Jack’s dungeon had 256 levels. He and Elicia had been working on them for over thirty years, after all, as a way to kill time when they were too bored and couldn’t grind main levels.

Besides, it was easier to grind when the monster waves were hundreds of thousands strong, so they made larger and bigger levels all the way to the point where the dungeon itself was strongly imbedded on the sea bed below the island.

Anywhere in the Island, had people the idea of digging over fifteen meters underground, and they would find either the eighth or tenth floor of Jack’s dungeon.

Then, going downwards, the dungeon itself would take the entirety of the island’s supporting pillars. Had someone been looking, and they would have noticed that the previously mostly empty and floating pillars had now become intertwined with strong rock which allowed for five (from the fifteenth to the eighteenth) undersea levels to exist on the dungeon. Many small openings on the fifteenth floor allowed for plankton, sea water, small fish and debris to enter the dungeon, and smaller ones on the eighteenth allowed for these to flow out. Inside, many monsters and big fish could be found - some spawned by the dungeon, but the majority having flown in by the undersea currents and finding a suitable environment to fatten up - the very thing which ended up trapping them inside.

Obviously, the eighteenth floor did not open to the nineteenth. There was no opening, and to get there one would have to blast open the earth - something all levels had in common, from there on.

This was also one of the reasons why Jack and Elicia entered and left the dungeon exclusively through teleportation. And also, why “people from the Island” only had access to the tenth floor.

All other floors beyond this one were made either as a way to kill time, or as treasure vaults for Jack and Elicia to store their wealth. Of course, those made to kill time were quite simple, usually made of stone or, rarely, molten iron, while those that worked as treasure vaults had the same degree of protection than the previous treasure vault from the mountain - being made of many extremely hard materials and neigh impermeable.

Some of the Island dwellers found it weird when they saw the island’s pillars thickening, but most just thought that Jack and Elicia were interested on keeping the island firm and stable. The existence of the over two hundred floors under the sea bed where a secret to all, except Jack, Elicia, and, to some level, their children - which lived either on the treasure vault and housing floors, or in the mountain ones - where they could enjoy sunlight, the scent of fresh grass and the sea breeze.

As a consequence of expanding their dungeon so deep underground, Jack and Elicia obviously ended up finding underground magma chambers. The hot lava itself could do nothing against them, and dragons were magical creatures in the first place - even if they got trapped inside the small volcano they now lived in - they didn’t need to breathe at all, so, all they had to do was to dig their way to freedom.

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However, pressure was indeed a problem. Beyond a certain threshold, it could crush even the mightiest of dragons, Jack Hooligan. This was one of the reasons they decided, therefore, not to expand their dungeon deeper - only wider.

If one was to look at the form of Jack and Elicia’s dungeon, then they would see something which greatly resembled a dreidel - a small island at the top, a few small, vertical floors, and then a huge body followed by some also small floors. The only difference would be that this “dreidel” had its first half imbedded on the sea bed, while it’s lower half was inside a lava chamber, occupying most of it and allowing only for a few-meter’s-wide flow of lava to circumvent it - so, it’s corners touched the inner walls of the chamber while its tip was firmly stuck on the ground bellow it.

At their wider, Jack and Elicia’s dungeon touched the coast of the Furuk Empire, where indeed they had made a small chimney were to vent some of the pressure from the lava chamber their dungeon squeezed hard.

It was quite weird for the present emperor of Furuk Empire, Orlando the Magnanimous, when a raging volcano suddenly popped at his door five years ago, lava oozing from it like a geyser, it’s vertical stream reaching so high it touched the clouds - but afterwards it became a lazy volcano which oozed lava without exploding, so he eventually got over it.

At this very moment, hundreds of people made their way into Jack’s dungeon’s first floor.

Jack, as the Dungeon Master, suddenly noticed their entrance - and became wary.

- What’s up hon?

[- I’m checking on it. Weird.]

- What?

[- People from the Kingdom. Hundreds of them.]

Elicia showed a worried face as well.

- Is something happening at the surface?

Jack opened the Master screen to look at the Island. Differently from the Mana Crystal Screen, this one was a Dungeon Spell, and consumed the dungeon’s mana instead of directly consuming Jack’s.

Soon, the screen tripled to show two views: One was the aerial view of the island. The second was a terrestrial 360º view showing the island’s surroundings, in order to scout for enemy movement. As the last one, it showed the people at the first floor.

Jack and Elicia frowned at the same time.

There were no enemies outside, but a huge crater could be seen on the center of Dragon King’s City, the first and most populous city in the whole of Dragon King’s Island (2).

It was larger than one made by a level 100 regular attack by a large margin. It had been made by at least a few dozens of them. The dungeon’s ninth flor’s external surface could be clearly seen at the bottom.

And that wasn’t all. The first layer of the dungeon showed signs of having resisted multiple earthquakes, as well as large scale magical attacks.

The island’s supporting pillars also had signs of having been hit with tsunami and earthquake large scale level 100 attacks, and the floors adjacent to the lava chamber had signs of being hit from the inside - meaning the combined might of thousands upon thousands of the rare level 10 “control lava” spells had been used to try and force a volcano to appear.

The goblin empire had launched it’s first retaliation. Around five thousand lives were lost.

Jack looked at Elicia, and she nodded her head.

He teleported and appeared at the crater’s center. Then, he concentrated. His mind immediately touched the surrounding code. There were traces of deep code meddling, as well as an astonishing lack of souls (minds) all around.

This kind of thing would need at least a few max-level players and neuromancers to achieve. Thirty years of peace and neutrality, were he never looked for trouble.

Still, trouble found him on its own.