Apparently, I’ve been ignoring the first floor too much.

The fire freaks had gotten past the moat.

The wave hadn’t been very successful beyond that, but it was rather alarming to know that they may soon advance farther.

Merry and Edwin were doing a bang up job clearing the stragglers, signs of their improvements surprisingly noticeable.

Merry had [Swordsmanship Lv6] and although I didn’t have much to compare it to, she certainly had the skills to be called a swordswoman. In addition, although I forget when I did it, I did set up an [Investment] to teach her [Cold Front] which had completed when I wasn’t looking. Though it wasn’t exactly an attacking skill, she used it rather effectively to demoralize fire freaks before slicing and dicing them like ice cubes.

Though Merry’s improvements were a spectacle to view in action, Edwin was much much more different than before. Namely that Edwin was no longer a fish.

I’m not sure when it happened but Edwin went from a huge fish to some alligator looking thing, legs and all. White and blue scales covered his body, his fins transformed into stubby legs that had a webbed membrane between his toes. His tail was weird in that it was still just a fishtail, so it was basically unchanged.

[Cryodontidae: a Synodontidae, or lizardfish in layman’s terms. While members of this family typically stick to shallow tropical water sand beds, the Cryodontidae is unique both in its arctic and its ability to traverse on land. Although not amphibious, it can go without water for upwards of two hours. Requirements: Have ice affinity as the strongest affinity. Kill a majority of invaders outside of the water.]

Well, good for him.

See, I had come back up here because I had wanted to get a better look at the constellation seaweed I have. Since they’re able to display myself in a Santa outfit (which yes, was my normal day to day outfit. Don’t judge.) I thought I’d be able to stare at them until a mental image of myself formed, but that may have to wait.

The fire freaks are getting too close. Without a proper second floor, or even a first floor boss, we’re in real trouble if they get any closer.

As much as I’d hate giving anything up to those freaks, if it was just me and my inhabitants, we could survive. Theoretically, as long as I could keep digging and submerging, I’d win in a battle of attrition.

The issue is Xylia. I don’t think she’d fit in the later part of my dungeon, and even if she did, I’m concerned about her mental and physical well being. I can’t support her very well here.

Which led me to devising a new strategy, which I am now dubbing: “Project Freeze Hell”! It has three steps:

1. Build up a ground based force and a first floor boss.

2. Break through the fire force and evacuate Xylia from the mountain

3. Continue up the mountain and freeze it solid

Ambitious, I know, but it’s for the long term. I will never get any solid sleep if I let this mountain harbor those fire freaks right outside my doorstep. Which led to enacting step one: Deciding the ground force.

Honestly, my options were very limited here. I only had five possible options: Clothlings, slimes, cryodontidaes, shivering salamanders and my second floor monsters. Clothlings were a bad choice as while I was able to make more of them, and I did plan to, they took a lot of time and investment to get anywhere near ready enough. Cryodontidaes were far too expensive, just one would require my entire second floor budget twice over. It was honestly impressive that I even had one of them.

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The shivering salamanders on the other hand weren’t all that expensive in comparison. I wouldn’t be able to afford a bunch of them, but I could get enough to form a small group at least.

That left the second floor monster and slimes, neither of which were ice themed. Granted I could use them as is, but I’d burn myself alive before using something not ice themed. (Water gets a pass.) My plan for the second floor monster was to stick them in the second floor long enough for them to get the ice theme, and I’ll be completely honest, I had no intention of using slimes again in the future. If I could grant them an immediate ice affinity, then that would be one thing but…

It took a short while but I was able to find out that [Major Core of Ice] apparently automatically assigns the ice affinity while creating monsters. With a little more boost from me, both of them reached their icy evolutions.

The slime was the simplest, going from a regular slime to a snowslime. It looked like a glass of water but with some ice cubes in it. I honestly really liked it. But aside from being able to fire the ice cubes out, and having a lower body temperature, there really wasn’t much else to differentiate snowslimes from any other type of slime. At least it was relatively inexpensive.

The other one though, that was a good one. I had gotten them off of the drake’s minions. Normally, they come in four different families. I had two of them in the slimes and salamanders, and there was a third flying monster called “Fireflies.” But that was their first name and there was not a chance that I would ever summon them. But the fourth was really interesting.

They were called firefoxes and they’re exactly what you think. Bright orange foxes with fire affinities, the only noticeable thing about them was their tails covered in flames. When they entered my home, those went out, making them look like big dumb rats. They weren’t super common, but there were enough of them for me to get foxes as a monster class. A highly important arctic animal, although these were just red foxes, not the arctic ones. With the ice affinity, they became snow foxes!

[Snow fox: not to be confused with its cousin, the arctic fox, snow foxes live in cold climates. It’s an expert of using speed and confusion techniques to attack with frost from all sides.]

And they were so cute too. With their cute button noses, their beady little eyes, those white colored cheeks, and their little tongues! Ahh! They were a joy to the world!

With a bit of siphoning mana from the level fund, I would be ready with 50 monsters ready to go and fight. 25 snow foxes, 17 snow slimes, 6 shivering salamanders (not including Noelle, she seemed really keen on the second floor and was not willing to leave) and then Merry and Edwin to round them all out. We’d still be outnumbered, but we’d have a fighting chance.

But before I did any of that, I needed a boss first. And I’ll be honest, I was dreading this. A quick glance at my monsters would immediately tell anyone that my strongest monsters were Edwin and to a lesser extent Merry, and I needed both of them to be on the front lines to stand any chance. If I’m forced to use my strongest monster, it’s all over.

With a heavy heart, I click to assign a boss monster.

[Inhabitants able to become bosses: 1]

And there it was…the nail in the coffin. Edwin was the only one available to become the boss. That was…that was a heavy blow. My entire strategy would need to be reworked. I’d need a few more days or so to gather a new fighting force to equal Edwin's strength. I could leave the first floor without a boss, but that would leave me nearly defenseless. Ugh. This really was a lose-lose here.

I considered my options very carefully, and after a long wait and a heavy heart I clicked to make Edwin a boss monster for the first floor.

[Error: Inhabitants must be located in a boss room to be considered eligible.]

Oh. Well that makes sense, I guess. The boss room was located in the back, while everyone else was upfront, I needed to move Edwin before going through with…with…wait a minute.

The boss room was empty. All the only thing in there was a small pool in a small room. So who the frozen hell is considered eligible here?! I hadn’t even done anything with the room yet! All I did was put in a…pool…

No…

The pool was an option?

I mean…what would that even look like?

I-

I don’t even know.

I mean, I have to pick it though, you know? I can’t let such an opportunity pass me by.

With a much lighter heart, I click to make the pool the boss of the first floor, and sit back to watch the magic unfold.

The boss room filled with light. I had no clue what would happen, so I was nearly knocked out of my nonexistent seat when it happened. There was nothing I could do but cover my eyes and wait for it to finish. When the light faded and I saw the end result, I was amazed, flabbergasted, and utterly gobsmacked at what lay before me.