“I need to be ready to defend Cara next time. My squirrels are not going to cut it if a dungeon diver decides that he wants her core, and we do not know what will happen to me if they get past the river with her gem. Oh, and could you please put your clothes back on?”

Ever since my bout of rage and blackout my eyes had been opened to just how important mine and Cara’s bond was. I’d barely managed to kill the Elf as he fled my forest and had only managed to do it on accident with a semi sapient tree.

“Calm down Manning, having more sunlight making contact is good for me. It makes it easier for me to meditate, you do want me to get stronger too right? It’s only natural.” The smirk on her face told me more than her words did, she was having fun messing with me. I couldn’t afford to be distracted right now, I only had a couple of weeks left.

Apparently, my explosive growth last week had dispersed more mana in the air than I’d intended, not that it surprised me much. I knew that I had mana manipulation issues, but Cara assured me that almost all young dungeons do. It’s something that you need to practice at.

Either way I’d had an influx of new species of beasts wandering into my woods to live off the mana rich plants and creatures already here. As a result, I’d unlocked a few new evolutionary trees, which were a logical way for dungeons to track the linage of their beasts.

In addition to the several insect, plants, rodent, and avian branches I already had, I now had access to reptiles which I unlocked after claiming 4 lesser plains snakes that were chasing my squirrels at the eastern edge of the forest.

They looked promising, so I’d given them the typical reproductive enhancements that I gave all my dungeon creatures and separated them to different parts of the forest, hoping to unlock different evolution paths based on their environments.

I’d also found field mice and rats, which unlocked new tier one branches in my rodent tree alongside the squirrels and hedgehogs. Part of me knew instinctually that hedgehogs were not actually rodents, but it was easier for me to have them on the same tree for tracking.

My best discovery however, and this was what was eating up most of my attention, was that I’d managed to spawn a new main branch on the tree family, Livingwood.

Cara told me that every now and then a dungeon might create an entirely new species instead of evolving into a new tier, as I had done with the willows. I’d spent my time investing mana into the hungry trees trying to encourage them to grow faster and to develop their abilities.

I’d also had my hedgehogs tearing down the trees around the ford in the river, where it was at it’s shallowest, so that the adventurers would have somewhere to cross outside the reach of the willows that I’d spread along the bank.

The knowledge I’d gotten from Echil had also helped me with orienting myself. Previously I’d just been growing haphazardly, but I now realized that if I didn’t want my forest to be culled I would have to leave room for settlement. Ash and I had decided that having them live on the other side of the river was best for everyone.

This river, which was 3 km or so north of my hill turned out to be very large. I had my birds fly along it to scout, and the river came from the northeast, running mostly south until it hit the forest where the bend cut west. It continued almost straight west for 5 km before bending south again.

I assumed that the nearest village was northwest of me, due to the approach all my visitors had taken to get here so far. Logically I knew it made more sense for a village to be along the river, which would have been more eastward, but I am sure that the sapients had their reasons.

Either way, I’d populated my side of the riverbank with the dark willow trees and continued trying to evolve the creatures I had now. The Elf seemed to be under the impression that the other Adventurers wouldn’t take too kindly to someone stealing Cara’s core, so if that happened they’d have to escape off the beaten path that the clearing would create. The willows worked to catch a runner once, and for now they were my best bet of it happening again.

I was still seeding more forest south and east of myself into the open plains that populated that direction. I was having difficulty expanding directly south however, and the creatures I sent that direction kept disappearing, just like what happened with Cara’s bats she told me about. One of us was going to have to figure out what was going on so that we could continue our expansion.

As I contemplated the best way to explore that direction I felt something new entering my domain from the east. I redirected most of my attention to the intrusion and what I saw gave me so much hope. There were two creatures larger than any I’d claimed so far slowly trotting into my forest.

Covered in light tan fur, they slowly entered the forest, sniffing at the ground and warily looking around. They walked on four legs that ended in cloven hooves rather than the feet that rodents had. One of them had two massive looking horns protruding from its mouth, whereas the other was slightly smaller and had much smaller horns. They both inspected the forest floor with their beady looking eyes and continued sniffing along the ground and walking in.

I waited another 5 minutes, to ensure that they were far enough that I’d have time to claim them incase they tried to flee, and had my hedgehogs try to flank them incase of retreat.

Unfortunately, one of my drones crunched a branch and the duo seemed to lock into the sound instantly. They swiveled around, snorted once, and charged in unison towards the border of my forest. I knew that I couldn’t afford to let them leave so I ordered my drones to collapse onto their location and started trying to break into their mana barrier.

The battle was swift and savage, lasting all of 65 seconds. The male beast crashed into the line of hedgehogs, horns first, and impaled two instantly. Shaking its head to dislodge them, it became apparent that the beast was not trying to flee as it began systematically trying to gut every hedgehog there. Alongside its mate, which attacked more with its teeth and hooves than its horns, my poor rodents started getting wiped out quickly.

The battle was not entirely one-sided however. The larger beast seemed to be whipped up into a frenzy, and was incapable of thinking of its own safety, thus sustaining several gashes along its side from running into a group of hedgehogs. With every injury it sustained, the mana barrier around it weakened and it became easier to claim, until a little over a minute later I was able to wrestle control of it.

As the larger boar, because that is what I learned they were called after winning control of it, calmed down I began using mana to heal it. It would do me no good to win a new animal just for it to die of injuries it had already sustained. Luckily, its mate backed down when the male stopped attacking, and so I made short work of claiming her as well.

After witnessing the battle prowess of a boar in the wild, I couldn’t wait to make enhancements and see how well they battled in a pack. I made the typical adjustments to their reproductive systems and was pleased to see how close the male boar was to naturally evolving.

Upon further analysis I saw that I truly must have been the luckiest core alive. Not only was my forest beautiful and expanding, and I was discovering new species of beasts while creating an entire ecosystem, but even with new captures there were bonuses! I found the remnants of a plant I didn’t have in the stomachs of the boars, and upon further inspection located the seeds scattered in the fur and tusks of the boars, as well as on the corpses of the poor drones who gave their lives for me.

I may only have two more weeks, but after unlocking the Fungi and Swine trees I was feeling a little more optimistic. Plus, I was pretty sure that the spores I’d located would make a great gift to a certain lady in my life.