Fungal Forest
After a long day of doing my best to stay awake at school and up my coding skills through reading, I finally reached home and crashed right into bed. When I wake up fully rested, it is already dark outside with the moon high up in the sky.
I checked both of my phones to see if I had missed any calls during my sleep, and there were none. There was, however, a barrage of messages from Gwen.
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Gwen: Seeing as you were barely awake today, I will send you pictures of all the homework since I know you probably don't have time for it. (ᵔᴥᵔ)
Gwen: Sent a Picture
Gwen: Sent a Picture
Gwen: Sent a Picture
Gwen: Sent a Picture
…
Gwen: By the way, be careful if you're going outside to do your thing tonight. Dad said it's more dangerous than normal the past few days! ಠ‿↼
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There are a few dozen pictures of the completed homework, not only for tomorrow but for the whole rest of the week. How thoughtful of her.
I send her a quick thank you and ask about the last message she sent regarding the streets being more dangerous. It's been several days since I went on a real patrol, so I haven't had any chance to notice something being different.
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Peter: Thanks for the homework! What do you mean by "more dangerous"?
Gwen: I'm not sure about the details.
┐(ﾟ ～ﾟ )┌ Dad just complained in passing about how he has had more work recently because there are more criminals now than ever before, and they are being more aggressive as well.
Gwen: It's already past midnight, and he is still at work. I guess the police are swamped right now. （◞‸◟）
Gwen: Anyways, I'm going to sleep now, so good night and good luck with whatever you are up to tonight. ୧ʕ•̀ᴥ•́ʔ୨
Peter: Good night.
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Damn, this girl types texts faster than I can read… every time I am about to reply, another message comes in, forcing me to rewrite my whole message. In the end, I was only able to say good night.
While the increased criminal activity is interesting, going outside wasn't on my list of possible plans for today. My mind was caught in between going to the dungeon for some leveling or starting on my AI, and frankly, sitting down, and coding doesn't seem all that enticing right now, so to the dungeon I go!
Bringing up the Dungeon Explorer skill menu, I click on [Floor 11 - Fungal Forest] and close my eyes as the world around me shifts.
When I open my eyes to look around, I find myself in a place much less depressing than the Graveyard on the previous floors. All around me were lush green trees, some tall enough to seemingly touch the vibrant blue sky, while the ground was covered in green grass and an abundance of various flowers.
The scenery almost made me forget I was in a dungeon where everything wanted to kill me.
With my suit and mask already on, I cautiously start walking forward, looking for my first enemy. The name of this area is Fungal Forest making me think that it has to have something to do with mushrooms, and as the scenery looked like a regular forest, my best guess is that the enemies are going to be mushrooms which could be a little troubling for me.
A quick question: What's the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about mushroom enemies in games?
That's right, poison.
Poison would fuck me over hard right now since I have no way to protect myself against it or cure myself as I have no antidotes or a similar medicine. My hope is that either the enemies here don't actually poison me or that I can find something to not be helpless against it.
Before long, I come across my first enemy on this floor.
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[Shroom Watchman]
[Level 18]
[HP - 1400 / 1400]
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A lone mushroom roughly half my height is strolling around with great difficulty. Rather than having multiple legs to walk around like a person, it has one thick stump topped by a large cap with a face on it.
Swinging his large cap to the left, its right side lifts up from the ground and lands back down a little ways forward, swinging its cap to the right the same thing happens to the left side of its body. Repeating this motion over and over, it is slowly able to inch forward.
Well, seeing as it is on its lonesome and can barely even move, it shouldn't be challenging to take it out.
I bring out my sword and stealthily creep up behind the Shroom Watchman before striking it with all I've got. Thanks to the First Strike perk, my damage is multiplied by two, and I deal just a bit under 900 damage to it, not enough to kill it but enough to have it hurting.
I go in for a quick second strike, bringing it down to a critical 100 hp, but as I am about to finish it off, it does something that creeps me out a bit. The cap on its head rotates a full 180 degrees at incredible speed, and its face is now staring straight at me.
Out of surprise, I jump back and web myself onto a branch on a large tree, not knowing what kind of an attack it is planning. I half expect some sort of a poison cloud to pop up around it, but no, instead it screams, very loudly.
I cover my ears, stunned at how loud that thing can be, but it doesn't help much. Deciding the only way to shut it up is to kill it, I fire off a Mana Bolt. Despite it being nerfed in the latest patch, the already low hp enemy still dies to it easily and finally stops its screeching.
"Ow…" I mutter, rubbing my hurting ears. After a few seconds of that, I am about to go check on the drops from that enemy, but before I even manage to jump down to the ground, I hear plenty of footsteps approaching.
Deciding against going down, I instead take cover behind the tree and enter stealth mode to see who is approaching. Moments later, a group of 4 enemies shows up, and unlike the first one, they instead appear to be something in between a mushroom and a human as they still have that large cap for a face but also walk on two legs and carry a spear in their hands.
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[Shroom Spearman]
[Level 18]
[HP - 1100 / 1100]
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Seeing the dead Shroom Watchman on the ground, they start frantically looking around for what could have killed their comrade, but of course, they find no signs of me. I wonder if the scream was what brought them here. If that's the case, I need to kill those Watchmen quickly in the future before they can get an attack off.
The good thing about this forest area is that the quantity and closeness of the trees lets me easily maneuver around on their branches like some sort of a Tarzan without ever going to the ground. I easily escape from the Spearmen's search area, never being seen, and continue to wander around the floor looking for the exit when suddenly I hear a faint yell.
"Some…one…any…one- HELP!"
That came from my right… what the hell? I thought dungeons were full of monsters. Who else is here other than me…
I briskly change direction and head toward where that voice was coming from. It sounded weak but not too far away. As I continue on, the call for help becomes louder and louder by the second until I finally spot it.
A little walking plant is taking refuge under a giant tree root as two Shroom Spearman are trying but failing to poke it to death.
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[Name - Sapling nr.189,264]
[Level - 3]
[HP - 40 / 70]
[Affiliation - Keeper of "Nature"]
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Note: How many of you know who the Keeper of "Nature" is? It's not a marvel character. I'll tell you that much.
New chapters tomorrow and Friday, me thinks.