While the group sat and rested, I continued to redirect the more dangerous inhabitants of the Jungle away from the humans.

The smell of their Blood and the carcasses of the Raptors, nearly every monster in the area, would have been on them like starving locusts and torn the humans apart before they could even hope to fight back.

Most of the monster's senses were already superior to a human's at their base. Still, with the levels they have been getting, their senses are, in some cases, multiple times better than usual for a non-system animal.

It was all fascinating, comparing the changes my monsters have undergone through the System and comparing them to what they would have been without the influence of the System. It gave me an idea of what would happen if I evolved them myself. Without any help from the System?

Noting that experiment for later use, I focused back on the Humans, who were crowding around the carcasses of the Raptors, examining them.

...

"Well...I certainly never expected to see real-life dinosaurs, nor did I ever expect that they'd want to eat me," Bright commented while looking at one of the dead Raptors.

"What did you expect? That they just wanted some cuddles?" One of the others asked sarcastically.

"Maybe cuddles with our intestines," Another commented, causing some of them to blanch from the disgusting image.

"Well...I guess we got some food," One of the others commented.

"Not enough. We'll need a lot more if we want to feed everyone," Jay replied, eyes still scanning their surroundings in case of another ambush.

Hearing that, Kohl set some of the weaker monsters free, and they quickly approached the humans.

Not before examining the monsters to ensure none of the Monsters would be capable of wiping the human party.

[Juvenile Thylacoleo - Level 2 - Male]

[Blood Wasp Swarm - Level 6 - Females]

[Carnotaurus - Level 12 - Male]

Carefully guiding the Carno away, Kohl watched as the other two descended upon the humans.

The young juvenile was as large as a human and had the claws to tear any of them apart, but it was still young and not nearly as intelligent as the humans. Even then, it was still a natural killer and knew how to ambush strong prey.

So while the Thylo stalked the humans from a distance, waiting for a chance to strike, the frenzied Blood Wasps swarmed the humans.

The swarm of wasps counted as a single 'monster,' and each wasp shared the same stats, skills, and attributes. This meant debuffs or buffs would affect all of the wasps, not that the humans had any that had such skills. However, their leader would eventually obtain such skills depending on the Class Evolutions they took.

It also meant that upon detecting the scent of Blood, the Wasps were sent into a frenzy and activated one of their racial abilities.

[Blood Starved - Upon detecting the scent of Blood, the Blood Wasps enter a frenzied state and gain +50% to their Health and +5 to Agility]

Once they detected the scent of Blood, not only did they become more challenging to kill, but also quite a bit faster.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Kohl was using the Blood Wasps as experiments toward Hive-mind and swarm-based monsters for the future, and his experiments were successful if the Blood Wasps were anything to go by.

However, Kohl had plans for them; these were one of the few groups left in the Jungle, and they'd be the last until he gave them a proper...home, so once they were removed from the Jungle, they'd never respawn within it again.

The small swarm they were fighting was the weakest swarm of the eight total swarms currently in the Jungle, with the strongest swarm being one of the strongest monsters in the Jungle, right under a select few, including the Elementals.

If anything, the Blood Wasps were too dangerous unless something was accurate enough. The only real damage that would hurt them was AOE attacks, and even then, they were a swarm. Unless whatever fought the Wasps had a decent amount of AOE attacks, there is not much one could do against them.

However, there was one other feasible way to attack them: Magic.

Something which two of the humans had, Bright and another Human Kohl, didn't remember the name of.

They both cast Mana Bolt, and the bolts struck the swarm accurately before spreading across the Wasps like a chain reaction, killing dozens of the wasps at once, eliminating 28% of the Swarm's Health in one go.

Seeing the damage, the two mages started spamming the Mana Bolts as fast as they could against the swarm, but for every Mana Bolt that hit, the Swarm became smaller and even harder to hit, to the point only around three dozen of the Wasps remained.

Unfortunately for the Humans, that was more than enough time for the Wasps to make it to the group and attack one of the warriors. With a frankly shocking speed, the Wasps drained the man's blood from his body, turning him into a Husk within seconds.

Then, to the human's surprise, the Wasps split.

Yet another racial skill, [Lifeblood], is a skill that lets the Blood Wasps split and regenerate the damage they have taken and recuperate their lost numbers. You see, with each level, the number of Blood Wasps increases, with high-level Blood Wasp Swarms likely capable of blotting out the sun or Kohl's core, in this case.

To Kohl's surprise, the Thylo, upon seeing this, chose to leave the area, likely not wanting to have to fight with the Blood Wasps for some meager prey.

Meanwhile, seeing one of their friends dying, some of the Humans panicked and began hacking away and or backing away, doing little to stop the Blood Wasps as they drained their friend dry, quickly killing him.

While Kohl had no intention of wiping out the party, at least not for a decently long time, it did not mean he wouldn't make them suffer and struggle. From what he's seen, only through working, suffering, and hope do Humans typically overcome their limits and become something...more. Some become Gods amongst men, some become horrifying monsters trapped within human skin, and some are survivors. Survivors that fight and fight until it becomes the only thing they know.

That's what Dungeons fundamentally are: training grounds where Adventurers can become something more or die trying. In Dungeons, the weakest of the weak can either become someone or something strong or stay stuck forever in weakness.

When the Wasps flew off of the husk of a human and let it fall, Bright and the other mage began pelting the swarm with Mana Bolts once again, this time taking more time to actually hit their target, dealing substantially more damage to the small Swarm.

The swarm would have already died by this point, but due to the warriors who rushed forward, the two mages couldn't get a good shot on the swarm. While the Humans eventually managed to take care of the swarm, primarily by swatting at them as if they were flies, the Humans did kill the Swarm, leaving only seven more and much more powerful swarms left in the Jungle.

With one of the humans now dead and Kohl having gained a bit of mana from his death, he knew they'd likely all die if faced with another threat. They were not veterans yet and will probably not be for some time.

Perhaps once there were more humans, Kohl could observe and stop interfering, but his Monsters were too strong and numerous compared to the Humans.

When the Humans got up from the ground, they did not speak, some likely still in shock, as some of them picked up the Raptor carcasses, and one of the humans had the unfortunate situation of having to grab the husk of a human that was left after the Blood Wasps.

While they silently traveled back to the Obelisk, Kohl had to reorganize, deciding to move the stronger monsters toward the center of the Jungle while leaving the weaker monsters on the edge of the biome.

He then did this for the other biomes as well, to make it more balanced for the future Adventurers.

Kohl had an idea for a rule to prevent more deaths in the future, but until then, it'll require a bit of micro-management to keep the deaths from going too far overboard.

And when the Humans approached the camp, he focused on the leaders, knowing this would likely be a wake-up call to how dangerous his biomes could be.