Well that was a bloody surprise.

So, the girl left after waking up and that hadn’t been as much of a surprise. It kind of sounded like she was terrified of me so I didn't exactly want to keep her locked in here. I don’t keep bad vibes in my hideyhole. If she wanted out, that was her decision. Plus, she couldn’t hear the stuff I was saying, so it wasn’t really a big hit to lose her.

But then she comes screaming back in alongside a literal landslide of fire monsters! I was bloody peeved about that! I get that it wasn’t the girl’s fault but still!

At the very least, the incoming barrage wasn’t that hard to deal with. Despite their numerical advantage (assuming you don’t count the nibblers) they still can’t swim. The fireslide ended up falling face first into the moat like a pack of leemings. There were actually so many of them that some were actually trying to climb over their brethren to reach the shore! They almost would have made it if not for my ice breaker completely decimating those in the water, leaving no solid platform for them to move forward on.

Oh yeah, there were also fireflies. They looked rather like red pill bugs with bird wings on their back. They were able to fly over the moat but they weren’t very strong. [Winter lover] hit them hard, causing their flight patterns to go all wonky and making them easy targets for my clothling and splashers. I’m pretty sure they were evolved forms of pill bugs as well, since I could spend my points on pill bugs or fireflies.

The big guy though, that was scary.

Or at least he would be. The thing never actually entered the dungeon. Instead it stopped just before entering. It seemed to command most of the creatures outside my door and since the first attack has been stalking around the entrance. It's been sending in waves of fire monsters to take my dungeon to middling success.

The girl can’t leave with it in the way, so she’s stuck here. And I’m stuck trying to take care of her.

At the very least, the windfall of mana from the raids has given me a lot of materials to work with. I even grew to level 8 from all of that!

I got a couple of skills from that, [Themes] [Puzzles] [Manipulate Space] and most import of all is [Investments]

[Themes: Assign a theme to a floor in order to receive bonuses! These bonuses can affect either inhabitants and invaders. Current first floor theme: Cold Shore Reef]

[Puzzles: Create puzzle rooms to complete to either earn rewards or progress through the dungeon. (Puzzles must be completable)]

[Manipulate Space: Control the space in your dungeon and fail to adhere to the whims of reality. What this skill does exactly varies on the core.]

[Investments: delegate the mana you gain into whatever project you desire.]

I get that investments sounded rather bland but it basically allowed me to spend mana on multiple things at once. For example, if I got 100 mana from the small fries, I could set it to spend 50 mana on the second floor, 30 on leveling up, and 20 on making monsters! It was very helpful.

Currently, I was using it to divide my income evenly between leveling up, developing the first floor and making the second floor at about 30% each. I was spending the last 10% on saving for the third floor, because I already had an idea for it, boisterous as it may sound.

The second floor was still a little bit off, regardless of how much I wanted to work on it. So most of my time was spent coming up with a design for the first floor. Thankfully, I could still develop stuff while the girl was in the dungeon, just not in her general vicinity.

So my first task was to get her out of the general vicinity.

I dug out behind the core and moved it back to the end. In the corridor, I created a little side room. In the little room, I wasn’t sure how to put stuff she would like in it, so I just left it empty. With the assistant of my knife wielding clothling (I’m choosing to ignore that for now), I was able to guide the girl into her new room.

With her out of the way, that left me to develop the rest of the floor, with my new theme helping me out along the way!

[Cold Shore Reef: On the shores of arctic wastelands, ice covers both the land and sea. Despite this, life still finds a way under the waves.

Inhabitant bonus: Water skills greatly boosted, Ice skills boosted, Healing skills boosted, fire skills weakened.

Invader bonuses: Electric skills boosted, wind skills weakened, fire skills are useless!]

Ah, the sweet sweet text of fire being absolute shite. It was nice to remember that fact every now and all the time. Those fire freaks outside would never get a foot past this floor!

With that in mind, I checked my stat screen to get a grip on what i could do.

[Unnamed Dungeon: Level 8

Level up Mana 1400/1700

First floor investment 1060/1700

Second floor investment 1845/2000

Third floor investment 205/3000

50 per day

Unique monsters: 0/2

Floors 1/2

Boss available]

Huh. Admittedly, I hadn’t checked that thing in a while, but it occurred to me that I have no idea what unique monsters are. If I had to guess, it was probably the equivalent of named monsters or otherwise. Those monsters in dungeon stories that could talk and had personalities with all that jazz.

Oh, but, the monsters already had personalities. They weren’t very diffended, with the majority of their personalities being “fish,” but they were there. My clothling and biter were friends as well! They communicated by dancing at each other when they got the time. It was as adorable as it sounded.

Did making them unique give them a voice or something? Were they not sentient until that happened? Would the boss become a unique monster? Would that mean I’d have to keep a unique slot open whenever I wanted to make a boss?

Regardless, I have no idea how to make a monster into a unique monster, so for now I'm going to bench that idea and move on.

The general layout of the room so far was basically a room with a curve that looped around itself into a hallway with one off shoot for the girl to rest in. Honestly, despite its simplicity, I rather enjoyed the layout and I really didn’t think I was going to change it super hard. I did have another room in mind alongside the obligatory boss room, but I likely wasn’t going to place any more rooms before the boss.

Digging out a bit further, I put a room at the end of the hallway. With a quickly made crude door, the boss room was secure. My biter was the most likely candidate to be elevated to boss category if the multiple decapitated lizards were any indication. As my most prominent fighter, it definitely deserves the honor.

One the same page though, it's my strongest fighter. Taking it away from the front lines would probably be very detrimental to me right now. Without it there, the fire monsters may fill the entire river with bodies, blocking the splashers from hitting the targets they need to, making it harder on what would become my boss to take them out.

Stuck between ice and harder ice there. For now, I'll leave it empty and come back to it later. Well, mostly empty.In the space, I put a little pool of water for when I inevitably move a fish in there. I’m sure when adventures start coming in, it will be more worth it to move the biter in there.

…

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Oh yeah...adventurers…

…

I’ll probably have to...do my job…

…

I-I really don’t want to hurt people…

….

Fire monsters are different. Those freaks made their choice long ago.

But people?

...

The holiday season isn’t meant to be celebrated alone. I want people to be able to experience what I love about the ice and snow. What I feel makes the winter season special.

It would be really hard to find love in the things that kill those you love.

…

But, then what would happen if someone tried to kill me?

The spirit of the season is strong, but is it that strong? What happens then?

…

I really don’t want to think about this.

…

Focus on the room buddy.

Mental breakdown pushed aside, I focused on the spot between the main room and the hallway, expanding the part where they met into more of a curve. From there I pushed out a little more to give it the feeling of an actual room. Like a plasma ball with the stand looking towards the entrance.

I pushed water into the room itself, flooding the sphere to about a third. I extended the moat past the room and into the hallway beyond, pooling right before the boss room.

I focused a [Cold Front] into the room and turned it up to eleven. It took less than a minute for the water to solidify into ice. From there, I was able to absorb the ice and start using it in whatever project I wanted to! Considering my love of the stuff, this was very very important to me.

Next came the hard part.

Freezing the water just enough to be solid enough to stand on but leaving the bottom still filled with water. Three holes were left for the next part. I created hollow pillars of ice that covered the hole and reached up high but not quite reaching the ceiling. With about a third of the room left, the ice pillars were extended to the rest of the room, creating an icy bowl.

Some mana movement later, and the bowl and pillars were now filled with water like a fish bowl. A bit more mana, and the water was filled with jellyfish and sea angels. Their natural bioluminances filled the room, like those jellyfish areas in aquariums, but with the sea angels, it looked like jellyfish were swimming in a sea of stars. It was beautiful.

There were also slimes mixed in, so I definitely missed something that happened.

Here it was. After a bit of looking, it turns out my slime turned into something called a jellyslime.

[Jellyslime: Although similar in nature, slimes and jellyfish are not related. As such, jellyslimes are slimes that mimic the appearance of jellyfish. Jellyslimes lack the jellyfish’s famous toxins but any other upgrades jellyfish achieve, jellyslimes can copy. Once unlocked, jellyslimes will have a small chance of spawning instead of a normal jellyfish of any type.]

Well alrighty then. I have no idea what that means for the future but at the very least the slimes still glow like the jellyfish, so whatever.

The last thing I did for the room was add kelp to the top of the room. Hopefully it will evolve into something greater in the new environment.

[The trials and tribulations of inhabitants in the dungeon have unlocked multiple evolutionary paths! Please select three evolutions. Warning! Unselected evolutions will be unavailable for a very long time! Please consider carefully.]

Well speak of the devil! I’ve never seen this alert before, normally the inhabitants of my dungeon just do this automatically, so maybe this only occurs when multiple evolution paths are available.

My choices were as follows:

[Hanging Kelp: A plant that grows underwater. It only grows on the top of caves, making it rare. Despite this, it’s actually worse the regular kelp when used in healing potions]

[Hanging Cnidaria: Although this evolves from kelp, it’s actually more closely related to jellyfish. It mimics hanging kelp and uses it’s potent stinger to stab anyone who comes near. Requirements: Unlock jellyfish, unlock hanging kelp have inhabitant other than jellyfish with poison affinity, have inhabitant on floor who uses mimicry]

[Night Kelp: a mesopelagic zone kelp that uses its naturally dark coloring to hide from its bioluminescent predators. It has high water and dark affinities for those able to locate it. Requirements: have a dark environment, multiple inhabitants have bioluminescent]

[Ghost Kelp: a rare kelp that only grows in the mesopelagic zone of arctic oceans. It uses a combination of camouflage and bioluminescence to appear to disappear at will, like a flickering spector. It’s an exceptionally potent ingredient in potions, but not healing ones. Requirements: have a dark environment, multiple inhabitants have bioluminescence, inhabitant with poison affinity]

[Starlit Kelp: a rare kelp that grows in odd places. It’s seeds are the only part of the plant that glow. In combination with it’s dark coloring, it’s often mistaken for reflections of the moonless sky. Requirements: have a dark environment, inhabitants with light affinity]

[Constellation Kelp: a very rare form of starlit kelp. It arranges its seed packs in formations that many claim to be artistry of great heroes, spirits, and gods. It’s said that eating the kelp will grant visions of the future, but this is a myth. It’s actually just a really strong hallucinogenic. Requirements: unlock starlit kelp, have dark environment, have multiple inhabitants with light affinity, have an invader view the room as sky/space.]

[Borealis Kelp: Legendary kelp that only grows in very specific regions. The mere sight of it is said to cure the nerves of anyone who sees it. It’s a key ingredient in some legendary class healing and barrier potions, but it’s hard to obtain. Requirements: unlock constellation kelp, the floor has extreme ice affinity, multiple inhabitants have light affinity, multiple inhabitants have healing affinity, have a dark environment, dungeon has directly saved a non dungeon born life, invader has stared in wonder at dungeon interior. Final evolution! This flora has reached the final tier of evolution and won’t be able to evolve further. Once unlocked, other specialization options and skills will be available for other inhabitants.]

Wow. That’s a lot. I can see why this nessicated an alert. There was one part that made me question something. A quick glance confirmed that the girl had taken my clothling into the jelly room and now both were staring like children seeing snow for the first time.

As many choices were available, my choice was made the moment the last option appeared.

The aurora borealis. The northern lights. That time where the Earth says eff it, here’s a cool light show!

I swear on Santa’s name that they are easily one of the best things imaginable. I still remember heading up north to see them when I was young. It was magical.

I would do anything to have them in my halls. Frozen heck, if I wasn’t presented this opportunity at some point, I’d finagle my way into getting a copy cat.

Plus, it would unlock more aurora stuff! I have no idea what it would do, but I’m absolutely not turning it down.

I also had no reservations about getting the Starlit and constellation kelp. They would fit the first floor's new theme well. Ghost and Night kelp looked cool, but I’m looking for something more ice cold. (Badum-tish)

With zero hesitation, I purchased the three celestial kelp. I scotched up to the girl and my clothling (I really gotta name them soon.) and sat back to watch the starworks.

I have to say, I was not prepared for how beautiful they would look.

First came the starlit kelp, and let me say, I thought they would be black or some other shite. A type of color that would just imply space.

But nope.

They were the entire color wheel! Fading from dark purples to royal blues to brilliant violets to rosy pinks to deep oceanic blues to splashes of orange! The stars they produced weren’t just white either, but reds and yellows and blues! Just like real stars! They shifted and spun ever so slightly like they would in an observatory or over a year.

It was like the universe decided to have a waltz on my ceiling! It was so cool!

Then the constellation kelp started forming. Even more color was added as nebulas and galaxies began to form. Stars began to take shape, and for a brief moment, I could see them take the shape of those in the dungeon.

A carefree jellyfish. A valiant Bernardfish swimming it’s way up a mountain. The salamander just chillin. The ice breaker with a determined grin on its fish face. My clothling with its new knife raised like the sword of a brave leader. The girl, lost and alone but surviving.

I even showed up in their light show! Not just my core self either, but how I looked before that! I swear I saw myself in my little Santa hat and dress poised like a saint on Christmas Day.

Honestly, I felt incredibly touched at their movement. I wasn’t the only one either, my clothling was crying little dew drops of joy at the sight. The girl next to me was teary eyed, whispering something about if this was for her.

Honestly, it wasn’t for her specifically, but sharing the joys of cold nights is exactly what I want to do in my life, new and old. I honestly hope with the bottom of my heart that she learns to love stuff like this like I have.

With that in mind, my top priority becomes making sure this girl can get out safely and second to that is building more dungeon to truly capture the magic of winter! With that thought, I began to get up to begin work on finishing the first floor.

And then the Aurora Borialis showed up.

Ladies and Gentlemen at home, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you hear the phrase “and then the Aurora Borialis showed up” do not take it lightly!

It seemed to descend like angels on wings from the heavens above, outshining the other stars in the “sky” and flooding the dungeon in a rainbow glow.

It was beautiful. The type of beauty where the only natural response is to start blubbering and waxing mystical poems about the beauty of the world.

Honestly, I might start to-Up, yep. There it is. Here comes the water works. I didn’t have a body, but my core room was suspiciously more filled with water/ice.

Just seeing something so important to my childhood really set me off there. I’m sorry, but I’m going to need a minute to collect myself before I continue working.

And maybe wax some winter poetry.