While Balak was suffering mental torment from that red potion(?),
the lesser spirits in the mini dungeon were giggling and having a blast.
"Graaaah!!"
"M-My arm!!"
"Someone put out the fire on my body!!"
Of course, the adults entertaining these kids were in absolute agony.
No matter the world, keeping energetic children amused is truly exhausting!
Soon enough, the adults exhausted all their strength and faded away in blue light.
But that didn't matter!
"Over here!! Look here!"
"Take this!!"
"Hup!"
This playground had an endless supply of playmates for the lesser spirits.
The kids were thrilled with the new playground and headed home satisfied.
After the lesser spirits were banished from the middle realm,
they returned to the spirit realm and told their friends all about the new playground.
"R-Really?"
"Yeah! It's super fun!"
"I wanna... go too...."
Soon, more and more lesser spirits followed their friends into the dungeon. Word of the new playground spread like wildfire through the spirit realm.
The number of lesser spirits wanting to enter the dungeon exploded.
As more and more lesser spirits tried to leave the spirit realm, higher spirits stepped in to stop them for some reason.
But have you ever argued with a child?
"I'm going!! I wanna go there!!"
"K-Kids...."
"Nooooo!! This place is boooring!!"
"That's..."
"Kweeeee!!"
Words don't get through at all!
Humans might obey after a loving smack from their mother due to the pain,
but these were spirits born from natural phenomena gaining self-awareness.
With no concept of death, pain doesn't faze them either!
In any case, the spirit realm was overrun by the kids' tantrums.
Soon, the spirit kings—one for each element—gathered, looking utterly drained.
"""..."""
They all understood each other's sorrow with just a glance. Deep down, they were seething with frustration-induced illness.
But right now, they needed a plan for their tantrum-throwing kids.
Contacting the elves was vetoed outright.
They would've killed off those bastards treating their kids like weapons long ago. They were only sparing them out of old sentiment—no reason to meet.
Various proposals were discussed in the meeting, but kids' tantrums have no easy fix!
The loving smacks were racking up wins as usual.
With no solutions in sight, everyone sighed deeply. To lighten the mood, they took a break.
The spirit kings stretched and stepped out of the meeting room...
Only to find apocalypse had descended.
"Kweeeee!"
"Waaahhh!!"
"I wanna go!!! I wanna go thereeee!!"
Oh no...
The horrific scene was obvious to anyone. The spirit kings rushed back inside.
Any more delays, and the kids might turn rebellious!
In the end, the spirit kings had no choice but to contact a certain fallen spirit they hesitated to meet.
*****************
Karsein, the 73rd floor boss and fallen tree spirit, was dumbfounded upon hearing the spirit kings' plea.
"What? You chased me out, and now you come crawling back...?"
Before the great war erupted in the middle realm,
Karsein had been an ordinary tree spirit in elven territory.
But when the interspecies war broke out,
witnessing blue forests not just devastated but burned to ash,
and his spirit friends—even the kids—treated as weapons by elves filled him with rage.
Despite the spirit kings' repeated pleas, Karsein used his power to make trees attack all surface life in an extreme act.
Thus, the spirit kings had no choice but to exile him from the spirit realm.
Cut off from the spirit realm's infinite power, Karsein was forced to stop.
Given the circumstances, relations between the current spirit kings and Karsein were at rock bottom.
No way he'd grant such a request—
"Karseinniiim..."
"Can we bring our friends here? Pleeease? Pretty please?"
"Hic..."
Faced with the lesser spirits' sincere pleas, Karsein squeezed his eyes shut.
The moment he refused these heartfelt requests!
The horrific apocalypse from the spirit realm could appear right here. Thinking that, Karsein activated a device.
"Did you call for me, Lord Karsein?"
"Help me out..."
Karian, recently acting as a messenger among the floor bosses, appeared on the 73rd floor.
Karsein explained the spirit realm situation, and Karian took it very seriously.
"So that's why Zarkan has been clutching his head lately?"
"Zarkan? Oh... he can sense the spirit realm, so his head must be spinning."
"He's got a stomachache too—hasn't slept a wink."
"Hm? But isn't this a separate dimension?"
"Exactly because it's separate—that's why it's hitting him so hard."
Indeed! The ancient dragon Zarkan was on the verge of neurosis from the filthy noisy waves leaking from the spirit realm!
With the dungeon's most influential figure suffering, the Elder Council bosses—including Karsein—convened quickly.
"Ugh... my head..."
"Zarkan, you okay?"
"No, absolutely not."
"Children's chaos..."
"They must be at their wits' end too."
"But why should we fix the spirit realm's mess?"
"Their problem is their domain. No reason for us to step in."
Sympathy for the spirit kings clashed with "why us?" sentiments.
But the solution was so simple, consensus formed fast.
"Just let them into the mini dungeon—that's it."
"Right? Interfering with the kids caused this mess."
"Unnecessary parental worries."
"Though the overprotectiveness makes sense after that ancient war...."
Truth is often simple!
Just let lesser spirits roam freely inside the mini dungeon.
Unlike the name, the mini dungeon was disgustingly huge—plenty of room even for most lesser spirits.
The spirit kings surely knew this too.
Except for Zarkan, aggressively solving due to his impending neurosis, and Karsein as the involved party, all bosses returned to their floors.
Zarkan negotiated with the Great Spirits through Karsein.
The reason the Great Spirits blocked lesser spirits was!
"The kids... won't come back home...."
"Ah...."
Exactly! Lesser spirits could only return to the spirit realm after losing in mini dungeon battles.
With no idea where their wandering kids were, they blocked dungeon access to keep them from going!
As a result, Zarkan enchanted the mini dungeon: lesser spirits auto-return after a set time,
and spirits that entered once had to wait before re-entering.
"""Th-Thank you... so much..."""
"You've had it rough."
Having raised kids himself, Zarkan nodded in empathy at the haggard spirit kings.
As everything wrapped up, Karsein's expression turned odd.
"Karsein, what's wrong?"
"W-Well."
"The spirit kings?"
"No, it's not that. It's just... how they refer to us...."
"Ah, that could feel weird. You lack gender—"
"Exactly."
Spirits are born from natural phenomena gaining ego.
Where's gender in nature?
Spirits are inherently asexual.
They merely took feminine forms influenced by their closest god, the Earth Mother God.
Thus, spirits hate being called "she" or similar.
But what can you do?
They look female to anyone!
"If only they'd call us 'they' or something neutral."
"Heh heh...."
Karsein wanted spirits like himself called "they"—neutral pronouns. He seemed PC-thirsty.
**************
While the spirit realm issue was finally resolved, leaving higher spirits ragged,
a joyous event unfolded in the dungeon!
"Hahaha! Congratulations!"
"Th-Thank you."
"Wishing you happy love~"
The minions following the dungeon bosses, with nothing much to do, started budding romances!
Even interspecies love was blooming.
Wasn't this the epitome of happy dungeon life?
Dungeon bosses also grouped by shared traits.
"Lord Lich, how do we experiment with this?"
"Hm... like so...."
"Let's study this today!"
Mages formed a truth research club centered on the lich.
"Hahaha! Feeling good today, eh?"
"You've bulked up more lately!"
"One more!!! One more!!"
"That's the tenth, you maniac!!!"
Warriors, overly motivated by Balak on floor 1, built a gym to help each other grow.
The Elder Council had revealed no aging occurs in the dungeon,
so with endless leisure, they pursued personal goals enjoyably.
Finally...
Beings who never crossed paths, utterly disinterested in each other,
now united in the dungeon with one mind.
Given a super-safe space and endless time,
what would happen?
"Lich, what's the current dungeon reclamation status?"
"Strictly speaking, 0.0001%, Zarkan."
"Wow, tiny but actual success in reclamation? Our lich is truly competent."
They aimed to fully reclaim the abyss from the gods,
and devised a plan.
"So... report progress on dungeon paradisation."
"Slow going here. Floor 50 is filthy."
"Endless no matter how many we catch...."
"Ours is progressing well. Life is sprouting in the dungeon."
"No progress here~ Heh heh... they hid real good. No traces except the first ones."
"Um... what did we decide to call those beings?"
"Since they manipulate the dungeon, 'Administrators.' Gotta find and kill those administrators soon... pity."
"We've got time, no rush to catch weaklings. Take it easy~ Plus, we can win them over."
"Administrators are pawns too—worth trying to persuade."
"But those administrators... what gave them the confidence to mess with us?"
"True. Their stupidity revealed their identity—worked in our favor."
"Right. No need to overthink—arrogance. They think they're gods here... So, as seniors, shouldn't we teach them?"
"Indeed. Life doesn't flow as intended."
｢Paradise Plan｣
In this dungeon, no aging, hunger, thirst—not even desires plagued them.
Psychological peace seeped in naturally, keeping body and mind ideal.
Barring special cases like spirits, beating the 1st floor champion was required to enter—external intrusion impossible.
Thus, untouched by threats, it was a true 'paradise.'
The 100-floor alliance bosses, knowing this best, vowed:
To make it an independent world from the outside.
They were ancient beings with eons lived.
In that time, they'd seen worlds sustained on sacrifices under 'fate.'
Gods and world's will enforced those sacrifices as law-like destiny.
Now facing themselves as the sacrifices,
with irreplaceable time as their resource.
They were fully ready to turn from the outer world.
This separate dimension barely felt gods' and world's will.
Outside, influence was strong enough to slowly force Balak to floor 1,
but without dimension-collapsing mutual destruction, no dragging them out now.
Even if gods and world's will created and could view from outside,
once dungeon complete, they couldn't touch entrants or fixed laws.
They quickly grasped this truth.
Here, similar beings and steadfast comrades shared thoughts.
Prisoners trapped in an inescapable prison
didn't lament fate staring at walls.
They gazed at stars beyond bars, forging their destiny.