An alpha version of a creature can be quite useful. Who knows, I might eventually turn it or a new one into a boss or at least a miniboss.

To make things more interesting for intruders or adventurers before reaching the challenges, I make sure to place some extra traps in the corridors leading to them. Some covered pitfalls with daggers here, an icy water sprayer there and even some spike and dart launchers to spice things up a bit.

Keeping to the true spirit of dungeons as I knew them from games and literature from my old world, I remove all traps from the entrance corridor except for the thin layer of ice.

The entrance corridor and the small room that the corridor leads to will be safe places before anyone goes in. Area's where they can prepare or maybe even flee back to. Above the other two corridors, I place some text saying:

'danger! Possibility of death beyond this point'

To finish it off, I place crossed skulls, akin to a jolly roger but actually the hazard symbol found on chemical containers, to the sides of the text. That way, if there are some illiterate people that want to enter, they at least will be warned as well.

To give some more ambience to my pond room, I create some seals to happily splash around in the pond and on its banks. To make the water more lively and to give the seals something to snack on, I fill the pond with trout and make use of the auto-populate function so that the pond never runs out of trout.

In fact, I add the dire wolf pack to the auto-populate as well along with the seals.

Since I've grown fond of my two original snow leopards and cored yetis, I add them to my respawn pool.

According to the knowledge I gained about the respawn function with the level up, I can add a limited amount of creatures to respawn as they were before, with all of their knowledge and experiences intact and should they gain an increase in strength ranks, they get to keep these as well.

 The auto-populate function is just as the name suggests. When your monsters, mobs or animals die, this function will make use of your own mana pool to respawn them albeit with a blank canvas so too speak. This is a great tool for the more generic stuff such as in my case fish and other stuff. What's even better is that, whenever a monster or animal of mine dies, I can recover a large portion of the mana I put into it. This way, I'm less likely to run out of mana and thus less likely to not being able to replenish my dungeon denizens.

Now then, is there anything else my currently decorated and populated rooms and corridors need before I move on to the rooms and corridors leading up to the boss room?

Light!

Unlike most of my creatures and myself, others can't see in the dark or at least not well.

To light up my dungeon, I line the corridors and the smaller rooms to the side of the pond room with some mana fueled torches. For the big pond and river room, I have something special in mind now that I have access to lanterns.

I supersize four lanterns and place them at the four cardinal points. Not that I know where north, east, south and west is in this world but for the purpose of having a point of reference, I've decided that the entrance is in the 'south' and my boss room and core room is in the 'north'.

In the middle of the room and at the top of the dome, I create a massive ball of clear ice with shaved sides, giving it the look of a disco ball. A few millimetres underneath the top layer of ice, I make very fine diorite dust appear.

The combination of a dark background and a clear surface such as ice essentially creates a mirror and turns my big ball of ice into an actual disco ball. The only big difference with my version and the ones I was used to is that fact that mine does not spin. To finish it all off, I aim the lanterns at my 'disco ball' and make it so that they are fueled by mana.

My pond and river room is now truly a sight to behold.

A gurgling stream of water which flows into and out of a crystal clear pond that is inhabited by playful seals.

Snowdrifts dot the room, between which my direwolves run around or which my direwolves use to stalk the seals while the seals, in turn, stalk the trout in the pond.

To top it all off, the entire room is illuminated with motes of light, making it look and feel quite cosy if not for the fact that the temperature in this room is near the freezing point.

 The next part of my dungeon, the split corridors and rooms leading up to my boss room and core room, needs to be populated and trapped. This is the part where the risk of death is to increase. The further they go in, the deadlier my dungeon should become.

For that reason, I line my western corridors with covered pitfalls with daggers and spike launchers and my eastern corridors with projectile launchers and liquid sprayers. The liquid sprayers get a twist this time though. Since my yetis brought back some sort of oil after they presumably killed that prospector, I can have it now as an additional liquid to fill my liquid sprayers with. To make the oil sprayers more deadly, I place a couple of them in a row going from the floor till the ceiling of the corridor. I make sure to place a torch right next to my sprayers when I fill my rooms and corridors with torches so that the oil streams will get set on fire. Impromptu flamethrowers for the win!

With traps and illumination taken care of, the next thing on the list is enemies to fight with.

Since I split up my traps between east and west, I'm going to stay to the theme and have only certain animal species in the east and other certain animal species in the west corridor.

In the west corridor, in the first room, I'm placing a single Yeti. In the second room, I place a Yeti and two direwolves. In the third western room, I place two yetis and two dire wolves.

In the east corridor, in the first room, I place twelve huskies. Yes, I'm going with my idea of a small army of dogs. If they actually kill any of these, they deserve to die. In the second room, I place two reindeers and two snow leopards. In the third room, I place a yak, two reindeer and two snow leopards.

The only thing I still need to do now is creating a boss.

I have half a mind to turn both of my cored yetis into a boss couple but then I will lose them as my scouts and gatherers.

I do wonder though, Is there a way to make my own mythical creatures?

If I recall correctly, in Norse mythology were various mystical and powerful animal such as Fenrir; the demon wolf, Jormungandr; the monster snake of the sea, Sleipnir; the eight-legged horse and Huginn and Muninn, the all-seeing ravens of Odin.

Seeing as that giant sea snakes, horses and ravens are not suited for an arid and inhospitable environment as my mountain, that leaves out Fenrir. Depending on the literature you read, his fur was either pitch black or the brightest of white. Some even suggested that he was the very embodiment of winter and that wherever he would go, the harshest of winter would follow in its wake. In fact, according to this particular myth, it was only ever seen as a massive shape in a blizzard and it was thought that the blizzard was in fact created by it, either because of some kind of breath attack or because of some passive, perpetual weather phenomena around it.

Even though it was just a myth and part of the Norse pantheon back on earth, It doesn't necessarily mean that something like Fenrir, or any other mythical creature like it, doesn't exist here. Maybe some sort of frost wolf, either regular sized or massive, might be quite common in certain parts of this world. And who better to ask then my faithful companion.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"WIKI, What do you know of animals and beast with a magical nature? I'm assuming that, since magic is fairly common and since mana is all around us, magical creatures are a thing?"

"For a beast to be recognized as a magical creature, it needs to undergo a mana induced evolution."

"Mana induced evolution you say, how does it work? From what I know of evolution, it is a slow process that spans over many generations. But the induced part sounds as if it is considerably faster?"

"It is indeed way faster than natural evolution. The main difference between a regular animal or beast and its magical cousins is that the magical version has a core where it stores its mana. In order for it to create one, the animal or beast needs to take in massive amounts of magical energies or even pure mana. This intake can either happen through one massive surge of magic or an extended exposure to greater amounts of magically and elementally infused energies.

Because of the influx of magic, a core will start to form in the body of the creature. The creation of this core requires in most cases minerals though so the forming of a finished core takes a while since most creatures have a mineral rich diet."

"So, If I understand you correctly, a core is all a creature needs to become its magical counterpart? Does that mean my cored yetis are considered to be magical?"

"Well, there is, in fact, another step but the core is the main part. In order for something to be truly considered to be a magical creature, the core needs to form a pathway to the area where most of the exposure happened. This is the reason why there are so many different variations of magical creatures with the same natural ancestor.

For example, If an animal somehow gains the magical energies needed for the creation of the core by eating rich magically infused foods, It will form a mana pathway to the stomach and the throat of the animal. This would result in either some sort of breath attack, a spit attack with magical properties or even both.

Another example, If the animal were to gain the magical energies just by walking over a rich magically infused surface, it will absorb these energies through his feet, claws, paws and whatnot. This would result in the forming of a mana channel between these appendages and the core, allowing the creature to eventually empower his appendages with mana.

As a last example, If the skin, scales or hide of an animal is exposed to the magical energies, it will form lots of smaller pathways between its skin, scales or hide. This would result in magical abilities like being able to harden its outer layer, becoming resistant to some form of damage or even in the rarer cases, invisibility."

"What form would the magical energies take when it comes to effect? Would it be pure mana that enhances the affected area's?"

"Not necessarily, master. The only way a creature would be able to use pure mana-based attacks is if it was exposed to pure mana and this basically never happens since nearly all mana is tinted with at least a minimal amount of elemental influence. It's way more likely that a creature gets infused by elemental mana, which would result in elemental based attacks or defences. For example, a bear that hibernated during winter in its lair in a magically rich environment would be exposed to lots of earth mana since his lair is most likely underground. Since it is not moving much and not eating whilst hibernating, it would absorb the energies through his hide. When he would wake up eventually and starts gorging itself to replenish its body mass, it would form a core quite fast. Soon after, the earth mana from his earth-based core would manifest itself as an armour of rock that the bear could conjure at will."

"That sounds so cool. So, if I wanted to create a frost breathing dire wolf boss with frost claw attacks and maybe even the ability to conjure a small blizzard, I would need to...? Pump it full of frost mana through its claws, mouth and hide?"

"I'm not sure about the blizzard but the breath attack and the infused claws sound about right. Keep in mind though that magical creatures rarely have multiple magical effects since it takes a lot more mana. In fact, most creatures would die when exposed to these amounts and thus only the strongest would be able to evolve in such a way. This would incidentally lead to an even stronger creature, up to the point that it would become ridiculously strong."

"Sounds like a perfect boss monster to me!"

As a template for my boss, I create a dire wolf alpha but before it is completely formed, I pause the creation process.

Next to its heart, I create a perfectly round mana core and infuse it with ice mana. To make sure the right pathways get formed, I infuse the dire wolf alpha through its claws, hide and mouth.

Right before my metaphorical eyes, the channels start to form from their point of entry and soon reach the mana core.

Now will come the tricky part, have I used enough mana to get decent results or do I need to increase the amount of mana that I infuse? The only way to test this is to allow the creation process to resume its course and to test my newest creature.

The creature that now stands in the middle of my boss room is considerably bigger than a regular dire wolf alpha and has a fur that is as white as the purest snow and deep blue eyes.

I order it to attempt a breath attack, which it promptly complies with.

The result is... lacking. It only manages to slightly chill the air in front of it. Definitely need to boost that part of the mana infusion.

Next is an ice infused claw attack. Again, seems like I'd been expecting too much from this. His claws just become slightly colder as well instead of the freezing weapon of icy death that I hoped for.

Lastly is the hide infused... whatever it is. I order it to channel its mana to his hide to see what would happen.

Well, it is no blizzard, that's for sure. If I look close enough, I can see that a very thin sheet of ice has formed over its fur. Definitely not thick enough to stop a weapon.

Overall, my experiment was a success and a failure. Yes, I managed to create my very first magical beast and it even has some of the abilities I envisioned, but on the other hand, Its power is severely lacking.

Ah well, that's the nature of experimenting I guess. It's all about the setbacks and the breakthroughs.

I just need to keep trying until I get it right.

With a twist of my mind, I make an important blood vessel that runs to its brain burst, causing an oxygen deficiency in its brain. When it's dead, I reabsorb my creature and start anew. By killing it, I at least managed to recover some portion of my invested mana. No need to be wasteful about it.

It took many tries and failed attempts but in the end, I got what I wanted.

There were two types of failures.

The unimpressive ones where it just didn't live up to my expectations and the actually impressive ones.

What was so impressive about my failures was that, because of over-infusion, the dire wolf would go pop in a big explosion of gore, blood, chunks of bone and fur. In one case, it even imploded which left me flabbergasted.

The solution, when it finally came to me, was quite the obvious one now that I think of it.

In order for a core to be able to power three ability areas as I wanted, It needs to be able to hold enough mana and the pathways need to be big enough.

Thus, the cores that I created kept increasing in size and efficiency until it was nearly twice as big as the one I started out with. And because the core and pathway needed to be bigger, the boss' size had to increase as well.

 The thing that is currently standing in the middle of my soon to be boss room is truly awe-inspiring and frightening.

A massive dire wolf with a fur as white as the purest snow that can turn a Yak into a popsicle in seven seconds flat with its breath attack. A creature that can cause frost burns with the slightest graze from its paws or a partial and even full freeze of the flesh it directly strikes at. An icy armour that is five centimetres thick and can be activated at will and which can even increase in thickness to fifteen centimetres if I or the boss so desires.

As if somehow feeling that I'm satisfied with my creation, a pop-up appears.

Congratulations on your new creation.

A new species has been added to your list of available animals:

* Frost wolf

You have created a new variant of this species:

* Frost wolf king

Neat.

Now comes the important part though, actually turning this room into a boss room.

With a slight exertion of my will, I will this room to be a boss room and my dire wolf to be its boss.

This room is now a boss room!

Boss-type creature detected which has been tailor-made to be the boss of this floor.

* Please name this boss.

* optional: please give this boss a title.

"My new boss shall from this moment on be called Fenrir and shall hold the title of 'Demon wolf of the frozen peaks' "

And just like that, my first floor is done.