A Familiar Face

One minute after Manco picked up the gun, a small wave of energy emanated from the chest. It quickly expanded outward and turned every object in the apartment into dust. He stood in the middle of the empty #153 apartment, a sight with which he was familiar.

After a moment, a crackle of electricity was heard as a portal opened up in the middle of the room.

He checked the place one more time to make sure nothing remained, then stepped through the portal. A few seconds of weightlessness later, he found himself back inside the living quarters, in front of the secret entrance that was now closed.

The rest of the group was still standing where they did before. When he entered the bonus stages, the main scenario simply stopped progressing.

"Back so soon?" Rust asked, "What's in there?" From his point of view, Manco had only stepped inside the door for a few seconds.

"Nothing. Just an empty room." Manco replied.

"Alright. Let's go!"

Exiting the living quarter, they went into the room on the other side of the hallway, the plant-nursing room.

The Ophiocordyceps fungus could not grow by itself and had to survive by parasitizing several species of corn. This room was where the maize plants were grown and artificially infected with the fungus. After about ten days, they would be moved to one of the three indoor farms.

The plant-nursing room was similar in size to the living quarters. It had multiple long tables lined with small earthen pots where the maize plants were grown.

The room had been thoroughly ransacked. Broken pot fragments, clumps of dirt and trampled plants littered the floor. Several tables were overturned and it looked like someone tried but failed to set fire to the place.

"Damn it!" Rust ran out of the room and rushed to the farm, followed by the rest of the group.

The farm was the largest room in the compound, comparable in size to a football field. It was carved into the rocks and partially illuminated by torches put in sconces along the walls. The main source of light, however, was the arrays of naturally glowing gemstones set on the uneven ceiling.

The room was divided into more than two dozen rectangular sections, each having at least a hundred maize plants in densely packed rows. Suspended two meters above the field was an extensive network of walkways made of bamboo and wooden planks tied together with ropes.

As the growing fungus was highly toxic, accidentally brushing over or inhaling even a spore could lead to a painful and gruesome death. The suspended walkways, along with the pathways between the sections, were needed to allow the caretakers a small measure of safety while tending to the plants.

The life cycle of the fungus was 90 days. During the 90th day, the fully matured fungus would release its spores into the air, turning the entire area into an extremely lethal environment. After one day, it would become inert and could be handled without any protective garment. Judging from the red-brown patches on the maize plants, the fungus had matured at least one day ago and should be perfectly safe to harvest.

Letting out a relieved sigh, Rust gestured for the group to approach the closest section. Everyone except Manco and Rust began gathering the fungus. Each of them took out a small knife and cut all the leaves with fungus and stuff them in the empty grain bags. When a plant had been stripped of all the leaves, they cut it down.

Rust turned to Manco and said: "You climb up the walkway over there. See if there's anything unusual."

Nodding, Manco jogged north, to the sections further away from the entrance. Using the rope ladder on one of the posts, he climbed up the walkway.

From his vantage point, he took in the sight of the farm. At the south corner, the group was making short work of the plants. He could see them moving and harvesting with practiced ease. It took them only ten minutes to clear the first section.

As he shifted his gaze to the sections closer to where he was, he spotted something. A man-sized trail made of trampled plants.

Using the walkway, Manco approached the trail. It appeared at least one person had walked through the field and stepped all over the maize plants, not caring about their lethality. From the direction the plants fell, this person seemed to have started walking from the middle of the field and moved toward the northeast corner.

[Quest updated: A Helping Hand]

[Inform Rust of the anomaly]

He whistled to catch Rust's attention and signaled him to come. After he briefly explained his observations, Rust nodded grimly.

"Bastard's already infected." Rust said: "Could be a couple thieves or robbers who know of the plants' value, but not of their characteristics."

"Do we have to clean it up?" Manco asked.

"Unfortunately, yes," Rust glanced back toward the south sections, where Trix, Bolt, Lug, Van, and Dan were hard at work: "Better do it now before they get tired."

He let out a shrill whistle to call to the five and made a "come here" gesture.

"Looks like we've got some cleaning up to do," After the last person was up on the walkway, Rust explained the problem.

"Could it be the fourth guy?" Bolt speculated.

"I doubt it. He should be clear about the fungus' maturity." Rust rejected the idea: "Doesn't matter. Check your weapons. We go and deal with it right now and finish harvesting later."

The five reluctantly complied, clearly not too thrilled by another potential life-threatening situation.

Together they marched toward the northeast corner. The walkway creaked in protest under their combined weights.

"Uh, I think these walkways weren't designed to carry all of us at the same time," Trix commented.

"Yup. These two are heavy." Lug agreed, pointing at Van and Dan.

"Hey! You're one to talk!" Van protested.

"Enough! All of you!" Rust shouted, "We'll walk on the ground!"

Cautiously they followed the trail, taking care not to scrape away any of the matured fungi. After several minutes, they reached the end of the field. On the soft ground, one could see tracks leading toward the chamber's north-east wall.

"What the hell?" Rust exclaimed as they reached the wall, "This wasn't here before!" There was a small passage on the wall, and the tracks disappeared inside.

Manco was getting more anxious by the minute. This scenario was completely different from the usual "Helping Hand" quest. The version he used to complete was supposed to be an introduction to the area around Mistwood Village, set the atmosphere, and establish this western region as a lawless and dangerous area.

Normally, it would involve a random group of vagrants trying to make some money. They were hired to harvest the fungus and were one man short, so he was drafted at the last moment. There would be some combat but it would only involve some wild animals or graveyard dwellers. The underground compound should be safe. They would enter this place, harvest the fungus, and carry it back to the horse-drawn cart. At that moment, the group would be paid and so would he.

This scenario, however, went off the rail from the point where three dead bodies were gruesomely mutilated by a swarm of crypt lice. Now he was forced to chase down an unknown person into an unknown underground passage.

"Why such a drastic change?" He asked himself.

He wanted to get the hell out of this place. However, he was stuck here until the quest was completed or he died and respawned. The mere thought of dying and losing the gun set him on edge.

"Fuck! What the hell's wrong with me?" He berated himself, "Just carrying one fragile item and already feeling like I'm gonna spontaneously explode!"

Steeling his nerves, he took stock of the situation. There were six NPCs with him. At least four of them seemed combat capable. They should be able to handle the threats or at least serve as decent distractions.

Manco opened his inventory. After making sure his crossbow was fully loaded with armor-piercing bolts, he applied poison onto his dagger and several dozen bolts. He filled the four belt slots with Redberry Juice vials and equipped the gun to his third weapon slot.

The group slowly headed into the narrow passage. Rust led the way, but stopped and looked down. It seemed he just stepped on something.

A closer inspection revealed a pair of torn shoes. Next, to them, bloody footprints leading deeper inside the passage. Moving forward, they saw torn bits of fabric and spatters of blood.

"What happened to him?" Trix whispered.

"He could be going insane. Tearing apart his clothes, mutilating himself, trying to dig out the fungi. When it gets to your brain, a lot of things can happen." Rust calmly explained as the rest of his group shuddered involuntarily.

"Say, Rust. Can we just finish the harvesting and get out of here? Let someone else deal with this?" Bolt asked.

"We can't. It's part of the deal. If we do this half-assed, next time they won't hire us!" He bluntly rejected the suggestion.

The pathway opened up into a large cavern. The uneven ground was covered in strange vein-like roots. The bloody footprints approached the far side of the cavern and ended there. In its place was a bundle of rag.

"Everyone stay close. Watch each other's back!" Rust ordered.

"Where is he?" Van took out a spear and use it to lift up the bundle, "This fabric looks weird. Or is it leather?"

"Spread it out on the floor!" Manco spoke abruptly. Van threw him a displeased look but did as as told.

As he used his spear to stretch out the bundle on the floor, they let out a collective gasp.

It was human skin!

"Gods! Don't tell me he just... shed his skin? Like a snake?" Bolt said, his voice betraying terror.

"Or something ate him from the inside, leaving only the skin!" Dan added his own hypothesis, which hardly helped to calm everyone's nerves.

At that moment, something inside the wall shifted. Manco noticed that the wall looked... alive, somehow. He held the torch high and looked up. The others followed his gaze...

...and saw a human face embedded inside the cave wall several meters off the ground. It was the same brown-grey color as the cave wall, so they all missed it in the dim torchlight.

"That face is... kind of familiar." Lug commented.

"Is that... Nicholas?" Trix asked.

"Fuck! It's really him!" Bolt said angrily, "he wanted to steal the fungus for himself, and got here before us!"

"So he killed the three guys? But what happened to him?"

"Who cares? He's dead! Serves him right, that greedy pig!" Bolt dismissed with a spat.

At that moment, the ground around them trembled and squirmed. The face protruded out from the cave wall and looked down at them.

"HeeeEElp meeeeEEee...." It said with a throaty, ragged voice.

"Oh, gods! He's still alive!" Trix exclaimed, her voice shaking.

"K-k-kill... meeeeEee..." The voice croaked. Then it was drowned out by a rumble that got louder by the minute. The place they were standing in now seemed less like a cave and more like the inside of a living creature.

"Alright! Bring it!" Manco said with a grin as he readied his weapons.