59th floor.

“So this is where you fought that Demi-Spirit, huh?” said Ai.

“She’s lucky you let her get away, Cirrus.” Said Nox in her human form.

“Are you back up and ready to fight?” Cirrus asked. “You were out for a while.”

“I am. I just didn’t think we would deepen our connection like that.” She said with a smile.

“Mmmm… I know you and Circe explained it, but it still bothers me!”

“Well, we aren’t going to use it. It proves far too taxing on our bodies. I still have the burns.”

“Just like when you were young Cirrus! Remember when you used to bust up your arms with your armor bashing guys in! Good’ol times!”

“Hmmm… here I thought I outgrew that… well, turn out I didn’t… Nox.”

They stood before the entrance to the 60th floor.

“Right.”

Nox turned into a bird and got into his bag.

“I feel no cold breeze… seems more of the dungeon has been changed.” Ai said.

“Ouranos, Fels you read?”

"Yes, we can see clearly, do be careful." Said Fels.

“Say, Fels, Lord Ouranos, do you know what Cirrus and Nox did?” asked Ai. “I know I asked yesterday but…”

"It is fine." said Ouranos. "I have thought long on this and found no such cases of this, so you may call it whatever you want."

“Heh~ I get to name a new concept, huh?”

"Oh! oh! how about the Nox Effect!"

“Uhh, I was thinking more like Spirit Drive or Spirit Install?”

“That’s pretty cool!’ Nox and Ai said at the same time.

“Lord Ouranos, which one would you prefer?” asked Cirrus.

"… Spirit Install is more adept at what had happened."

 

60th floor.

It was a humid jungle with several canopies, much like what the Loki Familia found.

“… Seems those are Violas huh?” Cirrus said, looking at the vines with an almost snake-like appearance.

“Eww… it’s so… slimly looking.”

‘I think I'll stay here if that thing moves, kill it!’ Nox said.

As they continue to walk, they could see a noticeable trail of death left behind by Wu with her poison.

“Guess we’ll follow the poison.”

They follow the poison for a while until it eventually comes to an end. By that point, it leads them to the middle of the jungle.

“… I don’t like this place Cirrus, there is no noise.”

“… They must have killed all the monsters and ate their magic stones to recover or simply to get stronger.”

“Either way, I don’t like it.”

“Then shall we finish the mapping of this floor and return?”

“We aren’t going to go any further?”

“I would like to, but from her words, she mentioned three other people.”

“Three other Spirits… then we need to be even more careful.”

“Take Nox with you.” Cirrus hands over his bag to Ai. “It’ll be faster if we split up to cover this floor.”

Ai puts the bag on with Nox inside and nods.

“Then let’s get going.”

“Right!”

Running through the floor and its boundary, he found it to be about half the size of the Amazon Rainforest, but it did not have the life of it, with no other plants besides trees and small vein-like rivers. The only living beings on the floor were Ai, Nox, himself, and the Violas up top.

When they were done, they met back at the entrance to the 59th floor.

“Was it circular for you as well?”

“Yup, we even found the way to the 61st floor in the north. We found some poison as well.”

“Then that will be enough for now but to test something. (Swords of Damocles).” Cirrus walks forwards towards the jungle and with a strong slash, he cuts down several trees with electricity flickering off his blade. “And for you a lot as well.” Cirrus aims at the ceiling and cuts all the Violas from their nursery.

'You're going to take the wood, aren’t you?'

“I am Nox. For one, it’ll give us some idea how this was all made. Changing a floor through battle is one thing, but terraforming the fucking floor? That’s something else entirely.” He said as he walked over a fallen tree and absorbed it into his shadow. “Whether it’s the new monsters that did it, the Viola’s, or the Spirits, hell, even the dungeon itself changing to fit the new monster’s preferences, we must examine anything to find the truth.”

As Cirrus takes all the cut-down trees, he remembers what Ai said. This floor truly is unnerving, with no sound or signs of life.

‘What the hell is actually going on?’

 

Down in the Dungeon’s depths.

“You certainly have an appetite, Wu.” Said Thetis as she watches Wu mercilessly devour more and more monsters.

“I'll kill him!! That dam monster!! Crunch!! Crunch!! Crunch!! Nox’s contractor!! I'll eat him whole along with Nox!!! I'll show him!!! I'll show him sparing me will be the worse mistake he ever made!!!”

While watching her eat, Thetis looks out at the entrance to the lower floors.

‘Are you eating like her… Arbuda?’

10 floors below.

A floor of chilling coldness proliferates through the cooler, with monsters frozen in place.

“Fooo~” she let out a long cold breath that manages to freeze the already frigid air. “Not enough… it’s still not cold enough…”

Arbuda was now a frostbite white with a blue tinge to her white hair. She walks up to the frozen monsters and-

“(Frost of samsara, turn the earth back into laminating white- Nirarbuda) [Naraka].” A lance of ice slowly formed in her hand and with a single thrust, she went through the ice, taking the monster’s magic stone with it. The monster turned to ash in the ice, yet its cold casing remained. “More… I need to be cooled more.”