The walk from the entrance of the dungeon to the first floor should have been easy. It always had been in the past. Only for Richard it felt like something pushing back against him. And the further he walked the greater the pressure. His body felt hot and he had started to sweat. Each step was a little slower than the last.

  It wasn’t the Beetle Dungeon. It wasn’t where he was attacked. He closed his eyes and repeated those thoughts in his mind and took the final step forward onto the first floor. He took a deep breath. The air smelled like decaying leaves mixed with a fall day. And he opened his eyes.

  He was safe. Enigma, no, Windry was there with him. Angel was already taking point and her head snapped from side to side as she searched the area. There were no monsters. No red guild. Everything would be alright. He wasn’t alone any longer.

  It was his final thought that brought Richard around again. People were too deep into their electronic devices that it was easy to feel loneliness. There were books about it aplenty. Research and reports blasted across the news sites. And the politicians acted like they cared, but since it didn’t put money in their pockets nothing ever got done about it.

  “Are you alright,” Windry said. She had placed her hand on his arm. For some reason Richard found her presence comforting.

  “Yeah. Thanks Grandma,” Richard said. To which she smiled and punched him in the arm. He was surprised at the amount of force someone a foot smaller than him could produce. And how much it had hurt.

  “Everything appears to be clear,” Angel said. “I know the route to the second floor, but there is a gathering spot that I want to check out first.”

  “Gathering spot?” Richard asked.

  “Just a place in the dungeon where you can take materials from. They don’t always have them. So it's a bit hit-or-miss.”

  “I haven’t found any info about that online at all.”

  Angel smiled at him. “This is something that I’ve found out myself. Though I’ve also discussed it with some of the others in the guild. Generally information on gathering spots is kept secret. It’s one of the hidden bits of information that people crafting don’t talk about, as if others know about it, they can gather it before you can.”

  “Are you okay with telling us about this?” Windry asked. “Surely that information was something you wanted to keep secret?”

  Angel shrugged. “It is. But crafting works on trust. And the spot is only for Woodsmiths as far as I am aware. Since you are going to be there with me when I harvest from it. So it's better to answer questions now and not later.”

  The first floor of the Mushroom Dungeon was larger than what Richard had thought. When he had visited it in the past he stayed near the main path to the second floor. He would enter the trees at a point, and then loop around back to the trail. Given how everything looked the same he was rather afraid of getting lost. Not that it wasn’t hard to find your way since there were signs and waypoints that pointed back to the stairs up. Put in place by those that trailblazed the path so many years ago.

  “This is it here,” Angel said. She was pointing towards a large dead tree with a hollow opening at the base. It didn’t look like anything special.

  Angel kneeled in front of it, reached into the hollow, there was a snapping noise, and she pulled out a branch with a leaf still on it. “It isn't anything fancy. Just a drop that rarely appears on the second floor. I use them for making bows and I think that they might have a use for making wands. But I’m not high enough level for that yet.”

  “What makes that any different between any other branch on the floor?” Richard asked. He found a similar looking one on a tree nearby. ”Say if I snap this one off?”

  “Best way to show you is to just let you try,” Angel said.

  Richard nodded and tried to break the branch off that he could reach. Only it wouldn’t even bend. And it felt like it was held in place by something beyond his strength.

  “There you have it. The only materials that can be removed from the dungeon are what the dungeons have decided on. At least that is the theory. People tried to cut down the trees here with axes. But all they did was dull their blades. I tried to take a left out, I could pick it up well enough, get it stuck on my shoes, or put it into my backpack. But the moment that I thought of removing it the leaf would either become stuck like that, or just disappear,” Angel said.

  “Wild.”

  “I know.”

  Richard turned to Windry who had been silent. “What’s with the smile?”

  “Oh don’t worry about me. Watching youths discover things is always a pleasure.”

  “I’m like 20 years younger than you.”

  Windry chuckled lightly. “20 years is a long time. More than enough for one such as me to have developed such a hobby.”

  Richard shared a look with Angel, who only shook her head. With nothing else to say they continued towards the second floor.

  ***

  When they stepped on the second floor of the Mushroom Dungeon Angel stepped forward and checked for enemies like she had done before. While she was doing that Richard also took a moment to look around. Like the second floor of the Beetle Dungeon it followed the same environment as the first floor. It was a dimly lit forest, perhaps a little darker than the first floor. The trees felt more oppressive, they were larger and blocked out more of the false sky above them. Vines and moss trailed from the boughs over ahead while there was a slight fog about the floor. The leaves strewn across the ground were no longer whole, but instead had already started to break down. And the scent of decaying plant matter was stronger.

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  “Not a very nice place is it,” Windry asked.

  “No. The atmosphere is bad. Which is probably why it’s not a favored place by explorers. Makes it hard to get the materials that I need,” Angel said. She had completed her scouting and didn’t find anything worth mentioning.

  “Did you want to direct us from the back?” Richard said. While Angel knew the floor better than him and Windry, getting stuck fighting in melee with a bow seemed dangerous.

  “I can, while I haven’t found any gathering spots on this floor I’ve at least dealt with the Walking Mushrooms before. Let's start in this direction,” she said and pointed to the left of the entrance. Richard didn’t notice it when he was looking before. But behind them the stairs upwards were coming out of a broken stump of a large and long dead tree. The bark had been weathered away long ago and the wood turned a dull grey color.

  It didn’t take too long before they found their first pack of monsters. It was two of the red capped Walking Mushrooms from the first floor. Windry rushed forward and slashed one twice leaving an x mark on its cap while Richard met with the other one. He lifted his club over his head in a two handed grip and slammed the mushroom on its cap. But the walking mushroom still had health left over and it didn’t go down until an arrow from Angel pierced it.

  “Seems like they are harder to kill now,” Richard said.

  “Monsters get stronger the further down you go. You’ve mostly only explored on the first floors of safe dungeons right?” Windry asked.

  “That’s right.” Richard nodded.

  “There are level caps on how far an explorer can level. So for most safe dungeons the highest you can go on the first floor is level 3.”

  “Ah. How about here on the second floor? Will the cap go up to 6?”

  “It depends on the dungeon. But most deeper floors should allow an explorer to level up at least once, sometimes 2 levels,” Angel said. She had already collected the drops from the monsters, a pair of Mushroom Caps.

  “That would explain why I’ve been stuck at level 3 for so long. I figured that there was some reason for it. Never thought that it would have something to do with the floor levels. Just that maybe the monsters weren’t strong enough to give me any experience.”

  They continued fighting against what packs they found while Angel looked for more gathering spots. Richard wondered if it was something that he should be doing as well. Only there wasn’t any drop that he had found usable in the Mushroom Dungeon so far. Thinking back to the time that he had found the Pale Hanging Moss it must have been a gathering spot. Which might make it hard for him to find any. And he was kicking himself as he didn’t keep it back then and just tossed it aside. He had seen a beetle eating the moss. Perhaps there would be clues in the other dungeons?

  It was Richard’s turn on point, and as he walked around a tree he noticed a small clearing. Standing in the middle were two of the red Walking Mushrooms, as well as a larger one. It looked the same as the smaller ones, just twice the size with a purple cap instead of red. He motioned to the others to stop and they peeked around the tree.

  “Okay. So the plan for the purple ones is the same as the red ones. Lay into it all at once so that it doesn't try to spread its spores. The effect is random if we get hit. So poison, confusion, berserk, paralysis, something like that,” Angel said.

  “How bad is the poison? Enough that we need to find a way to cure it?” Richard asked.

  “It will sap your strength and make it hard to move. If you take too much damage it can kill you. So we’ll need to be careful.”

  “Alright. I brought some Healing Potions with me,” Richard said and placed a hand onto his satchel. “So worse case we can use one of those if it’s looking bad.”

  “Healing Potions!” Angel said a little too loud. She winced and looked at the monsters. “They are something handy to have for sure. But we may not be able to cover it with the drops that we find.”

  “Don’t worry about it, better alive then dead,” he said and stepped forward. The Walking Mushrooms must have heard Angel shout and they were approaching.

  “I’ll distract the purple one,” Windry said. “If you two take out the red ones first. Then we’ll all attack the purple one at once.” Richard and Angel gave their affirmative and they all stepped into the clearing.

  Richard already knew that his attack wasn’t enough to finish the mushroom off with one hit. So he moved with Angel in mind so that she always had line of sight. Then once he was sure that she he had a clear shot he whallopped the mushroom. They weren't very fast. And they didn't react to being attacked until after the blow had landed. He was able to connect a hit rather easily. The moment after Angel shot an arrow and finished it off.

  Thinking to repeat the attack on the next one Richard turned to look for it. Only it had moved into his blindspot. And he was tackled by the mushroom before he was able to turn to face it. Once he was on the ground it started to trample on his legs.

  An arrow from Angel caused the Walking Mushroom to rear backwards. Which gave Richard enough time to give it an awkward two handed hit to the body with his club. It stepped back again, but didn’t fall completely. The attack that he could muster while on his back hadn’t been enough. And the gills around the mushroom’s cap started to quiver, but before it could release any spores a second arrow from Angel finished it off.

  Richard groaned as he stood, only he had moved too fast and his body struggled to keep up with him and his injuries. When he looked for the state of the battle he found that Windry had turned the purple Walking Mushroom around and put him in a flanking position behind it.

  “Are you okay?” Angel asked from his side.

  “It was just some kicks. I’m sore for now, but it should fade. Probably bruise later though.”

  “Alright. I’ll try to time my attacks with yours. We’ll need a couple to get this thing down.”

  Richard took in a deep breath and then changed the mushroom. He swung low with his club and struck it in one of its legs. Windry took that movement to deliver a slash to the mushroom as it stumbled. And Angel landed an arrow into the purple cap.

  For his follow up attack Richard aimed for the other leg, the Walking Mushroom had all of its weight on its good leg. And he wasn’t about to let it regain its balance. There was a vegetable snapping noise when the club impacted and the leg bent the wrong way. Windry went for a stab with her short sword while Angel’s second arrow stuck into its body as it fell.

  Richard brought the club above his head and hammered it down onto the walking mushroom who had gone silent.

  “I think it’s dead,” Windry said. “Good job you two, you work well together.”

  “I think it’s mostly Angel,” Richard said. “She’s pretty good at reading the combat. I need to work on keeping the enemies in my sight.”

  Angel shook her head. “I think that one was on me. I should have called out where it was. It didn't occur to me that you had lost it until the body check.”

  “Alright, Alright. You’ve grown from this encounter,” Windry said. “Now let's look at the drops.”