Unlike the first wave, this one had much larger animals. He hadn’t paid attention to the creatures during the first assault on his dungeon. Now that he was aware, he discovered that the animals looked a lot different than the creatures from the game or from Earth. Many of them had similarities to animals he knew, being reminiscent of things like a wolf or a deer, or looking like a fusion between two animals.

The smaller animals were able to evade the large pit and sneak into his spike trap and die. A few birds that displayed unnatural aerial acrobatic abilities tried to fly through with unnatural talent before headbutting a twist in the tunnel and giving themselves a fatal concussion.

It took time for the animals to die and for their souls to be drawn into the dungeon core for use, but he was patient. A few of the medium sized animals tried to crawl through the small opening with little success, often getting eaten and devoured by the other animals trying to get through. Gaining the soul points necessary for the needed big stunt took time but he had no choice other than to be patient.

After a long time, he managed to get enough. This wasn’t a game - a program constricted by its programing - this was a complex reality. His time in the empty void caused him to start thinking outside the box and he came up with an idea. This strategy did exist in the game but it sucked, here though could be a different story.

More than the lack of soul points, his biggest problem at the moment was the lack of abilities. In Dungeon Heart, players gained more abilities as they leveled up their dungeon core. There were other benefits too, like making his dungeon core stronger and resistant to attacks and increasing dungeon space.

He only had a basic terraforming ability that allowed him to shape stone. He was able to use it to a far greater extent than the game as this reality wasn’t a tile-based map but that didn’t change how expensive and slow it was to use. There were many better ways to handle this, better abilities and strategies to use, but there was only one strategy he could use at this level.

He looked down at his hands, at the translucent shadow his body had been reduced too. When he woke up here, he was in a stone wall without realizing it. His body seemed to be a ghost or roaming soul from its appearance. He had an idea while trapped in the empty void; he floated up to the stone ceiling above the large bit and pushed his hand into it. It went through.

He floated completely into the ceiling and used his soul points to create large faults and fractures in the stone. His terraforming ability wasn’t made to do this but he forcibly created large pockets in the stone until it wasn’t able to hold itself together.

Above the pit the ceiling caved in, crushing the many animals that were trying to attack his dungeon. They didn’t die immediately but their demise was certain. However, there was a reason why this strategy wasn’t good in the game. The dungeon itself started to react as the path from the dungeon core to the outside was blocked by the cave in.

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The dungeon core glowed violently and Alex felt a pain in his abdomen like a heart attack of acid. The weirdly textured light poured out into the cave-in and started to soften and push the stone. The animals that were crushed or immediately killed were encased in the stone as it was reformed. The few soul points he had tried to save were used against his wishes but he didn’t feel surprised about that.

In the game, it was a mandatory rule that the dungeon core had to be exposed or vulnerable in some way. There always had to be a path for an adventurer or an attacking animal or monster to reach the dungeon core. There were ways around this such as locking the dungeon core behind boss monsters or puzzles but those were used late into the game.

“Congratulations, Dungeon Lord,” his dungeon fairy started, “but I don’t think that creating a cave-in was the best strategy.”

“I haven’t gotten the needed soul points from the rewards that were supposed to be here. I improvised,” replied Alex, trying to keep a barrier between him and the potentially dangerous fairy.

“Hm, that is correct, you were supposed to receive currency for completing these challenges, but you haven’t…I am sorry, I don’t know what is going wrong. Well, the good news is that the second wave has been defeated. There will be more waves in the future but there will be much more time to prepare for them than a dozen or so minutes.”

Alex didn’t know if it was strange for the dungeon fairy to use minutes but he had other questions to ask. Recalling everything he knew about the lore of Dungeon Heart, he asked, “Why are these animals attacking the dungeon? None of them seemed to have the natural instinct to do so.”

“Dungeons are hated places by the gods and powers of this world from what I know. When a new dungeon is born, all the animals near it will be put into a frenzy by the great powers to try and destroy the dungeon while it is still young and weak. That is why there were two waves with the first being made up of smaller animals, the first wave was used as scouting while the second was the main attack. You may not have noticed but a few animals in the first wave fled out of the dungeon.”

“Hmm, so what happens now?”

“Now, you need to start gathering soul points and repair the dungeon core. Stronger forces of animals will be drawn to the dungeon, and this time you will need to capture some of these creatures to start building up your dungeon’s forces.”

Alex felt a headache emerge as he looked at the mess of a dungeon he had left.

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Stor looked around and knew that there was something wrong with the forest. He didn’t consider himself superstitious. There were too many people that should have been killed by the gods’ hands yet continued to live. There were too many people that deserved to live yet died by the sins and evils of others.

When he went to hunt in the woods to prepare for winter, there was silence. True silence, the wind was empty except for the sounds of rattling and shaking leaves. There were no birds songs, there were no other noises of animals like there should.

He found his snares but discovered far more of them were empty than they should be. The ones that were in them were rabid and mad, almost insane or possessed. He didn’t know what the cause was, nor did any of his friends. He got a cage to take them back to get checked for disease or possession.

Something was happening in these forests, that was what his gut told him. He hoped everything would return to normal soon - he hoped his intuition would be proven wrong.