A new floor! Floor 13 to be exact.

Honestly, Argul would have thought that she would have waaay more floors by now, but somehow she always seemed to be busy with other things.

Despite this, she was quite excited for this floor. There had already been numerous evolutions on the last floor so it was likely that whatever she created on floor 13 would already be evolved and that meant things were becoming more magical!

She couldn’t wait and see what wonders and horrors she created this time. It was always so interesting!

Before that though, Argul had to decide on a theme and all the parameters for the new floor to let it grow. Things won’t be able to survive in a vacuum, yet that is. She would get there eventually.

So, what should she choose as a theme this time?

Argul was currently using environments one could find on earth and adjusted them to her purposes, a practice she wanted to continue until she had milked that planet for everything it was worth. This didn’t leave her all that many generic options though. She could go for something like desert or swamp, but that didn’t sit right with her at the moment.

It was getting colder on Erod right now and the nights were becoming longer, which pointed towards the end of an earth year. Cultural things like that didn’t really exist for Erod as of yet, though the humans would probably just apply their earth ways here, that’s what she would do if everything was chaos and she had to cling to known things for comfort.

Anyway, it was getting cold and Argul wanted to lean into that sentiment and create a winterland. Not in the arctic way of course, she still wanted to have trees around to get the proper winter feeling and there should be hills and mountains around.

With that decided she got to work on the parameters until she was satisfied with them.

[13. Floor]

 

• Winterland

• Temperature: -25°C to 3°C

• Daytime: 8 hours

• Nighttime: 16 hours

• Events:

• Natural catastrophes

• Spring
  Every 1 to 5 years temperatures will increase to up to 15°C for 30 to 90 days and the snow will melt

 

Argul added the spring event for a bit of spice and to make sure the snow melts every now and then, otherwise, how is there going to be any water in the atmosphere to create the snow in the first place?

Spring it was as well as long nights and short days of course and cold temperatures.

The only thing left to do now were the entrances and she went for her usual options of having weird space things going on that might lead you here and her waterway connection. Since the entrances had to fit with the environment somewhat they would mostly be located on high mountains. She would have to think of something new in the future though, because if the difference in mana saturation got too large, wonky things might happen that nobody would appreciate. One also couldn’t get from the 12th floor to the 13th right now which wasn’t optimal.

Argul sighed to herself. She would have to do a major overhaul again in the future to optimize everything and make it more dynamic. Before that she wanted to see her entrances more in action though so she could fix possible kinks when the time came as well.

All that was for the future however and not for today, so, without further ado, she accepted her options. Immediately, the mana in her domain congealed and created a new space structure that was independent of the others. Argul’s core phased into the new plane of existence a second later, cutting the connection of itself to the other space structure, which, she realized now, was the reason for the whole process to not be pleasant. If she was able to optimize the process she might be able reduce the discomfort that ‘moving’ her core caused.

A lot of her mana was consumed to increase the size of the new space structure while the mana she created was used to create stone and earth around her core, slowly forming a new planet.

Argul wondered how that mana AI or whatever it was that her daughter had whipped up functioned. Not having to do all these things herself was truly convenient and she couldn’t help but fantasize about amazing mana robots that worked for her. Sadly this was a thing for the future again as she didn’t even know what to build them off. There had to be quite amazing stuff inside her domain that she simply didn’t know off, minerals tended to not communicate that much.

The mana AI concentrated most of its conjuring on a large pillar as always and it didn’t take long until the first planet surface area was created for Argul to start creating stuff on and so she got to work.

The first things she would create were the plants of course. Who knew what animals she would create in an environment without plants?

She shuddered, imagining a world where only predators existed. It would be a permanent blood bath, even for the smallest of bacteria that would feast on said blood.

Back to the plants, Argul planned to create 4 that grew outside and one that grew inside of water. The latter would be the last.

Ignoring the low hanging clouds that were forming over the stretch of land she started to prepare her [ribm] skill and imagined some kind of conifer before she used the skill.

The trees grew quite large and had thick trunks. Besides that though, there were only two things that stood out. For one, no branches grew closer than 5 meters to the ground and all of the branches looked to be relatively sturdy. 

The second thing were the damn cones that housed the seeds. They all emitted an inviting soft yellow light, decorating the tree in the process and transforming it into a christmas tree.

Argul could only sigh. She might as well give them that name officially.

[Christmas Tree]

This is a large plant. This conifer grows in freezing environments that rarely see temperatures above 0°C. It has exceptionally strong and flexible branches that are able to endure the weight of the plentiful snow that falls and shield the inner important parts of the plant from the unfriendly environment. The seeds of the Christmas Tree emit a yellow light that serves as a beacon for the magical pollen for other trees, making pollination of the tree more likely.

That was quite a weird function for the seeds, but she wouldn’t judge.

Argul observed the trees she had created for a few minutes, making sure to look at them with her [sense mana] too and realized that most of their mana was used to keep them alive in this environment, not only heating their insides but also creating nutrition that was hard to extract from the frozen soil.

She hadn’t even realized that that would be a problem for plants, but it made sense in hindsight and the nutrition creation would likely be a common feature for her plants.

Snow had started falling by now and the size of the snowflakes made Argul happy. This was the perfect snow for snowballs or building snowmen. 

She didn’t let herself get too distracted though and created the next plant, this time a tuber. The things sat more than a meter deep inside the earth and didn’t even bother to grow to the surface. 

[Winter bulb]

This is a small plant. This tuber grows in freezing environments multiple meters deep under the surface. They utilize their mana to heat the earth around them to make it easier for their roots to dig through it. Winter bulbs form wide ranging root webs with multiple tubers to store energy for difficult times.

Huh, these things were neat. You could basically use them to heat rooms that you dug into the earth, which was quite convenient when everything else around you is pretty much constantly cold. The only problem would be the spring and all the water, but that was not something for her to figure out.

Not waiting more than that, Argul initiated her skill once more, this time to create a mushroom. Surely nothing would go wrong with that, mushrooms had never failed her and turned out weird or anything. Never, it just didn’t happen…

A group of small mushrooms with round caps and thin stalks sprouted into existences underneath the sky. They were all a bluish white and the moment they finished growing a cloud of white spores puffed out of them.

[Snow puff]

This is a small plant (mushroom). These mushrooms grow in freezing environments in which it snows regularly. They usually don’t grow on the ground, but on or in the layer of snow. Most of their mana is utilized to keep them alive and to grow they banish the snow around them, transforming it into mana. When the Snow puff releases their white spores, they also release mana with the intent to make it snow into the air.

This mushroom turned out to be quite interesting and didn’t look all that bad like the muddy stars for example. Sadly, their snow intent wouldn’t change anything for now, because Argul still flushed most of the intents that didn’t belong to her out of her domain, something that wouldn’t change until she confronted her godliness and before that she would experiment with Jack extensively.

There was so much to do and for some reason it felt as if she didn’t have enough time for it, even though that wasn’t true. She was immortal age wise after all.

Not that it mattered right now, it was floor creation time and by that extension flower time!

What grew next left Argul staring for a bit. It was a blue flower alright, but its blossom was definitely not made for the same thing normal blossoms were made. The petals looked to be quite hard and when the flower finished growing they grasped at the air as if they were searching for something.

[Snow Seeker]

This is a small plant. These flowers grow in freezing environments. They use their blossom and their hard petals to grab snow, which is then converted into mana that the flower can use. Since Snow Seekers can’t multiply with their blossoms anymore, they instead form thick roots which are then cut off and grow their own flower.

What was up with all the snow eating plants?

Sure, it made sense since snow was readily available, but come on.

Argul sighed to herself. There was bound to be weird stuff, she had known that already, so there was no use complaining about it.

She could get on with the last plant instead and start working on the animals. It was unlikely that they would eat snow of all things.

Argul had to wait for a few minutes until a lake had formed that she could use for her last plant, an underwater flower. She was quite interested to see what this thing would end up being, since the lake was already starting to freeze over at the surface.

After she used [ribm] a large red blossom with long and thick vines grew under the water surface. It didn’t sit still for too long though and a moment later the vines began to move like tentacles, propelling the flower deeper into the lake.

[vicious trap vine]

This is a medium sized plant. This flower grows in bodies of water located in freezing environments. They use their strong vines to move around, but usually prefer to stay at one location to wait in ambush underneath the ice, boring their vines through the hard layer. Once their prey comes near, the trap slams shut and their victim is grabbed and tied up by the vines. The flower then waits for the victim to freeze to death before it begins to absorb the body with its vines. Vicious trap vines often leave bones frozen into the ice above the water behind when they move on.

Yeah, that one was a bit ugly, especially since you normally wouldn’t even notice you are above a lake with all the snow. A person could end up as flower food just because of bad luck.

Well, no matter, it wasn’t really her problem should that ever happen.

Anyway, with the vine done she now has all 5 plants she needs and can start with the animals. The first thing she creates there is a bird of all things that lives around and in the Christmas trees.

The second animal is a rodent with curved sharp looking claws on its hands and the ability to walk on its hind legs. They are pretty good at digging, even through the frozen dirt, and make their nests around the tubers, which wasn’t that surprising.

And last but not least, she created her predator. It was a small quadruped with incredible thick fur and two long and thin tails that trailed behind it when it ran around.

Sadly, none of the three animals were special in the magic department and Argul wasn’t too interested in them because of that.

Instead, she opted to declare the floor as finished and opened her status to take in those sweet stats.

You have gained stats through magical training and teaching: Str +5, Int +2, Wis +1

You have finished a new floor!

[Level up!]

[Status]

Name: Argul Agren

Race: Mana core

Age: 9 months

Level: 13

Structural integrity: 100%

Mana: 143/333.3

Mana generation: 3.47/min

—

[Stats]

Str: 122 (+6)

Int: 122 (+4)

Wis: 126 (+1)

—

[Active skills]

general actives: mana manipulation, magic missile, identify (7), analyze, cleaning, mana com

core special: uniphone, ribm, materialization

water magic: conjure, manipulate, banish, fake tears

earth magic: conjure, manipulate, banish

light magic: conjure, invisibility, mirror image

emergency portal

contract

fate contract

increase heat (solid)

space manipulation

Enchanting

—

[Passive skills]

general passives: learning (5), mental fortitude, hidden might

domain skills: accelerated [m] growth (small), accelerated [s] growth (all), core regeneration, knowledge domain

sense skills: sense mana, sense space

curse of harmlessness (s)

magic gunning

 

• neutral magic sniper bullet

 

Stat growth boost (1)

currently:

 

• Str +2

• Int +2

• Wis +4

 

artifact creation

 

• Artifacts: 1 (all +5)

• Lamp pole of light

 

—

[Floor 1]

Template: Luna (moon), surface

Size (radius): 1240 km

Area/ Volume: 10. 8 M km²

[Floor 11]

Template: Erod, grassland

Size (radius): 1340 km

Area/ Volume: 12. 7 M km²

[Floor 12]

Template: Erod, redwood (tall trees)

Size (radius): 1350 km

Area/ Volume: 12. 9 M km²

[Floor 13]

Template: Erod, Winterland

Size (radius): 1360 km

Area/ Volume: 13. 1 M km²