In time, the areas farthest from the "dungeons" recovered first. The beastkins in the South, Elves in the East, and the humans in the rest of the areas, slowly encroached and recovered the nearby land for occupation.
Through time, the habitable regions increased in size and started leaking towards what had once been desolate zones near the dungeons.
The armistice also allowed for crossbreeding. It so happened that marrying humans improved the fertility of the other two races as well, which was an overall good thing for the integration.
The population started mixing together until the territories contained people of most races. Depending on the region, there were naturally some biases, but there was almost no territory that didn’t have at least a few races mingling in.
However, even with the cross-breeding, certain capabilities and affinities remained exclusive to the races.
People of this world had a chance to develop cores and to absorb essence, which was this world’s version of the universal force.
Elves could only develop magic cores, Beastkin could only develop physical cores, while humans could develop either of the two—or none at all, and this was the majority.
On the other hand, halfbreeds had higher chances of developing a core of the ’dominant’ race. For example, a half-elf would likely have a magic core, and so on.
However, they would also not be as powerful as the purebreeds. It was just how it goes. So, even if discrimination was discouraged to some degree, some ’purebloods’ would often make things difficult for those with mixed blood.
Nothing particularly serious happened between races, though, and overall, there was peace and coexistence.
Anyway, this was the world the current generation was used to, and the war was ancient history, and most people alive did not carry the hate from their ancestors. Most importantly, they were unified by a common threat: The monsters from the dungeons.
For hundreds of years after the armistice, the dungeons were ’blocked’ and stabilized with strong magic, but after hundreds of years, it was inevitable for it to weaken.
In time, a hundred years ago, the ’controlled puddle’ loosened up, expanding to a small lake, and more and more monsters emerged from it.
They were still controlled, and the monsters that appeared were not as extreme as it was back then.
It was just that their side’s most powerful people were gone, and the essence in the air—due to the requirements to seal the dungeons in the first place—was no longer as it once was.
The new generations borne after the armistice could not compare to the ancestors in terms of strength, and there seemed to be a cap that people from the current generations could not overcome.
Worse, there was something called the Aphelion Month, which happened once every couple of years.
Here, the barriers would become particularly weak for reasons unknown and larger mobs—and stronger monsters—would emerge at the same time, creating a horrific monster wave that spread out, attacking even the deepest parts of the safe zones.
He gulped, eyes fixed on the map. Specifically, the so-called danger zone where the dungeons were. "Where... is this place located?" he asked, referring to his current location.
Another name for the danger zone was the "Forest of Beasts".
Doesn’t sound scary at all, yeah?
Syl looked at him in pity, pointing at their approximate location on the map. She pointed at the danger zone, which really shouldn’t be surprising.
And it was also somewhere in the middle of two of the three dungeons.
"Well, shit."
...
He gave a sideways glance at the panda who was also looking over the map, listening as intently as he was. One would think that the system would provide the Spirit
"Is my location on purpose?"
Pang nodded, his head bouncing just a bit. "The location chosen by the cosmos has relative proximity to the chaos, yes."
"..."
So there was really a dungeon portal less than a hundred kilometers away! That was like, just the distance between Madrid and Toledo!
That was less than two hours away by modern car! Then again, going on foot was definitely longer, probably a few days, but still !
To be fair, he had an idea he wasn’t too far from one since the system mentioned it before. He shouldn’t have been so surprised. However, seeing it and hearing it from a local was a totally different thing. He had been in denial, apparently.
The other two dungeons were much farther, with the one in the West more than two hundred kilometers away, and the one up North was even farther than that. However, because there were no settlements nearby, looking at it from above the map, it felt like his Inn was just particularly close to all three dungeons.
"These danger zones are where the beasts roamed, though the farther from the ’dungeon’, the more manageable they are," she explained. "The stronger beasts prefer to be near their portal. The theory is that they prefer to be near their power source.
"It is a fact that the world these creatures came from was a world full of essence, albeit the dangerous, dirty kind," she told him. "It is why their bodies are so strong compared to ours, and how only ranked weapons could truly inflict damage on them.
"Stronger monsters needed that energy to retain their advantages, which is fortunate because this means that beyond a certain distance from the dungeons, it is extremely rare to find excessively strong monsters."
"How do we know which areas these monsters will appear in, exactly?"
"The alliance created a sort of standard to delineate the levels of danger of each area."
Her dainty fingers traced an area over the dungeons to about 20 kilometers from them. "This is the most dangerous area," she said. "We call these the Level 3 danger zones, and even the guild masters and Lords would die here without proper preparation."
She then moved to around 60 kilometers. "This is Level 2. Even I will struggle here," she said, and Finn found himself shivering at the thought of how a powerful mage like Syl would struggle just at Level 2.
"The rest of the danger zone is classified as Level 1, and this is where you are," she said. "Monsters here are predominantly awakened level, with the occasional toughened-level ones.
"So do not worry too much."
Finn gave an awkward smile. That’s impossible, okay?!