Days Remaining: 599

  Kojo and I crested the next hill, the morning sun veiled by thick, grey clouds. The air was wet and smelled of rot, the mushroom forest shrouded in fog. It was just a few miles away now, and I could see the exact point where the Red Hills ended and it began. It looked like a wide V with the sand meeting Outer Verdia on one side and the mushroom forest on the other.

  It did not get its name for nothing.

  Giant red, green, and yellow mushrooms dominated the sky. They were the size of multi-story apartment buildings and just as wide. Some were coated in lime green moss, others had strange brown pustules growing from them. None appeared to be healthy. It was like they were slowly but surely decaying. Whole thing screamed “This is a poison filled zone. Enter at your own risk.”

  “Be on guard,” Kojo whispered. “They are close.”

  The massive field before the forest was different than other areas of the Red Hills. For one, it was almost completely flat and without trees. In the tree’s place were giant slabs of grey stone. I thought maybe they were rocks at first, but they looked carved, maybe part of a building. Each stone also sat inside a small crater, like they’d fallen from high above. Glancing at the dark sky, I thought for a moment I spotted something floating high above the clouds.

  Riu hung back as me and Kojo slowly advanced. The plan was for the kid to only engage if we needed him. Certainly not the best or safest plan. If these “afflicted” were half as dangerous as Kojo made them out to be, an extra set of hands was probably needed right away. But Riu still seemed shaken up about the fact these had once been people. I hardly minded. Whether that made me a monster or not was for someone else to decide.

  Kojo had convinced Riu to part with his enchanted sword, and he had the thing out and at the ready. He only had three bolts left for his crossbow and lost his axe when he’d been forced to flee the forest. Riu had parted with his prize easily when Kojo requested it, but I could tell the kid was a little more afraid since he’d have to rely on his daggers if something got close.

  There was a splash of dark red against one of the stones, and Kojo pointed at it, whispering. “That is where one of them grabbed me. I shot the man through the head, but he did not die.”

  Wonderful. “How tough are these things?”

  “Very,” he replied. “But they are turning into plant creatures. Your fire should make quick work of them.”

  We’d each discussed our spells and skills before heading out. Riu had his teleport, but he had a second skill I didn’t know about. It helped him pick locks, so it wasn’t useful for now, but could come in handy later. Kojo only had one skill since he, like most of the others on the continent, hadn’t received an extra skill by the people he referred to as the “Game Masters.” His one skill was tier E and it momentarily increased his critical hit chance with a single ranged attack. Since this wasn’t a video game, I had no idea how a “critical hit” would even function, but according to him it was fairly powerful and had no cooldown. He’d dropped most of his bolts somewhere around the stones, so our secondary objective was to find them.

  He’d asked me about my leg, wondering if it was a new injury or an old one. I told him I’d hurt it in an accident several years ago and then dropped the subject. No one needed to hear about what really happened that night on the river.

  There was a wet squelch around the next corner, and I raised my staff high, a fireball slowly forming above the white crystal at the tip. Each time I cast a spell, the mana needed to form it would pulse through my chest and down my arm near instantly. But while I stayed up keeping one eye on Kojo, I forced the mana to flow through my body less quickly. It was extremely painful, but after a few hours I managed to slow it at least a little bit. Hopefully it would be enough to keep me from damaging myself.

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  The stones here were tall and packed tightly together, making the path forward increasingly narrow. More blood was on the ground, the stains dark against the already crimson sand. We continued for a few minutes, the wet squelching growing closer. Then we rounded the corner.

  Two men were bent over a woman on the ground, their faces buried in her guts. They both looked up at us, half their faces covered in moss, small mushrooms growing from where their eyes used to be.

  “Shoot,” Kojo whispered.

  I readied to fire, then recognized the poor bastards. They were those three teens from the plane crash. That girl on the ground had been one guy’s sister. She didn’t have any of the growths on her, her torn body showing no signs of the infection. Meaning, her brother had probably killed her. I bet she’d tried staying with him even as he turned.

  “You motherfuckers,” I said, glancing at the sky. Then I shot them.

  The explosion funneled some of the fire right at us, but we were far enough away that it just barely didn’t reach. I hit one of them directly and knocked him down, but the other was stumbling towards us, whole body blazing.

  Kojo rushed forward and chopped the groaning kid’s head off. It rolled to the ground, but the body took two more steps before falling over. The other sat up about halfway, then fell to the ground in a smoldering heap.

  The smell was truly terrible.

  “Are you alright?” Kojo asked as he stepped away from his kill.

  I hadn’t realized how hard I’d been squeezing my staff. “I’m fine,” I said, tearing my eyes away from the girl’s burning corpse. “Let’s go a different way.”

  We found another group of them before long. These were even more mutated, almost their entire bodies covered in moss and mushrooms. One had bloody vines twitching through his chest. They went down after a fireball and some cleanup by Kojo.

  Notice: You’ve gained a level!

  Notice: You’ve learned a new spell!

  “You should see to that before we continue,” Kojo said.

  I quickly placed two points into arcane, bringing it to twenty-one, then went ahead and put a single point into Constitution. This brought the attribute to seven, but I figured I needed to toss it the occasional point to avoid being potentially one shot by something down the line. If this was like other RPG systems, levels would start to come slower soon. By the time I needed a higher constitution, it would be too late to correct it.

  I breathed a sigh of relief as I investigated my new spell.

  Zap

  Spell Tier: D

  MP Cost: 8

  Damage Type: Magical/Energy

  Description: This spell fires a bolt of electrical energy at your target. This bolt can be charged with additional mana to increase both its range and damage.

  It was a simple damage spell, but it was one I could use at close range. And I wonder how much mana I can pump into it? I’d have to be careful, but this was something I had to test out.

  Riu appeared behind us, a hand over his nose and mouth in a futile attempt to block out the smell of burning flesh.

  “There are a lot,” he said, nodding to one of the many paths through the rocks. “Seven or eight.”

  “It might be where I lost my bolts,” Kojo said, walking onward.

  “Riu,” I said, feeling a tiny bit apprehensive over what I was about to ask him. “I want you to check their inventories after we kill them. Some of them might have something useful, especially those three from the plane.”

  His eyes went wide at the request, but he knew someone had to do it.

  “Okay,” he said, voice sounding almost distant. Then he crept along one of the stones, then disappeared around the corner.

  “My map is warning me this area’s threat level has increased,” Kojo said, peeking around a stone. “There may be more advanced forms this way.”

  I nodded, but so long as I got one good fireball off, we would be fine.

  The path forward widened until we met with a circular area ringed by stones. There was an opening on the other end that looked like it led right into the mushroom forest. Problem was the little clearing had about ten of the fungal bastards waiting for us.

  Nine were like the two we encountered earlier, but one in the middle was different. It was bigger, with dozens of tentacles sprouting from its chest, stomach, and back. The flesh over its hands had melted away, revealing long, jagged roots that looked like claws.

  “Guess you were right,” I whispered. “They do keep getting worse.”

  Kojo wiped sweat from his eyes, then slung the crossbow off his back. “I will shoot the big one, but I think you should hit it with a fireball as well. I’ve heard they are incredibly fast.”

  The other nine were lumbering around and groaning like a pack of zombies. But the big one just stood there, as motionless as the giant mushrooms in the distance.

  “On three?” I asked, receiving a quick nod in response. “Alright, get ready.”

  Kojo took up a position on the right while I took up one on the left. Then I began the count, a fireball swirling to life over my staff. His body flashed amber, probably from activating his critical hit skill.

  Then we both shot.