Okay. Okay. I’ve composed myself. And poetry. I’ve composed a lot of poetry.

I think it’s been a few days. The fire raids have been occurring almost daily. They’re starting to get better too. They still haven’t made it past the first moat but it does have me worried.

The girl is still here too.

On the brightside, we both learned that you can eat the salamander’s tails. They actually cooked themselves! They had that lizard thing where their tails would detach easily to distract predators, with the added bonus that the tails would explode into a burst of flames. While normally devastating to anything not resistant to fire, the super antifire environment in my dungeon meant the tails would merely cook themselves from the inside out.

With a little finesse from my ice breaker and my knife wielding clothling, tails came in by the dozens. It wasn’t the most balanced of meals but we didn’t exactly have many vegetables laying around at the moment. Seaweed was available, but the grimace on her face was enough to have her eat only the bare minimum to get her nutrients. Eating healthy is important! And I’m sure the experience will give her skills, or something. Hopefully.

Plus the mana from the raids has gotten me to level 9! It hasn’t unlocked any new skills for me though...

Speaking of skills, my clothling got a few. The knife from the girl was so large for the little thing that it counted as a sword, so now it was getting swordsmanship skills. It was already at level 3 from the raids. I honestly had no idea what it did on a step to step basis, but it did make them look like they were actually wielding the thing instead of just holding it. Regardless, my entire dungeon staff were working hard and deserved a reward!

Names!

Yes, after around two months of living, I finally got around to doing the most basic thing for them!

Is what I’d like to say, but I didn’t even name them myself. The girl, who’s name I found out to be Xylia, just started naming them after a while. Probably out of boredom, unfortunately enough. (I just wasn’t ready to entertain people right now.)

Honestly, I don’t really have much reason for not naming my dungeon children. It just... never seemed necessary…

My disappointment in myself aside, I now was addressing those with names by their names.

My clothling was dubbed Merry! Granted, I’m very certain Xylia meant Mari, as in Marigold, but I took some liberties there. The ice breaker was dubbed Edwin, and it was really hard to not take another liberty and change the name to Edfin. And the final monster Xylia named was the salamander, who was dubbed Noelle.

By the time I realized what she was doing, I jumped in to name the other special fish. The 8 splashers were now named Dasher, Dancer, Pancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen. The mistfish were now Rou and Dolf respectively. Yes, I used those names. I had the opportunity and I took it. I’ll probably do it again later, when I get the majestic reindeer.

The remaining angelfish, jellyfish, jellyslimes, and nibblerfish, in addition to the number of new biters and spitters that I lost track of, were much harder to keep track of for Xylia. Strangely, I could track anyone that had a name. The issues came when Xylia would try to name a fish that had already been named. They would get real uppity about it and sometimes splash her when she tried. It was cute.

But with the names in place, I'd say the first floor is about done!

Well, half done.

Okay, honestly the first floor is a complete mess. The entrance is sloppy, the moat is still a moat, and Xylia’s room is a random room I have no idea what to do with when she’s gone. Plus, I still don’t have the first boss ready! I could do so much better here, but I can do that later.

I really want to get to my second floor already.

The reason? Water is fine, but it's just lesser ice and snow.

I want to get to the good stuff. The fluffy white stuff. The real shite baby!

So with barely a finished first floor with no boss, I began work on the second floor.

From behind the pool room, my core room dipped down, tunneling a new floor beneath the first. At the end of the tunnel, a new base room and the old core room formed.

The first thing I did was change the tunnel. There wasn’t much I could do with it, as it seemed necessary, but I did actively raise the second floor to be higher. Then I used [Space Manipulation] which sounds cooler than it is. It’s not really manipulating space as it is messing with perspective. So it wasn’t really changed, it just now felt like you didn’t really change elevation when you moved between floors.

What did change was the look of the tunnel. Going from basic stone, to more wet stones with dripping stalagmites a plenty that changed into more of a frozen ice exit with icicles. (How I loved those things!)

Next came the new room, and I had an idea in mind. First I stretched out the room really far. To the extent that on foot, it might take two thirds of a day to walk through. Nothing super crazy that would take weeks of wandering, but pretty far. Currently, it was very narrow, as I had something to do first.

By taking all of the mana from my first, second and third floor investments, in addition to my level up mana, I purchased the third floor.

That's right baby! I didn’t even start on the second floor and barely finished the first and I already moved on to the third!

I didn’t even have the mana capacity to afford it! My maximum mana capacity was lower than the down payment to purchase the third floor, but [investments] had allowed me to technically store mana in other places!

I’m 90 percent sure you aren’t supposed to do that but I don’t care! Nobody can control me!

Except Santa.

Santa could probably control me. But it ain't Christmas and that saint ain’t here to stop me now!

Third floor here I come!

[The trials of your heart and the tribulations of your soul have unlocked a new attribute! Rusher has been added to your attributes!]

[Rusher: Unlocked when someone rushes ahead of the curve. Slight discount on future purchases.]

[The trials of your heart and the tribulations of your soul have unlocked a new attribute! Achiever:Spending has been added to your attributes!]

[Achiever:Spending: Unlocked when someone makes a purchase over their mana current mana limit and succeeds. Mana capacity increased by double. All future purchases are reduced. Mana generated per day increased.]

Huh. Well that's cool.

Also, I’m now level 10! I get new creatures!

I opened up the dungeon status page.

[Unnamed Dungeon: Level 10

Level up Mana 0/2000

First floor investment 10/4000

Second floor investment 65/4600

Third floor investment 5/6000

100 per day per investment

Unique monsters: 0/3

Floors 3/2

Boss available

Attribute available (Attribute must be unlocked before proceeding.)

Monster available

Creature available

Flora available]

Ooh! I’m guessing you get attributes every 10 levels then? Neat!

I tried and it does seem like I have to take an attribute before choosing my next batch of critters. So I looked at the options.

[Strengthened Walls: Though many have tried, none have breached this dungeon’s walls. With this upgrade, no one will. Dungeon walls are stronger in all parts of the dungeon. Requirements: have an overwhelming amount of monsters invade.]

[Strengthened Monsters: Monsters are monsters, and monsters are deadly when they need to be. All monsters strengthened. Requirements: Have many monsters]

[Room to Grow: Everything needs some space to grow and this dungeon has a lot of it. Inhabitants will get a small increase to skills gain equal to the size of the dungeon room. Requirements: Have a single room take up a very large amount of space.]

[Nondirect Combatant: The best way of surviving is to not fight at all, but there are other ways to defend yourself. Monsters are weakened throughout the dungeon. Invaders are weakened. Bonus mana whenever an invader dies via indirect combat. Requirements: kill many invaders without attacking them.]

[Dungeon of Champions: Through trials and tribulations, all things grow. The inhabitants of dungeons are no different. Upon reaching certain thresholds, monsters will evolve into champion monsters, which can be equal to boss monsters. Boss monsters will subsequently be weaker. Requirements: Have a small amount monsters stronger than others of their evolution line in the dungeon by a wide margin]

[Ill Omens on the Winds: Winds carry whispers far from hidden lips, and curses farther. Winds, poison and dark skills prosper. Curses can be placed on anyone in the dungeon for a mana cost. Water, healing, and light skills are reduced. Critters are slower to spawn. Requirements: Use dungeon wind or any alternatives to convey something.]

[Charming Dungeon: The fastest way to the heart is with a knife, but grabbing the hearts and minds of invaders first is a good idea. Charming fog is lenient throughout the dungeon, weakening the wills of those who enter. Breeding of monsters and critters increased. Requirements: have an invader be charmed by the dungeon inhabitants, have an orgy occur in dungeon walls.]

[Acquire Element Affinity (Water): Attune the dungeon with the power of the wet and wild world. Water skills increased throughout the dungeon. Requirements: have multiple inhabitants with water affinity.]

[Acquire Element Affinity (Poison): Attune the dungeon with the power of disease and rot. Poison skills increased throughout the dungeon. Requirements: have multiple inhabitants with poison affinity.]

[Acquire Element Affinity (Healing): Attune the dungeon with the power to save those close. Healing skills increased throughout the dungeon. Requirements: have multiple inhabitants with healing affinity.]

[Acquire Element Affinity (Fire): (I didn’t bother to read this one)]

[Acquire Element Affinity (Ice): Attune the dungeon with the power to freeze things solid. Ice skills increased throughout the dungeon. Requirements: have multiple inhabitants with ice affinity.]

That was it? That was all it had?! Are they serious?!

Note, I’m not complaining about the amount of attributes. They all seem perfectly likeable. (Although the [charming dungeon] looks “dirty.”)

What I’m complaining about is the ice element description.

Freezing things?

Ice wasn’t just about freezing things! There were so many other things Ice could be used for! You could…

{“____” proceeds to rant about ice, snow and their uses for several hours.}

...and they way they crunch in your mouth! It's just-ugh! Ice is so awesome! And that description from the system does not do it justice!

I’m picking it! Because it’s still ice, and ice is awesome! But I'm doing so angrily.

With reluctance I really shouldn’t have, I clicked...the...there was another option.

It wasn’t there before, I’m certain of it.

It even looked distinctively different. While the others were just there, in a weird state of both existing and not existing where the more I looked at them, the harder it was to attain the details, the new one felt more solid. Not the type of solid like a rock or a tree, but more a fragile solid, like ice or a snowflake. (Aka the best type of solid.) The words had a blue and white mix of a hue, like they were formed out of ice and then frozen over. I was immediately intrigued.

[Major Core of Ice: This world has played its hand, and despite everything you have proven time and time again that the will of the world shatters in the face of the ideals of your heart and the whims of your soul. For this, the world now bows to you, and all things of ice, snow, and cold heed your call. As the world steps into a new age with your arrival, may you teach the inhabitants of the true meaning of winter wonderlands. By accepting this position, you shall become one of the Major Cores of the world and be rewarded with the position of an admin. Your affinity will be set to ice, and will be unchangeable, nor can another element be attuned to you as the dungeon core. Unlocks requirements for currently unknown inhabitants, even to this system. Requirements: Reject the land’s natural affinity, reject the natural callings of a dungeon, reject all bonus attributes, harbor true love of an element in your heart, be more knowledgeable than the system.]

Woah.

That seems... heavy to say the least. I’m somewhat flattered but at the same time though, I’m still a little miffed. Despite all that, they still didn’t have a better description for the majesty of ice beyond “wonderland.”

But, this looked more like... the system was apologizing for that. Like the way they were apologizing was by giving me the chance to change it for myself. It was very tempting.

With much less histation than before, I clicked on [Major Core of Ice]

And then the world exploded into white.

Knowledge flooded my brain like an avalanche full of cold concepts. Mysteries of ice and snow revealed secrets hidden to all but me. Thousands of thoughts unknown to inhabitants of the world dashed through my mind like a sleigh in the snow.

Except...I already knew all of this.

If anything, I added more to it than it taught me.

It was a very surreal experience. But, truthfully, the one thing I might like more than frost, is sharing my love of the cold.

Being able to share my knowledge so easily was a very wonderful feeling.

There was one thing that unnerved me.

Out of the corner of my vision, just beyond my influence, there was darkness. A deep black hole of endless night that seemed to consume everything that it touched. But within that sphere of twilight, someone was in there.

Someone was watching me.

And for a brief moment, we locked eyes.

And it saw me.

And then my vision was covered in ice and snow.