he actually learned a spell and raised it on hand and it started to build a magical formation.

He was careful as he inscribed cryptic runes as well as magic runes in a very complex system with nine magic circles and one primary circle.

“Good, it would seem you learned it properly and it only took a few moments for you to notice. You have potential as a dungeoneer and a dungeon master.” He said.

Logan didn’t reply as he used Arashi to cut his thumb and drew a droplet of blood and began to change and the blood turned into mana that filled into many tiny points in the structure and began to generate several bubbles of red mana.

“There… the blood binding is formed.” He said.

“Yes, but you have to remember that if the dungeon produces monsters stronger than yourself, it will start the formation of a soul by gathering fragments of souls from these creatures. Should you make cattle of some kind.” He said and sent the core and the red lines shot into the core that settled just above.

Helix didn’t think much as he took control and walked into the ship.

All the knights were wary of him but the three followed and went into the heart ship.

“Hmm…” Helix muttered as he looked up and then down. It caused the light to change slightly.

“What is he doing?” Storm whispered.

Helix replied though, “I’m looking for the place that will cause the least amount of disruption in the structure and flow. Although I said I would put it on the engine because of the desert trains, it could very well be the bridge where you control the ship’s controls.” He said and actually took the path to the ship’s bridge where the controls were but shook his head and then to the engine room.

The glow was much stronger here but he frowned.

“Is it not supposed to go here?” Logan asked.

“It can go here… it is only a bit better then the bridge but the ship doesn’t have any better location yet it can be stronger.” He said, “This is why there are disadvantages of an incompatible structure.” He said before sending the magic structure to the engine and when the magic circle touched it, the mana from the massive engine flowed through and into the core before it released a dungeon domain into the engine first and then out into the room and filled the airspace of the ship.

Everyone felt a harsh disharmony.

“Urge. This is such a sickening feeling, I never thought such a poor connection would happen to the point that the dungeon domain would be so unstable. It is like the domain of a dungeon in a volcano’s vents which are incapable of sustaining life.” He said.

“What is the problem with it?” Storm said.

Logan stretched his arm and a line of magic reached the core but shockingly, he felt the connection extend from outside all the into the core.

Congratulations on becoming the Dungeon Master of this Dungeon core.

Warning, dungeon core has been placed in a drastically incompatible location for a dungeon’s vital purpose. Attempting to stabilize… failed… failed… dungeon master’s aid is required to design a viable dungeon theme that will stabilize this dungeon.

The message wasn’t just for Logan, it appeared in front of the core.

“So the theme is as vital as with the caravans.” Helix said.

Logan walked over and saw an empty catalog in the dungeon shop.

“I want to make an airship dungeon, just like the caravan dungeon. I want larger ships to be ‘floors’ and smaller ones to be ‘rooms’ he said.

The windows vanished and a rough model appeared showing the current ship. Then small three man gunboats appeared, numbering 10. After that another large ship appeared but it was static.

Instability in the formation process.

“Reference caravan dungeon for creating new ships.” He said.

Referencing… Caravan Dungeon can create a totally new cart or convert a minor carriage into a major train cart. Testing method… test partially successful. Method is viable however.

One of the smaller boats bloated into a new ship much like the first and formed more small boats and it kept increasing until there were ten boats. After that it stopped again and was having trouble.

“Again…” Logan said.

“You are designing something the gods did not think about, kid, and you are doing a rough job about it. Did you not research caravan dungeons enough?” he said.

“Shit.” Logan cursed before he stopped and asked. “Help system what are the primary requirements to run a cruiseliner airship.” He said.

Everyone nearby looked at him confused but shockingly the system reacted.

Scanning… no information exists.

“Then what are the requirements for a village to function, this includes defense.” he said.

Scanning… if a village were built into an airship, the requirements would be…

Close range Cannons and long range defense, sewage system, water treatment, engine crew quarters, combat crew quarters, common crew quarters, leisure zone and pipe networks.

“Then try to change the ‘room theme’ of each main ship to be one of the requirements and change the first ship to be the primary engine or bridge.” he said.

The image of the ships changed as they morphed leaving the first and last ship like the base model.

“Now try to fuse them into one large ship.” He said.

“That was your aim!” Helix suddenly exclaimed but a warning came.

Negative. The ship stability does not meet the requirements for a stable dungeon. Dungeon lacks a method to gather and convert mana as well as a method for monsters to evolve under the dungeon system.

“Then reference the caravan dungeon bank system and implement it into the final ship. Now the resource… the caravan dungeon transforms its small carriages into different work stations, dorms and more for at least half the monsters. So make sure there is a max of boats, make them into rooms and channel the dungeon domain into them to expand the internal space and fit enough.” He said.

The image changed and a meter showed up that showed how much the unstable dungeon domain was still exposed.

“Alright, now in at least two boats connected to each ship, add different but vital resources in the form of a magical cave which channels mana into it and generates minerals, crystals and wild monsters to hunt.” He said.

“Wild monsters?!” Jade said.

“They are a resource as well… I am still thinking of how this will work but I am starting to understand how this system works i think.” He said.

Boats began to form large rock caves held by a metal shell and a lot of the unstable domain filled these caves. One of them was zoomed into and showed a rough natural cavern system which had random wild monsters spawning and mineral zones gathering mana rapidly.

“Wait… are you planning on a resource production dungeon?” Helix asked.

“Yes… metal and minerals as well as monsters are the fastest way to channel mana even if they are only a part. Magic metals require a lot of mana to form but even then it is only after mutating common materials. Also, mana stones are valuable and so is gold when condensing mana.” He said, “The bank is for that, the dungeon is going to be as gold intensive or even more than your tower or any caravan dungeon.” Logan said. “Now try merging.” He said.

Negative. All distortions in the system must be resolved, improper major ship creation process also requires fixing and all dungeon domain distortion requires stabilizing.

“Damn it.” Logan said.

Helix grinned, “Not so easy to design a dungeon based on instinct and a mental image.” He said.

Logan was still disturbed by the domain feeling around him but he did the next part.

“Change one boat connected to each main boat into a distorted farm land. Entering these areas shrink the one entering allowing a larger piece of land to be farmed upon. Make five into farms and five into forests.” He said.

Another ten ships changed into flat rocks carried by boats and channeled a lot of the domain and finally made the distortion stabilize.

“So from the get go, I need at least two caves and a farm.” Logan said. “Now the floor creation process… the caravan dungeon just channels mana into a carriage and makes it into a train cart. That doesn't work here. Wait… what are the vital parts required to run a ship.” he asked.

The most basic requirements are an engine and mana generator for fuel.

“Alright, test this. One main ship is an engine and mana generator small ship along with as many small ships of their primary function.” he said.

Suddenly they all felt a change in the domain as it settled significantly.

The first ship in the display broke apart and formed five ships. One was like a small boat that carried an extra ship engine, another was actually tied next to it with a mana generator, acting as the mana suction of the dungeon, and the other were the primary function.

They moved into position and they combined with pipes and such and the bodies of the boat combined and soon they formed a boat that looked similar in structure to the main one.

The same thing happened to all ten boats.

Structure accepted by the God of Dungeons. This system is now being fine tuned by the god himself after the basic structure has been created. Testing major merge structure.

All the major ships began to move and line up in different locations based on their function.

The first ship was not an engine room, it was the bridge. It moved to the top and each of their bodies began to open up and release pipes and other things while the engines in each ship moved to the back, the engine crew ship connected right next to the engines. Water treatment, sewage and pipe network connected before the pipes spread throughout the ship.

Crew dormitory and leisure area were on the top and 1st deck of the ship and the dungeon core was not on the engine where the ten engines and mana generators connected to and powered the ship. It was at the bridge where the captain lived.

Dungeon structure is stable.

“It really worked!” Helix said, shocked.

“Yes!” Logan exclaimed.

Next moment, the theme window appeared and Logan confidently pressed it and a wave ran through the interior of the ship and the dungeon shop opened up. Just like the caravan dungeon, there was a requirement to ‘purchase’ the entire structure of the ship, especially the external body which now contained the domain.

Logan looked at the display but he soon noticed something.

“Wait… the main ship is producing enemy monsters… sewers will generate monster mice, engines might generate things like goblins… what is this?” He exclaimed.

Notice from the God of Dungeons

Unless there is a large ‘home’ especially designed for monsters, wild monsters that act on instinct will generate inside the dungeon. The wild monster caves reduce the output but unless there are major ships dedicated to housing a large network of caves, these monsters will keep spawning in areas that should be safe.

“Ah yes, the dungeon god will never give up the balancing agent he so loves. This will mean you will have to constantly monitor your dungeon unless you meet a critical failure should a naturally spawned monster appear to destroy it. Amazing isn’t it, this is a design likely made in his anger because you do not achieve the function of a dungeon properly and pump mana into the earth.” Helix said.

Logan looked at the model, he thought about what he knew about the caravan dungeon and remembered something, “Wait… don’t caravan dungeons have that one strange mode. The bazaar mode where they release like half of each cart and carriage's dungeon domain to the point that it covers cities? Wouldn’t landing and making the surroundings an ‘airfield’ where the ship’s release mana work? In this case the dungeon can still gather mana in the less rich upper atmosphere and then land to release it?” Logan asked.

Thought has been sent to the God of Dungeon’s for analysis…

The God of Dungeon’s has accepted this as a balancing agent.

Airship dungeons will now generate wild monsters within safe ships until there is a proper spawn zone under the condition that the ship does not undergo regular landings to unload excess mana gathered by the dungeon core. Dungeon spawn rate will keep increasing the larger the mana quantity in the dungeon until it lands after which point the will return to a natural spawn rate.

“It worked out after all.” Logan said.

Helix was shocked that he had enough reference and thought process that he could actually design a stable form for this dungeon.

Helix looked at the core and his brow raised. “So we are flexible if we have enough creativity.” He muttered.

“Did you say something?” Logan asked.

Helix frowned before addressing the system, “Help system, ask the God of Dungeons if there are other airborne dungeons. I want to know if we are truly limited to the soil or if we can use other natural locations such as clouds or just a plain stone island.” He said

“Are you planning on moving?” Logan asked.

“I told you when we first met. Me leaving my dungeon for long periods destabilizes it. I would come out perfectly fine but the side effects of doing so would be far reaching. If I can leave with my dungeon and travel like this airship then I will take it. My soul occupies this body leaving my primary core body as a husk which channels mana for the world. No different from that.” He said.

Everyone looked at the small core and they felt it might have been a bad idea that they depended on a dungeon to figure this out. They might just have unleashed the beast.

As expected, the message appeared for everyone instead of just Helix.

Report from the God of Dungeons

Dungeons of the sky exist… Sky dungeons are floating islands and a single island is visible but the rest is hidden in the dungeon domain while Cloud dungeons exist on small islands that grow in scale on clouds that will form a ‘bottom’ to keep creatures from falling but can be used to pull creatures into it. The clouds will form into a self-contained magical ocean and hold a different system from towers or common dungeons. They are required to form an entrance which they can move on top of and release their mana.

Everyone read it and instantly looked at Helix.

His face turned into a grin as he turned, “Leave this land soon child… things might get crazy and you are now competition, as you are now a dungeon master.” he said and proceeded out of the dungeon using short distance teleportation magic.

Logan scowled, “Get moving! It doesn’t matter if it feels weird, start getting the ship moving. Head north towards Eshen, we need to quickly leave the books behind and leave the warning before going.” He said.

Although he said that, the ship began to move at his order as the dungeon core shined.

It was still not in its natural structure at the bridge but he didn’t need it there at the moment.

On the way he began to examine the dungeon shop and as expected, it was heavily reliant on gold. Furthermore, unlike the original design, the first major ship needed to build was the bank which would be where the dungeon’s primary mana source was created in the form of gold as well as allowing monsters to spawn.

Logan dumped his ever growing gold reserve in the engine room and once he had enough he purchased the entire ship’s structure which infused the dungeon domain into it.

He also called all the knights and informed them of the changes.

“We have succeeded in making a unique dungeon out of our airship. This is to be kept a secret because too many people would freak out. At this moment we are going to head for Eshen to deliver one final thing and then we will be heading to the first of the other continents.” He said.

“Are we still going?” Helen asked. She knew he was doing that to learn how to do this exact process but it confused her why he was leaving.

“It doesn’t change that other races have different views of magic and we also need time away from the dangers of this continent to grow the religion, that is our aim. Religious followers don’t need exceptional requirements but those that need it are the ones we filter through training. For the time being, we need to stay alert because of the system of the dungeon making it that until there are areas specifically for monster summon, they will spawn even in safe areas.” He explained.

They all looked shocked, “Yes, also everyone is to carry one of these.” He said and dumped a large number of bags he had generated from the dungeon shop. “These are special bags that are common on caravan dungeons and are required here as well. They generate gold coins like in most dungeons while you train. In or out of the dungeon you will passively draw mana so you naturally also generate coins. These are vital because similar to the caravan dungeon, the things in this dungeon will run on gold coins and most of all is the requirement for gold to generate new buildings, spawn creatures and more. That said, there is a single rule for everyone of your monsters. You are to never use the soon to form bank system to evolve and grow in strength. It will bind you to the dungeon if you don’t calculate the appropriate value to automatically evolve and prevent the dungeon from binding you.” He said.

“Huh! The dungeon does that!” One of the hobgoblins exclaimed.

“It will soon enough once I’ve built the proper structures for it to successfully do so. I’ll say it again, no one will use it without explicit permission from me. You have to have sufficient gold and I have to be present in case anything goes wrong because this dungeon is still a new form where the god of dungeons is working out the problems and as many of you can feel, the dungeon domain itself is not extensively stable. Do you understand?!” He shouted.

“Yes sir!” They all said.

“Good, we will be setting patrols within the ship just in case. We don’t need hordes of mindless goblins rushing around the ship causing trouble.” He said and began to assign different floors to different groups to distribute. Then he made shifts and distributed them based on the floor of the ship.

When it was settled they began to get to work while the ‘spares’ returned to the Micro world for patrol among the villages and keeping the peace there.

He was thankful that he had at least 500 knights which was enough to have reserve after each village had a small group of knights to maintain the peace and resolve problems.

After getting through this they proceeded to Eshen as quickly and peacefully as possible.

***

Back in Helix, he was having all the buildings in the dungeon emptied. Sentient creatures in the 20th and 40th floors were already stable even as magical bodies and were evacuating under his strong arm command and gathering all the things.

The floors between all the cities were turning into magic while only the cities remained and they drew closer to the surface where they were getting drastically more unstable and soon the first 20 floors were gone leaving just the checkpoint city.

The mana of the floors were being used to keep the city as stable as possible and so it continued until his entire dungeon was gone except all the cities.

When there were no more sentient monsters, he broke the checkpoint cities down. The endless wilderness vanished, leaving just the walled cities.

Activating the dungeon system. Theme transformation into a cloud dungeon commencing. Overabundance of mana has supplied the necessary requirement to transform the core into the required structure.

The next second the crystal came off the throne and levitated to the center of the room and rose up to the roof and connected directly through a magical system.

Then chains appeared and a stone circle that looked like a well had been ripped out appeared and the core lowered into it and it sealed around it. Finally a powerful earthquake shook the entire city as they witnessed the castle that was the dungeon rising and ripping a huge chunk of earth. It rose, leaving the city in shock until it was about 100 meters and they saw the waves of its domain expand before clouds started to appear and cover it.

“The lord switched his theme… but clouds…!” one of the S rank monsters exclaimed.

A bright light crashed down into the hole where he once lived and the hole closed and left in its place a large stonehenge while the clouds continued to grow denser and shadows spread out from the single dark spot.

In the dungeon, the dungeon cities separated from under the castle and rose above the gathering clouds that were spreading rapidly. They were all releasing unstable waves but Helix was calm. He was reading the rules of the dungeon and soon began to modify the network of his dungeon and caused the near collapse level disaster plaguing those cities to stabilize to a level similar to Logan’s dungeon. It was unstable but it was not to the point where it was self-destruct. It would be able to house his sentient monster army.

That said, he needed to stabilize the clouds first and foremost because immense flows of mana pumped through them connecting the islands but they were thin, forming knots and the dungeon lacked the capacity to condense clouds from mana much less corrupt wild monsters. The clouds were a natural ocean but what he had was normal clouds.

With a snap of his finger, the near infinite amount of mana he possessed summoned forth hundreds of wisps of all basic elements.

With a flash of his finger, three of them were struck from each kind and they merged into a slightly more advanced spirit.

The reaction of this caused many more wisps to start evolving and he made them start working and kept snapping as he summoned more in the hundreds.

Like a wave they spread out, earth spirits went into the ground and he watched with interest as they began to fix the knots and problems in the flow until it reached the clouds and instantly released the huge flow of mana from his castle into the ocean.

The result caused the island to glow as the land mass outside the walls expanded by twice the diameter of his castle. Mana flowed into the clouds and water and wind spirits began to work while earth spirits began to dig stream paths and drew water from the ocean and caused streams to form.

Within the hour, the clouds were condensing to the point that the several cities were almost touching but finally it condensed into tangible water that could hold weight beyond spiritual life.

Achieving this was like a valve and besides a unique type of cloud that could support weight, the clouds sea expanded wide and pushed the island cities but they kept floating close to the central island and current entrance.

Naturally Helix changed that and put the 20th floor city as the entrance and at the center, a stonehenge formed and the island clouds peeled off his castle island and went to that one and connected the two like a land bridge of small islands.

Earth, water and wind spirits moved in and began to grow these islands but even with the immense sort of mana, they had to be filled and a miniboss born and set on every island and every 5th floor would have a major boss before the theme would change.

The reason only 5 floors compared to 20 is because cloud dungeons have a very large capacity to hold and store mana. It also had a very steep power threshold but F rank for the first 5 floors is normal and movement through a fully developed 5 floors will require magic powered boats and each entrance must possess a safe zone so that ambushes never happen. The most unique part of this is that the method to obtain mana is from invaders, not from killing but from their existence inside the dungeon. The cloud dungeon had no passive mana absorption and it gained mana from creatures not affiliated with the dungeon who draw mana, use magic and magical skills and release mana when they fight. That is why he was holding firm onto the store of mana he had instead of releasing it into the ground. It would effectively cripple his growth.

Still when he was done, he sent a signal which called his dungeon monsters and the few SS monsters quickly ran forward followed by the S and A rank.

The stonehenge formation was a teleportation formation and they appeared in the 20th floor city that was now the entrance and quickly flew towards their master who grinned and explained what he had learned and what he was doing now.

“Master… you are going to rebuild with a totally new structure?” the SS rank minion asked.

“Yes, a structure free from bondage to the land. The checkpoint cities are all safe. Those who want to live in a peaceful land in the sky under my protection, invite them. Let them come and occupy all those cities they once knew and even those far out of their reach that were once just your home.” He said.

They bowed and did their masters bidding and told of the changes.

Gasp came before a huge migration of monsters came and began to fill the dungeon. That said, they were no longer Helix’s dungeon monsters like the A, S or SS rank. They had left for the freedom of the world but the freedom came with the hardships causing them to return.

The cities quickly filled but half way through, the land around the walls finally expanded and formed an extensive island that was viable for farm work, the small island clouds were barely boulders compared to the islands in fact but they were growing and eventually Helix felt he could expand and doing so, his castle rose from the ground, leaving the new land where the hold filled in. He casually looked at the list of bosses and assigned up to 30 different types of monsters to spawn depending on the same network he had done before however it ranged from unranked to F rank in the new system so it included F- and F rank.

His change would only trigger many more dungeons to try one of countless different forms and combinations of themes that dungeons possessed that they never thought of due to their love lives under the same form of living conditions.