Just Hanging Around In The Forest

Being trapped, John decided to turn his eyes back to normal. He opened his mouth to begin planning their escape but was cut off by a deep voice, “You are surrounded. Cooperate or we will open fire on you. Slowly remove and drop any weapons you have on your person then put your hands in the air.”

Robin slowly raised his hands. “I don’t have any weapons,” he said loud and clear.

Ellie slowly reached into her knapsack and pulled out her gauntlet, placing it on to the floor in front of her before raising her hands too. “Uh, that’s all I have. Unless you count potions?”

John began to raise his hands but paused. ’Would they be able to tell I have things in my inventory? Better not chance it,’ he thought, willing his inventory open and removing the luminite spears, allowing them to fall to the ground as his hands stayed above his head.

From behind them, the three heard, “What the fuck?” exclaimed quietly.

“Listen, we aren’t here to make any trouble. We just wanted to check out the natural barrier since it’s possible I may have to visit on Saturday as part of a contract,” John explained, trying to keep calm. Being unable to see who they were cornered by caused John to feel uneasy and on edge.

A figure moved into view above them, aiming a black compound crossbow down at them. John didn’t know much about real-world crossbows, but given the long-ranged scope, he assumed the one pointed at him could pack a punch no matter the distance.

The guy wielding the crossbow was essentially the first thing that John would think of when he thought of a hunter. He wore olive-brown combat pants, a matching jacket under a green cloak and a fur-lined ushanka; he had a dark five O’clock shadow and stared intently down at John.

“And exactly what contract would that be?” the guy demanded.

John felt more cornered than he had before. “Uhm, well. I owe someone money and I have to pay it off by working for her, so I might be helping collect ingredients from the natural barrier.”

Robin stepped forward slowly, shifting the guy's focus over to him. “Like he said, we aren’t trying to cause trouble. We just wanted to explore a little and pick some ingredients. I’m… well, I wouldn’t say friend… I’m an acquaintance of Cynthia. She and a good friend of mine dated so I met her a handful of times.”

“Wait, Cynthia?” Ellie questioned. “We know her, right, John! We got intimately acquainted with her.” She smiled broadly. “It’s a shame… uh, Nissa I think her name was? Had to take Mimi and Yatina home, she was hot and it’d have been a hell of a foursome.”

John felt his face begin to flush and spun around to look at Ellie. “Ellie, stop! You don’t have to broadcast that to everyone you know!” John complained.

Just then their attention was brought back to the guy above them as he loudly cleared his throat.

“Oh, right, John, show him the thing,” Ellie commanded.

John’s face scrunched in confusion. “Thing? What thing?”

She sighed. “You know the thing!”

“I really don’t. There are a few things and I don’t know which you’re talking about,” John stressed.

“The thing you showed Cynthia, the one from Hemet,” Ellie explained.

“Oh right,” he muttered, willing his inventory open again to retrieve the mana gem. He looked back up at the guy and addressed him. “So I was given this; hopefully, it might help?”

The gem manifested in John’s hand and he held it up so that the hunter could see it. The guy crouched down in order to get a better look, and after inspecting it for a moment, he stood and looked behind himself.

He whistled loudly and made a hand gesture. Out of view, John could hear more whistles and hear movement going away from their location.

The net lifted up and the guy tossed a rope down. Seeing as how it seemed that they were no longer being interrogated, Ellie picked up her gauntlet and put it on, while John leaned down and put his hand on one of the spears, willing the pile into his inventory once again. Once they were ready, the three used the rope in order to climb out.

Not being on the run, the three saw that they’d run far enough that they were no longer surrounded by Drake Iblon trees anymore; the forest was still dense but the trees looked more familiar and more like the trees on the outside of the barrier.

“Next time you should make sure to ask permission before entering our barrier,” the guy admonished. “And maybe don’t go around blaring out animal scarers, these are active hunting grounds so scaring off the prey isn’t appreciated.”

“Sorry, we didn’t know. I’m kinda new to the Abyss. And in my defence the noise was for good reason, a particularly aggressive badger wouldn’t back away and I didn’t want to hurt it…” John rubbed the back of his neck. “Hey, I know this might be a little late and might seem rude to ask after barging in, but would it be okay for us to continue looking around and maybe collecting a few ingredients from the plant life?”

The guy sighed and scratched his stubble. “I’ll be honest, normally you’d probably be in more trouble than this. You’re just a bunch of kids so we would have gone easy on you anyway, but we’d have been telling you to not let the door hit you on the way out. Seeing that you claim to have a connection to Cynthia, and more impressively you gained the trust of the Hunters of Hemet… we’ll overlook this and treat you as if we’d given permission, just next time make sure you go through the proper channels beforehand.”

The hunter walked over to a log, rested his crossbow against it and sat down, before lighting a cigarette. “Since I’m letting you off the hook, there are some ground rules: Hunting for sport is prohibited; if you kill something, you make use of the entire animal or bring the carcass to someone who can. No fire magic or campfires; the risk of an uncontrolled forest fire would mean that you could cause irreparable damage to the habitats in the barrier.”

The guy stood and paced looking around the trees. “Lastly, this section of the barrier is newly uncovered and we don’t know how long it’s been since the last time it was here. If you see any markings on the trees, you move as quickly and quietly as you can out of the area. Typically there are two reasons for tree markings. Either our hunters in decades or centuries past left them for one reason or another, or a large animal used the tree as a scratching post or to mark territory. Just trust me, and keep your eyes peeled.”

John nodded. “We’ll make sure to stick to those rules. I don’t think we’re going to be staying too much longer anyway; the plan is to take a look at a couple more plants, and explore for maybe half an hour or so.”

The hunter nodded. “Take this,” he said, holding out a feather towards John. “When you are ready to leave, throw this into the air and follow it. It’ll take you to the edge of the barrier so that you can find your way back to Springfield.”

The trio nodded in unison. The hunter slung his crossbow over his shoulder and ran towards a tree, jumping and kicking off it to climb into the one next to it before leaping to a branch of a further tree, and so on until he was out of view.

“Uh… so what was that all about?” John asked, holding a feather between his fingers.

Robin shrugged. “My guess? They’ve planted their flag in this barrier. I’ve never actually been here and it never came up in conversation before. Might be a good idea to finish up what we’re gonna do in here and leave the barrier as soon as possible, that way we won’t get on the hunters' bad sides.” John and Ellie both nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, probably a good idea. So let’s get looking for some mushrooms!” Ellie cheered.

They had gotten so turned around that they were unsure which direction they were going in, nothing seemed familiar, which they hoped was a sign they hadn’t doubled back on themselves while running away. They picked a direction and began walking. John brought his draconic eyes out to make it easier to spot what they were looking for.

Soon after they had begun walking, John felt a spike of panic. “Fuck, shit! Just my luck!” John began running in a diagonal line to the left of them. “I can see a fire up ahead, we need to put it out or we’re gonna get the blame for it.”

Robin and Ellie agreed and followed behind John as he quickly led them in the direction of the source. It was only a short distance until they reached a road, a metre and a half wide and made mostly of dirt and moss with sparse stones embedded in the ground.

On either side of the road were large silvery-coloured mushrooms, all of them roughly fifty to seventy centimetres tall, with caps almost as wide. They seemed evenly spaced and not a single one intruded onto the road.

The source of the fiery-looking light was a lattice-like structure that connected the cap with the stem; the light seemed to dance up and down the lattice making it look like a flickering flame.

Ellie moved closer and the open book of her Observe ability manifested.

False Beacon

(Fungi)

The firefly-like spores that the mushroom rarely produces are used to create luminescent effects in alchemy. A specific humidity, temperature and wind speed is required for this mushroom to produce spores, which often means that their spore production is limited to autumn.

Since the page was lacking in information Ellie flipped to the next.

False Beacon

False beacons are popular with restaurants and those on diets as the mushroom offers no nutritional value or flavour but can be used to make a dish more filling.

Chefs also often use the luminescent netting to heighten the value of a dish with presentation.

The light produced by these mushrooms makes them an extremely attractive alternative to oil lanterns, candles and other light sources, especially in underground settlements where the toxic gasses produced by unnatural light sources can pose a serious threat.

Many travellers have followed the light of the false beacon only to realise their hope was misplaced.

“That’s kind of interesting. I’m not sure if I’ll really be able to use them though. I’m not interested in eating them and they don’t seem to be producing spores right now. Should we follow this path though? Could be interesting to see where it leads,” Ellie asked the other two.

“Sounds good to me. I’m mostly trying to keep you out of trouble. Not that I did a great job of that already.” Robin laughed. “Though, I’m not exactly the most worldly when it comes to the Abyss. I’m basically a shut-in that goes to the Abyssal mall from time to time, while keeping my head mostly down.”

“Hey, some help is more than no help,” John reassured Robin. “And it sounds like a good plan, Ellie.”

The three began walking down the road. “So, why exactly haven’t you explored the Abyss more, Robin?” Ellie asked.

“Let’s just say there’s a reason my godparents adopted me. My mom and dad just don’t want me to end up like my birth parents or sister…” Robin let out an uncomfortable laugh as they all settled into an awkward silence.

The silence persisted for ten or so minutes until the shape of a tower began to come into view. As they got closer they could tell it was old and abandoned. Not only was the wooden structure at the top in pretty bad condition, but there was a rather large hole punched through the middle of the stone tower itself.

“A castle? In the middle of nowhere? Why?” Robin questioned.

“It’s not a castle, it’s like a guard tower or something,” John responded.

Robin rolled his eyes at John. “It’s a fortified structure with battlements, that makes it a castle. Either way, why is it here and can I assume you want to go inside?”

“How am I supposed to know why it’s here? And I think, so long as we’re careful, it should be alright to go in. It has been standing here for a long time, after all; I doubt that us taking a peek will cause the entire thing to come down. I’ve never seen a mediaeval building before, so I’m definitely not gonna pass up a chance to take a look at one,” John said.

Entering the tower, they looked around. Despite its age and the obvious damage, it seemed to actually be in pretty good condition, even the wooden floor seemed to be holding up extremely well without so much as even a creak. Unfortunately, they would be unable to go up into the tower; whatever had damaged the tower had travelled right through and out of the other side, taking out the staircase. The three were happy to spot a stone staircase that went down.

Climbing down the stairs and looking around, they saw a sparse room. It seemed to be a space for storage; though, it seemed that most everything had been ransacked years ago. Crates were busted open and rotting, and a couple of chests had their hinges rust away and their lids hung open. The only things that seemed to have not been taken were one or two swords on a wall rack, though they were rusted beyond use.

Strangely, the room was quite bright, and the reason was obvious: on several pillars were small clusters of purple mushrooms which let out a glowing smoke.

“More glowing mushrooms?” Robin asked.

“It kind of makes sense. The False Beacons were spaced way too evenly to have just grown on the roadside, so that means that whoever built the road cultivated them. So it’s not a stretch they’d be able to get other types of glowing flora,” Ellie reasoned.

“I guess, but why not just use more of those beacon mushrooms?” Robin shot back.

“Because they are pretty big, even the smallest we saw were around forty or so centimetres tall and wide, that’d take up a decent amount of floor space if they would even be able to grow in here. It makes much more sense to grow something that can be like a sconce on the wall,” she explained as she moved closer and summoned her Observe book.

The Last Candle Puffball

(Fungi)

The inner flesh of mature puffballs is toxic, though usually not lethal. Contact with skin causes blisters as well as sensitivity to sunlight. Ingestion will cause respiratory problems as well as stomach ulcers and vomiting.

Younger puffballs when ingested will cause light stomach pains, coughing and vomiting, but skin contact is completely safe.

Identifying a mature or young puffball is usually as easy as looking at the size, a fist-sized puffball is generally a sign of a mature mushroom. To check maturity without a doubt, however, one can look on the inside of the chimney-like opening where it expels its spore cloud. Last Candle Puffballs start life with a deep red colour, and as they grow to maturity this turns to yellow, so it’s a good rule of thumb that the lighter the colour, the more dangerous they are.

An airborne poison can be made from both mature and young puffballs depending on the alchemist's preference for severity.

The spore cloud of this puffball is non-toxic, though can sometimes be seen as a nuisance as it clings to skin and clothing, making them glow ever so slightly. A common use for the spores is to give a potion a light glow; to not cook the luminescent effect out of the spores, they must be mixed in after any heating steps.

The Last Candle Puffballs are extremely easy to cultivate. They can survive with minimal moisture or nutrients, though they do require outside help to spread.

Ellie nodded. “I think I might take a handful of the smaller ones, I should be able to find out how I can grow them myself using one of my books.” Before moving on she turned the page to read the general description.

The Last Candle Puffball

Considered a toxic mushroom, these are safe to handle so long as you only touch the outside skin or the spores.

The Last Candle Puffballs are extremely resilient and need minimal care, this coupled with the glowing spores they puff out makes them perfect as replacements for candles or wall sconces.

Due to the classification as poisonous mushrooms, some are misinformed that the spores are toxic, which discourages some in their use. Though others dislike using them due to the spores clinging to skin and clothing, giving them a light glow.

Another use for these mushrooms is aromatherapy. There are two methods: the first is to drip perfume or essential oils down the chimney opening, this stops spores from being expelled for a short time allowing the scents to be absorbed before continuing to puff out scented spores. The second is to sprinkle dried herbs or wood shavings at the base of the mushrooms, this lasts much longer but the scent is slightly more subtle.

Ellie began picking several mushrooms, being extra careful to only touch the purple exterior, placing them on the aged table in the centre of the room and wrapping them in a burlap cloth before storing them in her knapsack.

“Okay, I think that’s all settled. Do you want to take a short breather before we get ready to tackle your barrier?” she asked John.

“Yeah, that sounds like a plan. We did do a decent amount of walking, so giving my legs a little break before jumping into some fighting would be a good idea,” John said, sitting on one of the stone steps and sighing. Robin sat on the floor, splaying his legs, while Ellie moved over to John, wrapping her arms around him and sitting in his lap.

After a short break, John willed up the barrier menu. He selected the Instant Dungeon section and was prompted with the ability to use a focus for the barrier. “Any ideas for what we could use as a focus for the barrier?” he asked.

Ellie hummed. “I guess we could use one of the plants or mushrooms I’ve collected?”

“Wouldn’t that just give us like a foraging barrier? Or one with mushroom-like creatures? You guys didn’t have a very good experience last time with that, right? How about…” Robin started before reaching into his pocket, rummaging around then pulling out a small amount of lint. “Know what, never mind. I’m not sure, don’t you have something you’ve collected in your inventory?”

“Yeah, I have some stuff in my inventory, but if I used that, I’m sure we’d just get stuff we’ve already seen… Wait, I have an idea,” John said, nudging Ellie and prompting her to stand.

He quickly made his way up the staircase and looked up at the large hole in the tower, before looking on the floor and picking up one of the broken stone bricks which had been dislodged from their original placement in the wall.

It was just a regular stone brick with moss growing on it; he tossed it in the air and caught it before going back downstairs.

“What do you expect to get from that?” Robin asked, looking confused.

“Well, my hope is maybe a tower defence thing, or maybe we’d have to storm a wizard tower or something? If we don’t get something tower-related, maybe we’d get stone golems or something to smash?” John said.

Ellie shrugged. “Sounds good to me, plus it might be interesting just to see what some random object might give us.”

John selected the stone as the focus for the barrier. “Well, only one way to find out,” he said before confirming the barrier creation, causing a familiar rush of vertigo along with a bright light forcing him to scrunch his eyes.

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