— CHAPTER FOURTY-ONE —

  The Expedition Begins!

  +Leo+

  "Fascinating! Absolutely fascinating!" Geiger exclaimed for what must have been the tenth time in the last hour.

  We were in the Protectorate library, going over printouts of my notes of the Underground Woodsea.

  The old curator adjusted his glasses as he leaned over one of my photographs, his wispy white hair falling forward. He straightened up with a childish hop. "An underground area of this size... it may as well be a zone on its own! An entire ecosystem, hidden from the world above - and it's not on the world map! Imagine the implications! If there's one hidden zone, there could be dozens more! Underground cities, lost civilizations... the possibilities are endless! The tunnel systems in the mountains are quite expansive as well; I wonder if there's something like this over there? Oh! Or those rumors of a lost city in the desert! I suppose we should have expected it; the Capital's own sewers are just as complex and hidden!"

  I gathered a few notes that had scattered from his enthusiastic gesturing. "What about Stonehearth? Did you find anything there?"

  Geiger's expression fell slightly, and he plopped down in the chair across from me. "Ah, well, nothing quite so grand as your mushroom forest, I'm afraid. Though I did discover a delightful little bakery! Their cinnamon rolls were simply divine. I'm afraid I scoured every nook and cranny of that city, even climbed to the top of the Meteor Spire. I thought for sure that'd be it! There's quite a large mall in the basement - the train station connects directly to it - but there was no way deeper down. Oh, but the train tunnels! Why didn't I check the train tunnels! There may have been a... a breach or cavern entrance hidden outside the station!"

  "Save it for next weekend." I said.

  "Of course, of course." He sighed, turning his attention back to my notes. He flipped through several pages until he reached the section on the corruption I'd found. "Now, about this tainted area you encountered. You say it was seeping up from the ground itself?"

  "That's what it looked like, yeah."

  "Fascinating." Geiger stroked his beard thoughtfully. "In the Star Marsh, the corruption's source was traced to a sea creature. I don't suppose there could be some sort of underwater connection to your mushroom forest?"

  "Maybe a cave under the lake?" I suggested.

  "We should look into acquiring some water breathing equipment. Perhaps the alchemists have found a potion we could use?"

  I blinked. "Wait, are you serious? You want to go back down there?"

  "Of course!" He was on his feet again, gesturing expansively. "This is the most promising lead we have at the moment! Come on, we need to start planning! What do we want to find, what equipment and supplies will we need to run the experiments, and how are we going to deal with these cannibals you found nearby? Now is the time for logistics!"

  And so, over the next few days, the pair of us started planning out an expedition. I should have expected it from how much research I did before going out there, but there was so much more to planning than I was expecting.

  We converted a small study room into our planning headquarters, walls soon covered with maps, lists, and diagrams. There was specialized containment equipment, because the corruption ate through anything you tried to put it in. Then, of course, we needed a plan on how to defend ourselves from the cannibals. It took us a full week to put a plan and supply list together, then another week after that to get it approved for financing by the Protectorate.

  When the budget finally came through, I nearly choked.

  "This is barely a third of what we asked for!" I said.

  Geiger sighed, leaning back in his chair in our office. "The Protectorate's resources are stretched thin. Between the school, the therapy department, and all the other research initiatives... we're lucky to get anything at all."

  I looked over our supply list, then back at the approved budget. The math simply didn't work - if we bought the defence and safety equipment, we wouldn't have enough for any science, but if we bought the experiment materials, we wouldn't have enough for the camp.

  Luckily, I had that money from Gary - it was more than enough to cover the difference, and this was something I was more than happy to spend it on.

  And then we put out a call for volunteers. We posted notices around the Protectorate and in several guild halls. The response was... underwhelming, to say the least. I probably shouldn't have called the place 'the dark, cannibal-infested depths' right there on the notice.

  I was beginning to worry we wouldn't find enough people when, a few days after posting the notices, I spotted a familiar face in the library.

  I was sorting some unrelated documents for a different project when Lily walked in, looking slightly awkward.

  I waved her over with a friendly, "Hey there!"

  She approached, fidgeting slightly. "So this is where they keep everything we know about the game?"

  "Most of it, yeah. There's loads more uncategorized material squirreled away in storage all over campus though. We're working through it as quickly as we can, but it's a never-ending job."

  "Oh, I see." She paused. "Um, I noticed your advertisement seeking help for the Woodsea expedition..."

  "Oh yeah?"

  She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Well, Robbie and I had a talk. He's going to give school a shot - he's doing his orientation now. And I... I want to help out with your expedition."

  We went over her availability. She'd have to come back to town on weekends, then was free to join us after - Monday or Tuesday, travel time permitting.

  "Hey, we'll gladly take any time you're willing to give." I assured her. "We won't be ready to head out for a few more days anyways. Take your time, make sure your brother's all settled in first."

  Lily nodded. "I'll be ready!"

  - Nov. 28 -

  Our expedition set out from Celestia Grand for the tree city deep in the Woodsea! In addition to Geiger, Lily, and me, we had three fresh faces: Slim Slamberly, a wiry guy that wore a brown medic's robe over his casual clothes - he was one of the Protectorate's researchers involved with the Star Marsh clean up, pitching in here to help us with the research. Then for protection and field work, we had another one of the Protectorate regulars - Tumultuous Ted. And then there was Starling, a mercenary from Shake Spear that specialized in fighting high-level mobs.

  And that led us to our first obstacle - how were we even going to get out there? We couldn't get ourselves a wagon, and I wasn't sure a vehicle would fit down into the caves anyway. So what we had to do was divide all the supplies across our inventories. Then we also didn't have enough horses for everyone, so we walked and climbed most of the way.

  By midday, we reached the tree city and took a moment to break there - Geiger couldn't help himself and had to get a fillet of grilled carrotte. For science, of course. I thought they were a little too tough - maybe steamed would be a better fit. Or maybe I'm just picky - Geiger enjoyed it. 'Remarkable umami profile with notes of parsnip and plum!' is what his report said.

  While he was eating, I went around and checked for news regarding the NPCs. No news on the beetle riders, and no word on the man that was attacked by the 'numah'. Might've been pure flavor, or it could have been a breadcrumb for a quest. I wrote down the name of the facility in the plains where they'd sent him to check later.

  After lunch, Lily helped me navigate back to the cave entrance we'd discovered previously. The entrance was nearly invisible unless you knew exactly where to look - a narrow crevice that looked just like another fold in the tree's bark. One by one, we squeezed through.

  The path wound downward for what felt like ages until suddenly, the cavern opened up into the tunnel network. We stopped on a narrow ledge overlooking the subterranean expanse and sea of luminescent mushroom trees.

  "Sweet merciful heavens." breathed Slim, his glasses reflecting the bioluminescent light. "It's even more extensive than your notes suggested."

  Geiger was practically vibrating with excitement. "Look at those roots! I wonder what role the redwoods play in the ecosystem down here."

  "Focus, people." Starling said, her eyes scanning the distant shadows. "Leo, orientation?"

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  I pointed out where the lake, the dark outline of the cannibals' village, and the hidden section of corruption were.

  We descended carefully along the winding path until we reached the cave floor. After scouting the area, we found a defensible position - a bare rock bluff that provided both elevation and a clear view of the corruption zone. With only one vulnerable approach angle, it was ideal for a base camp.

  The next hour was spent organizing our equipment. Chests were positioned along the back wall of our natural platform, tables assembled for research equipment, and tents erected in a loose semi-circle. Geiger rummaged through his inventory, spawning a device that looked like a cross between a barcode scanner and a laser pointer.

  "Watch this!" he said with the glee of a child about to show off a new toy. "Latest innovation from Ethanolics Anonymous - a portable wall deployer!"

  He moved to the exposed side of our camp, pointing the device at the ground and pressing a button. A thin red laser traced a line as he walked, outlining the perimeter of a wall. When he completed the circuit, he pressed another button, and a holographic outline shimmered into existence. Gradually, the outline filled with texture, solidifying into a sturdy wooden wall.

  "Wow," I said, "you could build your own house with one of those!"

  Geiger laughed, checking a display on the device. "Maybe not one - this single wall used half the charge! They're not cheap, either."

  "Maybe once we're high-leveled and there are more materials floating around." I said, admiring our now-protected camp. Without torches to avoid attracting attention, the natural glow of the mushroom forest provided just enough light to see by while keeping us relatively concealed.

  With our base established, we divided into teams for initial reconnaissance. Slim and Starling headed toward the corruption zone - him to collect samples, her to assess the threat level of local monsters. Ted volunteered to guard the camp, while Geiger, Lily, and I set out for the lake.

  We made our way down the sloping cavern floor to the shore. The shoreline was eerily quiet when we arrived, the water glowing faintly with the colorful algae that filled it, topped by the reflection of the constellations of moss on the cavern's ceiling. Lily and I kept glancing at the dark silhouette of the cannibal's fortress in the distance.

  "Alright, who's going down there?" Geiger asked, producing a vial of blue liquid from his pocket. "Water breathing potion. Good for fifteen minutes."

  Lily eyed the water nervously. "I'm not the strongest swimmer."

  "I'll do it." I said, taking the vial. I waded into the shallows, feeling the cool water seep into my boots, then uncorked the potion and downed it in one gulp. It tasted like salty seaweed and went down slimy and chunky.

  The effect was immediate and strange. A tingling sensation rippled across my neck, followed by a sudden inability to breathe air. A breath meter appeared on my HUD, rapidly ticking down.

  I dove forward into the water, and the breathlessness vanished - suddenly I could breathe the water as easily as air, though it wasn't fresh air. The lake water felt thick in my lungs, like jogging through smog. Visibility was poor, only a few meters in any direction through the algae-rich water.

  But there was a beauty to it, too. Bioluminescent plants swayed in the current, casting shifting patterns of light across the lakebed. Small fish darted between rocks in shimmering schools. Occasionally, something larger would lunge from the shadows, sending the smaller fish scattering in explosions like fireworks.

  I swam deeper, searching for anything unusual. No dark glow of corruption, no star-like eyes staring back from the depths. What I did find, scattered among the rocks, were bones - human bones. That got me wondering - with how entities dissolved into dust when they died, where were they coming from, lore-wise? Even meat, that we ate, wasn't harvested out of bodies - it was a separate drop that was then crafted into cooked dishes that were completely separate items. So where'd the bones come from? I was probably overthinking it.

  After thoroughly exploring as much of the lake as I could within my time limit, I felt another ripple across my neck. The potion's timer started flashing a one-minute warning. No caves, no tunnels, no eldritch deep sea monsters. I was honestly relieved not to find anything.

  I kicked upward, breaking the surface just as the potion wore off. I gasped in a breath of cave air, suddenly tasting how stale and dusty it was compared to the lake water.

  "Anything?" Geiger called from shore.

  I shook my head, swimming back to where he and Lily waited. "Looks clean."

  "Hmm." Geiger stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Could be we're overthinking it. If it was a sea creature that got in through an underwater tunnel from the ocean, then the lake would be the epicenter of the corruption. Ah well, that's one theory debunked at least!"

  We trudged back to camp. It was hard to track time that deep underground, but by the time we got there, we were all feeling the fatigue. The others had returned as well - Slim excitedly cataloguing mushroom samples while Starling cleaned purple residue from her sidearm.

  "Find anything interesting?" I asked.

  "The corruption's definitely spreading." Slim replied without looking up from his work. "Slowly, but consistently. And it's changing the local fauna in fascinating ways."

  "We saw a mushroom bear with three heads." Starling added flatly, like that was a normal thing to expect. But we would have time to look into it tomorrow.

  After a quick dinner of ham sandwiches, we crawled into our bedrolls.

  - Nov. 29 -

  The next morning, we huddled around a portable heat generator, eating warmed beans straight from the can.

  "Pass the salt?" Geiger asked, his white beard glowing blue in the ambient light.

  I tossed him the small pouch. "Did anyone sleep well? I kept dreaming the cannibals were sneaking up on us."

  "I put up motion detectors." Ted said. "I'll get a ping if anything gets within fifty yards."

  Slim cleared his throat with a wet, rattling sound that made us all glance at him. He'd laid out a crude map on the ground, illuminated by a glowstick. The paper was covered in meticulous notes, showing a detailed overlay of the corruption's spread throughout this section of the underground forest.

  "So," he began, voice rasping slightly, "I've mapped out the affected area." He paused to cough into his sleeve and pointed to the center of his diagram. "See this barren patch in the center? That's where the corruption seems to originate. There is no clear source like at the Star Marshes, but it all radiates out from here like spokes. The way it moves between the trees almost looks like a mycorrhizal network - the mycelium root web that spans under forests."

  "You think the source could be some kind of fungal entity?" Geiger asked.

  Slim nodded eagerly, then broke into another coughing fit. When he recovered, he continued, "That's my theory! The source in the Star Marsh was theorized to be a colonial organism. And we saw specimens of local wildlife under attack by the substance in a cordyceps-style parasitic relationship, where the host was gradually overtaken and its tissue replaced by the substance."

  "Meaning what exactly?" I asked, scraping the last of my beans from the can.

  "I do not believe the squid was the original form of the organism." Slim said. "That it was an example of a completely overtaken host."

  "Then what's the original?" I asked.

  "Who knows?" Slim's eyes gleamed with excitement. "But if it is like a cordyceps, it's a fungus!"

  "Okay, so how do we test that?" I asked.

  "I would like to dig up one of the seams of corruption near the source. I've earmarked some potential locations!" Slim tapped a spot on his map, then succumbed to another coughing fit.

  After breakfast, we gathered our equipment and headed out into the forest. Slim led us to a clearing that looked like the impact site of a small meteor - a section of bare rocky soil that dipped downward like a crater, maybe 30 yards across. Stemming outward from the center was a spiderweb of brightly glowing purple threads, pulsing with a faint rhythm.

  Slim walked down into the crater and stopped at one of the seams. Tapping it with his heel, he said, "Right here."

  Lily, Ted, and I grabbed picks and shovels while Starling took up a position at the rim of the crater, scanning the surrounding forest with her bow in hand. Geiger knelt near another seam, carefully extracting vials of various colors from his belt.

  "What are those?" I asked.

  "Reactive agents!" Geiger replied. "Acid, base, oxidizer, reducer... I want to see how the corruption responds to different chemical stimuli."

  I nodded and turned back to the task at hand. The digging was brutal - the rocky soil resisted our tools, and the thick tangle of stringy mycelium that wove through it caught on everything like a net. After twenty minutes of sweat and curses, we managed to expose a rope-like structure of corrupted fungal matter. Cutting into it, though, was like getting gum out of hair - and it was made worse by the corruption oozing out of it like blood. It degraded our weapons - a sword was only good for a few swings before it was so chipped and melted that it may as well have been a club.

  Slim poked at the rope with a spear, trying to pierce into it and work the threads apart. "This looks like a part of the native mushrooms' mycelium network - not our intruder's." He coughed into his sleeve. "Perhaps it is simply hijacking the forest's natural network to spread. But where is its access point? There must be something around here!"

  He looked out toward the forest, eyes scanning the horizon before another coughing fit doubled him over.

  Starling pointed across the forest. "Did you investigate that the first time you were here?"

  I squinted in the direction she was pointing. "What?"

  "The hill." she said.

  Then I saw it - or rather, I saw the distinct lack of it. Against the backdrop of bioluminescent mushroom trees was a pitch-black mass - a hole in the bright forest. Similar to the rocky spire of the cannibals' town but with a much more gentle slope.

  "No, we didn't go out this far." I said.

  "I'd like to see why nothing is growing there." Starling said.

  "I would as well!" Slim agreed before a violent coughing fit knocked him to his knees. He gagged, drooling saliva onto the ground.

  Ted rushed over to help him up. "You good?"

  "Yes, well I feel-" Another round of hacking seized Slim before he could finish.

  "Come on, let's get you back to camp. Sit down for a minute." Ted insisted, slinging Slim's arm over his shoulder and guiding him back toward our base.

  I checked the time on my menu. "Seven o'clock - it's getting late. Why don't we all head back for the night?"

  "I'll catch up." Starling said. "I want to look at that hill."

  "Alright, stay safe." I said. "Don't trust the locals!"

  As Starling headed off toward the dark hill, Lily suddenly gasped. "It's 7?! PM?!"

  "Yeah." I confirmed.

  Lily quickly checked her menu. "I was supposed to be back in the Capital to pick up my brother ten minutes ago!"

  "Oh, right, it's Friday. Geez, time's really flying, huh? We originally wanted to get out here on Monday." I said.

  "I've gotta go!" Lily shouted, already frantically typing a message and running toward the ramp to the surface.

  "Enjoy your weekend!" I called after her.

  Geiger and I trudged back to camp, reviewing our ever-growing list of experiments. For every test we ran, every idea we discounted, three more took their place. There was so much more we wanted to investigate, but simply lacked the supplies and equipment to pursue.

  "We're going to need more funding." Geiger sighed as we approached the camp.

  "And stronger tools." I added.

  "And perhaps a hazmat suit for poor Slim." Geiger said.

  It was slow, painstaking work - but then again, if the answers were just sitting there waiting to be found, it wouldn't be much of an investigation, would it?