Chương 19: Mushrooms, Mushrooms, and (Oh, Wow!) More Mushrooms!

The cart stopped with a grinding lurch, the tires and rope above head squealing loudly. Lio stepped off first, his boots meeting the ground of Floor 1. It was slightly springy and dense, consisting mainly of moss, and releasing a deeply earthy smell. He looked at the clearing, then glanced at the other Delvers spilling off the carts behind him, walking out onto the open space. Beside him, Ophila also stepped off and began scanning the forest's edge.

"Same as I remember," she muttered, though mostly to herself. The forest of fungi that was Floor 1 stretched in every direction visible. Even the smallest fungi were at least the size of an adult man, their pale and slightly bluish caps spreading overhead in wide translucent discs. The largest were the size of tenement buildings, their stalks wider than houses, their caps so far above that the bioluminescent rings along their undersides appeared as faint distant halos.

These behemoth and monstrous fungi were called Pillars, as a majority of them actually supported the ceiling above them. They all pulsated and slowly radiated out a specific light, each one slightly out of sync with its neighbors, so the canopy seemed to be colored in different lights of blue and green. The clearing the cart tracks ended in was a rough circle of open space, the fungi arranged around it.

Though most Delvers would assume the Union kept it clean of the mushrooms, in reality, the fungi simply didn't grow in this area. Lio had curiously thought about that arrangement for the better part of three hundred loops before he had finally understood what it meant. See, the fungi had grown that way deliberately. The clearing existed because they wanted this place to be available for people to walk through.

And then they would release spores that were completely harmless but acted as mild attractants, drawing Delvers deeper into the densest clusters—which would disturb the caps and release even more spores. Lio had never told anyone this. He simply found it privately amusing. Around them the other Delvers were already starting to move. Simply by watching, one could see that the Delvers clearly differentiated themselves into two groups.

The veterans went to the clearing's edge and studied the forest with a practiced eye, while a few newcomers stood in the middle with their lamps held high, with a stunned look on their faces.

"Which way?" Ophila asked, turning to glance at him.. Lio pointed at a gap between two building-sized stalks where the bioluminescent light was a slightly warmer blue than the surrounding forest. She looked at it briefly, then started walking, while he followed. Inside, the clearing behind them disappeared within a few steps. The stalks pressed close, leaving corridors just wide enough for two people to pass. The organic floor deepened here, their boots pushing deep into the moss.

Ophila kept her lamp turned on low but lit, moving carefully. Her experience showed as she stepped over the mycelium ridges where they broke the surface without looking down, avoided brushing the stalks with her pack, all the while keeping her pace steady. Her previous descents had clearly left their impression on her. She also noticed the first fruit that appeared before them.

She slowed down, and he followed her gaze to the base of a mid-sized stalk to their left, where a cluster of small golden-colored growths hung. They were round and smooth, roughly the size of a plum, their skins faintly translucent.

"Amberpulps," she said, smiling with pleasant surprise as she crouched down.

"I found some the last time I was here." She checked the stalk above the cluster—it had to be smooth and pale to be ripe—and pulled one free. It came away easily. She turned it over and bit into it, the thick juices dribbling down her chin.

"Mhm." She licked her lips with a satisfied expression. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Lio likewise took one from the cluster and ate it as they continued to walk. The taste was difficult to categorize, but it was bright, clean, and very refreshing. He had eaten enough of them across enough loops to have developed a preference for them over most surface fruit. Ophila tucked two more into a side pocket of her pack.

"Do you know where exactly they grow?"

"Wherever there are smooth Pillar stalks," Lio said.

"There's more of them as you head deeper in."

"I see," She glanced at the stalk above the cluster one more time as they passed. That particular group had darkened stalks with rigged edges.

"Those are unripe, right?"

"Yes."

"I thought so." She looked ahead into the forest corridor.

"I made that mistake on my second descent." She shuddered.

"That was some trauma." Further in, the Pillar fungi gave way to a broader, shorter variety that was colored a deeper cream color than the pale Pillars. From the underside of each cap hung dense fringes of thin filaments, moving gently in the air. They produced a warmer amber glow, glowing up the place with an artificial afternoon light. Ophila studied one from an appropriate distance, careful to not touch the filaments.

It would be uncomfortable if they did, as the strings produced a powerful aphrodisiac that would send anyone into heat.

"I don't remember those being here," she said.

"They aren't here usually," Lio said.

"You normally have to go further in." She looked at the filaments moving slowly and gracefully in the wind for a second, then kept on walking. The amber light made the first moving creature to appear before them easier to spot. A Stoneback Beetle was moving along the forest floor roughly fifteen meters ahead, its back to them. Dwarfishly short and heavily built, its body was covered in overlapping plates of a chitin material, colored a deep reddish-brown that caught the light in dull gleams.

Its six legs ended in broad flat pads that spread slightly with each step, distributing the creature's weight across the soft floor equally. It had a dumb and stupid look to it, with its bluntly rounded head with no visible eyes, just two thick sensory antennae shivering and sweeping the air. Ophila slowed down, narrowing her eyes to see it clearer.

"Oh, it's those guys," she said.

"I didn't get close enough last time I was down here to know much about them."

"They're edible," Lio said.

"If you don't mind the smell, of course." She watched it continue between two Pillar stalks and disappear.

"What kind of smell?"

"You don't want to know," Lio deadpanned. She considered this, nodding.

"I'll keep it in mind." She started walking again. Ahead, they soon found a water source for this area. It was a seep in the eastern Ghenna wall, a slow steady stream of water that ran down the rock face and spread across the floor in thin dark sheets before the organic matter absorbed it. The fungi around it had inverted heads, catching the water like bowls. And surrounding these bowl-fungi, creatures called Caplings were drinking deeply. There were six of them.

Each was fist-sized, standing and crouching upright on two disproportionately long hind legs, their thin and lithe bodies covered in a fine membrane that shimmered and changed colors constantly, helping camouflage them into the surroundings. Their small dexterous hands cupped to bring water to their faces of large dark eyes and small thin mouths. Ophila crouched beside Lio and looked at them with a tiny smile.

"They're so cute," she said quietly.

"Yes," Lio said.

"I tried to feed one too, on my third descent." She let out a loud snort.

"Unfortunately, it tried to kick me." One of the Caplings turned at the sudden sound. It glanced at Ophila, then looked directly at Lio with those large dark eyes, a small flash of intelligence appearing behind them. It began moving towards him, not skittishly, but almost excitedly. It closed the distance quickly, and looked up at Lio with an almost expectant expression.

"Do they know you?" Ophila asked, her eyes wide.

"I've never seen them get so close."

"Yes," Lio said.

"How many times have you been down here then?" Lio looked down at the Capling. It was still watching him with that large-eyed attention, its small hands beginning to move in jittery, excited movements. He knew that this was the sign language that the Caplings communicated in, and he could even make out a few words, such as: 'Hello', 'Water', and 'Welcome'.

"A few times," he said inconspicuously. He did not mention that before he had acquired the [Bookmark] rune, whenever he arrived at Floor 1, he always took time to sit with the Caplings and watch them. He had found it settling in a way that was difficult to explain, helping placate his turbulous thoughts at the time, born from the harsh reality of being a regular, run-of-the-mill Delver. Of course, that had been a long, long time ago. Ophila glanced at him sideways and raised an eyebrow.

Meanwhile, the Capling chirped sharply, the musical sound it produced strangely soothing.