Jacob watched the animals as the timer as the second wave ticked closer. The madness last time was still in their eyes, but it was like each of the creature’s minds were disconnected from their bodies. For a few moments, it was like he could see illusive strings connected to their limbs from the sky.

  He hadn’t ever questioned the lore reasons for why the dungeon was attacked in waves. He always assumed that it was because Dungeon Realm was a game. In front of him though was evidence that there was something more to this. He wasn’t sure how deep this reality was to the game; there was a chance that he was seeing things that weren’t there.

  There were only seconds left until the next wave and the animals started to become restless. There wasn’t a barrier stopping them from entering his dungeon; something was intentionally controlling them. His dungeon lord system seemed to track and accurately predict these waves. He wondered if perhaps the dungeon lord system orchestrated everything.

  The timer reached zero, and the animals started their attack, like they watched the timer as much as him. There were many of the more normal animals like the last wave, but there were several that were obviously stronger. Around these were aura made of the mana that leaked out of their bodies.

  These were magic beasts. Their features were similar to the fantastical yet mundane animals with their strange patterns and features, however compared to them their alien characteristics were exaggerated. Their horns or antlers or claws were unusually ornate, their coats supernaturally pristine, and their presence radiated power.

  The normal animals rushed off like last time without any thinking or strategy, but the low-rank magic beasts didn’t. The madness of the Overworld gods was still in their eyes but, perhaps due to their magic, they were able to resist. That didn’t make them intelligent though, just more aware in spite of their impulsiveness.

  The colors of their auras were just like from the game, and their colors revealed the type of magic they used. Brown represented earth magic, light blue represented lightning, green represented plant manipulation; these magic beasts were still low level and didn’t have the power for complicated magic or spells.

  Not all magic was created equally. Lightning magic for example was flashy and did good damage, but within the dungeon it wasn’t that useful. Earth magic was usually much more dangerous.

  Using the radiance and color of the auras, Jacob narrowed down the beasts that he needed to prioritize and worry about. There were many that had earth magic but only two had enough mana to make him worried. Then there were the two others that had a lot of mana, one was a bird with light–gray–colored wind magic, another was a deer with tree-like antlers that had plant magic.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  These four were the strongest of this wave and the ones that he needed to be most worried about.

  Most of the animals and magic beasts failed to get up after the first drop. Normal animals didn’t have strong enough bones or muscles to tank the fall damage; many bones shattered from the impact. Many of the magical beasts weathered this first challenge better, gaining a limp instead of getting crippled.

  The birds were the ones that ventured the farthest at first—especially that bird with wind magic. Wind magic, even at basic, increased perception and intuition when navigating the dungeon. The magic bird was able to send out and feel the wind, easily discerning which paths were dead ends.

  That didn’t stop it from diving into a tunnel that got smaller, which ended up breaking its wings. Ironically, it was the other, weaker birds that avoided injury instead of one of the magic beasts with the most mana this wave.

  The convoluted mess of tunnels, vertical shafts, and changing sizes had its intended effect on most of the animals. Many of them got lost in the multi-level maze; Jacob doubted that he could find his way better than them.

  The two earth magic users though were different. Earth magic was naturally defensive, allowing for them to strengthen their bodies as they fell. They began to expand his tunnels or simply create their own, though it was a long and slow process that they didn’t have the patience for. Still, they were able to neutralize many of his traps and defenses.

  The plant magic deer was also a pain as it had a weak healing power. It wasn’t much, but it made Jacob very uncomfortable at the thought of the animals healing themselves. The bird, now forced to waddle painfully on its stumpy legs, even started using its wind to guide the animals.

  He didn’t want to, but he sent out the dungeon fairy to attack. He chose to rely on hit and run tactics, though even then it didn’t do much. Almost all the magic beasts had some form of attack spells, and while weak individually they were combined with others in the group. Instead, he focused on attacking the earth users as their spells were much slower to cast.

  Eventually the upward shaft needed to get the dungeon core was discovered. Normally this would be the end, but the two earth magic beasts collected a gather of others to defend themselves from the fairy. Using this, the two beasts combined their power and started to create their own tunnel. Except they didn’t create it upwards.

  From what Jacob could tell, they used their magic to sense that there were tunnels on the other side of the stone, tunnels that they couldn’t access. They were creating a new path and skipping a lot of the spikes and defenses he had created on the utmost floor. While they were still only on the second floor, and the dungeon core was on the first, this made him very worried.

  He needed to kill them, but he wasn’t sure what the best way was. This wave wasn’t even that strong or tactical compared to what he will face later. He had anticipated some of this, but the primitive cooperation between the different animals was hard for him to overcome with only spikes and a fairy.

  His mind raced to come up with new strategies to deal with this predicament. Some were from the game, others were new ideas to take advantage of new variables of this reality. He needed to think outside of the box—and he needed to act quickly.