The Crafter's Darkness: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 4) by Jonathan Brooks (e book reading free txt) 📕

for them.  There were also a few couples, including – unsurprisingly – Glencha and Teving, that were doing…other things.  She diverted her attention away before she saw too much, and if her Core could blush she would be bright red around that time.  So, yes, basically normal-ish there, too.

It appeared as though the Elves and the Dwarves, with the added help of extra constructs or Wyvines, were finally able to get ahead of the Monsters coming out of their nearby dungeons.  Sandra was worried that the lower number she was seeing as she zipped through the forests with a flying armada of Shears meant that the Cores were upgrading their Sizes as well, but a quick check on each dungeon entrance showed at least one more Monster emerging while she watched.

Finally, the new Cores had expanded their AOIs again at least once, though their dungeon construction progress was still ongoing.  It appeared as though Winxa had been right about them and it was going to be at least another week or two before they became a threat.

Therefore, she decided to finally concentrate on looking at her new AOI range – and she was again shocked by what she found.  Not only did she now reach out nearly 21 miles in every direction, but she finally expanded far enough through each forest to find large swathes of them that were most likely untouched by the influence of dungeons for many, many years.  Possibly even since Winxa’s former Core, Wester, had been around.

She took a small squadron of 100 Reinforced Animated Shears each and sent them out to the southeast first, where the Gnomes called home.  The land undulated gently with rolling hills and what appeared to be vast plains once you got through the area nearest the wastelands, though there were stands of trees throughout that were blocking her from seeing much further.  There was a well-traveled road – that she had seen before but never followed, which led through some trees unconnected to the forests that boxed in their lands and though she couldn’t reach it quite yet, she was sure that one of the Gnomes she had met had mentioned that there was a village or town located there.  Other than the road being there, no other sign of the Gnomes could be seen from her vantage point.

The two forests that led off directly to the south and east were a different situation entirely.  She looked at the forest to the east that divided the Gnome and the Dwarven lands and found that, once she really got past where the Dungeon Cores nearest her could reach, there were thriving communities of beasts, strange creatures, and natural monsters.  True, there were beasts and other animals roaming around the closest forests that the different races hunted for their meat, but they were the barest shadow compared to what she was seeing now.

At the deepest part of the forest that she could reach – which was many miles wide at that point, which just went to show that the forests nearest the wastelands were quite narrow in comparison – there were fantastic beasts that she’d never heard of before.  Some had extra heads, some were so large and heavy that they could knock over a tree accidentally if they weren’t careful, some had six or eight or ten or even twenty legs, and still others were so difficult to see because they blended into the forest so well.  There were giant insects, flying creatures of many varieties, and other monsters out of legend that she didn’t even want to think about trying to contend with.  Frankly, it was amazing to see so many different creatures all living in the forest – and were potentially even deadlier than almost any dungeon she’d seen before, including the Undead dungeon.

About 30 minutes later and after three more squadrons of Shears quickly checking out the other three forest borders she could reach, she was shocked at what she saw.  All of them had extremely similar creature concentrations.  There weren’t necessarily the same beasts, animals, and monsters – but each of them had a lot of them and all of them appeared very deadly.

Winxa…I have a question for you.

“Um…sure, I’ll try to answer,” the Dungeon Fairy said, obviously still wary after her close call earlier.

Why are all of these deadly-looking beasts and monsters filling up the forests where the dungeons aren’t nearby?

“Hmm…well, the easiest explanation is that dungeons aren’t the only thing preventing the different races from interacting.”

But I don’t remember hearing stories of these kinds of monsters filling the forests near Muriel.

“That’s because the Humans, no offense meant, are stupid enough to explore the unknown and mysterious forests looking for loot or a challenge – more so than any other race.  If I remember correctly, there used to be these kinds of bands around the forests where there weren’t any Dungeon Cores, but they ended up wiping them all out; after that, more Cores were added to surround the Human lands, keeping them ‘busy’.”

Sandra could definitely understand what she was talking about; she remembered many a Hero talking about their prowess and how they had killed this monster or that monster or found some special dungeon loot somewhere.  It wouldn’t surprise her to learn that, getting bored of the routine culling of local dungeons, groups of Heroes would go into the deep forests and just start slaughtering everything they could find.

The people in her current corner of the world obviously didn’t want to invite trouble when there was no need.  The beasts and fantastical creatures inside the forests seemed to leave the open areas alone, so they wouldn’t bother anyone unless someone tried to pass through to get to another race’s lands.  She also had a feeling that if a nearby Core were to expand their AOI far enough into these densely populated areas, the natural monsters within would act