The strange mushroom was fast enough that the next ten minutes turned into a chase through roots, ferns, and hanging vines. Its orange cap flashed ahead of me again and again, always close enough to make me think I could catch it and always far enough to slip around another trunk before my hand reached it.
“Slow down!” Anja shouted from somewhere behind me.
“I’m trying to catch it!”
“I was talking to you!”
The mushroom vanished around another tree. I followed, shoved through a curtain of vines, and found nothing waiting on the other side. I stopped just as the others caught up. Kevin emerged last, pushing the hanging plants aside with one armored shoulder, while Ambrosia looked past me into the undergrowth.
“Where did it go?” she asked.
“I lost it.”
We spread out and searched the surrounding roots, bushes, and tree hollows, but nothing moved among the ferns, and there was no sign of the orange cap. Only then did I realize how far we had run. The forest around us looked completely different.
The trunks had grown wider with every turn until some were broad enough for several players to stand shoulder to shoulder across them. Exposed roots spread over the forest floor in thick ridges and sloping paths, while moss-covered branches stretched between neighboring trees high overhead. Branches, vines, and enormous shelf fungi overlapped at different heights, creating layer after layer of forest above us, and some of the fungal caps were broad enough for several players to stand on. Pale green shafts of sunlight caught drifting pollen and moisture, flowering vines hung from the branches, and thin curtains of water spilled down the bark into clear pools below.
The sounds of the outer forest had faded beneath dripping water, chirping insects, and bird calls from somewhere high in the canopy. Leaves shifted far above us without any wind reaching the ground, and the enormous trunks occasionally released deep wooden creaks. The air smelled of wet bark, dark soil, crushed leaves, mushroom spores, and sharp tree resin. Every so often, a warm breeze carried something sweet from deeper in the basin before the damp scent of the forest swallowed it again.
Kevin removed his helmet and stared upward. “That was here the whole time?”
Ambrosia turned slowly, trying to take in every level of the forest at once. Her frustration over losing the strange mushroom had already disappeared beneath open excitement. “I’ve never seen trees grow like this in real life.”
Anja stood beside one of the massive roots, gazing at the branches and shelf fungi disappearing through the light above us. “This doesn’t even look real.”
I was still scanning the undergrowth for anything orange. When nothing moved, I opened my minimap and compared our position against the route Zamira had sent me. We had deviated much farther than I expected. Zamira’s route continued almost directly south, while our chase had dragged us deep into the southwest. Our position marker sat so close to the bottom-left corner of my map that, for a moment, I thought we had reached its limit, but the forest continued well beyond the recorded terrain.
“We’re a long way off Zamira’s route,” I said.
Kevin looked over my shoulder at the map. “How far?”
“Far enough that retracing the mushroom’s path would take 20 minutes at least.” I pointed toward the unexplored section ahead. “It kept going in that direction. We can head back and continue south, or we can see where this forest leads.”
Nobody suggested turning around. Ambrosia was already examining a flowering vine wrapped around one of the roots. Anja kept staring into the upper branches, and Kevin looked as though he wanted to know what kind of lumber came from trees that large.
“So we keep going?” I asked.
“Yes,” all three of them answered.
That settled it.
Kevin glanced around the giant forest again. “We’re all seeing this, right?”
“Maybe we inhaled too many mushroom spores,” I said.
“I kind of like it,” Anja said.
Ambrosia straightened. “I was very careful while collecting those.”
I checked my status window. There were no debuff icons, which was either reassuring or exactly what hallucinated UI would want me to think. “We all saw that mushroom stand up and run away too, right? I swear it shouted something.”
“It screamed at you,” Anja said.
Kevin nodded. “Then it stepped directly on a Sulfurblast.”
“It definitely spoke,” Ambrosia added. “I couldn’t understand the language, though.”
That ruled out the possibility that I had imagined the entire encounter alone. “Didn’t you say some mushrooms supposedly give people strange powers?”
“According to legends,” Ambrosia said. “That doesn’t mean eating random mushrooms is a good idea.”
“You think we could talk to it?”
“Maybe, but I need time to research more.”
We continued in the direction the mushroom had disappeared. The route took us farther beneath the enormous trees, where thick roots shaped the ground into uneven rises and shallow valleys, and shelf fungi and overlapping branches formed countless surfaces above us.
Then one of the bright green lumps on a branch moved.
A slime bounced to the edge and peered down at us. It was easily twice the size of the slimes from the tutorial grounds, with a body that spread across the moss like an oversized mound of green gelatin and wobbled each time it shifted its weight. A second slime rose behind it, then three more pulled themselves free from the surrounding moss. Once I knew what to look for, I started seeing them everywhere.
They occupied the branches above us, the exposed roots below, and the broad shelf fungi growing from the trunks. Some bounced between neighboring fungal caps, others traveled along vines thick enough to support their weight, and a few rested in shallow pools of rainwater collected along the branches. Their name tags all displayed the same level.
[Lv10. Forest Slime]
Anja slowly lowered the hand she had raised toward the nearest one. “Those are slimes?”
“Technically,” I said.
Kevin looked up at the dozens of green bodies scattered throughout the trees. “They got bigger.”
“And stronger,” Ambrosia added. “The ones in the tutorial grounds were much smaller.”
The nearest slime compressed itself against the branch, and its body stretched forward.
“Move!”
The four of us stepped back as it dropped from above and struck the ground with a wet slap. Its body flattened across the roots, spreading nearly wide enough to reach both of my boots, then pulled itself back into a trembling sphere. Several more slimes turned toward us from the branches and fungal caps overhead.
The forest had been crowded the entire time. We had mistaken most of its inhabitants for part of the scenery.
The slime lunged. I caught it with my shield, though the impact pushed me backward across the damp soil. Its gelatinous body wrapped around the shield’s edges before sliding away, and Kevin stepped forward with his hammer already swinging. The head sank halfway into the slime with a heavy splash, spraying green gel across the surrounding roots as the creature collapsed around the weapon.
I almost thought he had killed it, until the slime pulled itself back together and a darker shape shifted inside its body.
“The core!” I shouted. “Aim for the core!”
Anja released an arrow. The shot entered the slime cleanly, slowed inside the thick gel, and struck the exposed core. A crack spread across its surface as the slime shuddered and its remaining HP dropped into red. Then the body began pinching inward through the center.
“Don’t let it divide!”
Kevin yanked his hammer free and struck again. The damaged core shattered before the body could separate, and the slime collapsed into a motionless puddle. Something landed behind us, and I turned as another slime dropped from a lower branch. Ambrosia swung the thick end of her staff into its body, knocking it away from Anja before it could wrap around her legs, and Anja jumped back before firing into it at close range.
Above us, more green bodies began moving. They slid from tree hollows, emerged from pools collected between the branches, and bounced down from one shelf fungus to another. Each impact sent wet slaps echoing through the forest.
“More are coming!” Ambrosia warned.
Three landed around Kevin. He drove the head of his hammer into the nearest one, crushing its body against a root, but the second struck his side before he could recover. It wrapped around his armored leg and pulled him off balance. I rushed forward and stabbed with my dagger, forcing the slime to release him and recoil just as an arrow struck the core.
“Thanks,” Kevin said.
Another slime lunged from my left. I blocked it, but the impact forced my shield against my chest, and green gel climbed over the upper edge toward my face. Ambrosia drove the pointed end of her staff through the slime’s body, struck its core, and forced the creature away from me.
“Your stick works,” I said.
“I know!”
Kevin smashed the core before it could recover. More slimes dropped around us. We destroyed two quickly, but a third survived long enough to begin Slime Division. Its body narrowed through the center, stretching into two connected masses, and Anja fired at the exposed core. Her arrow struck one side and knocked it loose.
The slime split. Two smaller bodies bounced away from each other, each carrying a fragment of the original core.
“It takes some practice,” Kevin said.
The smaller slimes launched themselves at him from opposite directions. He knocked one aside with the shaft of his hammer while I intercepted the second with my shield. Ambrosia stabbed through the softer body and pinned its core against the ground long enough for Anja to finish it, but the other fragment escaped beneath a root. Three more large slimes dropped in its place.
The branches above us were filling with green. Every hollow seemed to contain another slime, and they bounced downward in groups, using the shelf fungi and thick vines to descend from the upper forest.
“We can’t stay here,” I said.
The route behind us had already filled with slimes. More were landing between the roots ahead, though the group there was still smaller. I pointed toward the opening. “Kevin, clear a path. I’ll cover you.”
Kevin tightened both hands around his hammer and charged. The first slime leaped toward him, and he swung upward, launching it off the path. The creature struck a tree trunk and burst across the bark before slowly beginning to reform. I followed close behind and blocked another slime as it dropped from a branch. Its body spread across my shield, but I kept moving and drove it sideways into a root.
“Go!” I shouted.
Anja and Ambrosia ran past us. Kevin struck a second slime hard enough to expose its core, and Anja turned while moving to fire over his shoulder, shattering it before the creature could divide. A third blocked the narrow gap between two roots. Kevin lowered his shoulder and drove the haft of his hammer through its body while I pushed beside him with my shield, forcing the slime apart long enough for us to break through.
The larger slimes followed, bouncing over roots and dropping from the branches behind us. Their size made every landing powerful, though it also made them slower than the smaller slimes from the tutorial grounds. The distance between us gradually widened as we crossed a shallow stream, climbed over an exposed root, and squeezed through a gap between two massive trunks. The slimes continued following until the path narrowed beneath a wall of hanging vines. One attempted to jump through and became tangled, and the rest piled into it.
We kept running until the wet impacts faded behind us. I finally stopped beside a broad tree trunk and leaned against it, trying to catch my breath, while Kevin rested both hands on the end of his hammer.
“I thought slimes were supposed to be beginner monsters,” he said.
“Those probably are beginner monsters here,” Anja said.
Ambrosia looked back through the vines. “At least they didn’t follow us.”
A flash of orange appeared farther ahead. The strange mushroom was peeking around the side of a tree, its beady eyes meeting mine.
“Guys,” I said, pointing. “It’s over there.”
The mushroom vanished behind the trunk. I pushed away from the tree and ran after it.
“Again?” Kevin called.
The others followed anyway.
I chased the orange cap through the ferns and shoved past another curtain of hanging vines. It flashed between the roots ahead, moving far faster than its stubby legs should have allowed, but this time, I was gaining on it. The strange mushroom raced toward a thick root stretched across the forest floor. The root stood taller than its entire body and ran between two enormous trunks, leaving no opening beneath it.
The mushroom kept running and shouted something in the same frantic language as before.
The ground trembled beneath my boots. With a deep wooden groan, the root tore itself free from the soil. Dirt and loose moss spilled from its bark as the center bent upward, forming a tall arch over the path. Smaller roots twisted around its sides, and hanging vines pulled themselves across the bark, weaving between clusters of glowing fungi until a gateway stood where the barrier had been.
Golden light filled the opening.
The strange mushroom passed beneath the arch without slowing. Its orange cap bobbed once against the glow before it disappeared through the portal. I reached the entrance a few seconds later and stopped.
A narrow moss-covered path continued beyond the arch, winding between giant trunks before climbing deeper into the forest. Warm light filtered through the trees on the other side, catching drifting spores and moisture in the air. Then I noticed the shapes higher up.
Buildings covered the distant trunks.
At first, I mistook them for enormous growths clinging to the bark. Then I saw the doors and windows. Dozens of rounded houses sat in the forks of massive branches or protruded from the sides of the trees. Their pale walls curved like hollow gourds, with overlapping wooden roofs darkened by rain and tangled in vines. Some looked barely large enough for a single room, while others rose several stories, their narrow arched windows glowing from within.
Thick branches and enormous shelf fungi supported many of the buildings. Wooden walkways wrapped around the trunks, rope bridges crossed the gaps between neighboring trees, ladders connected different heights, and pulley lines carried hanging baskets between the upper levels. The village continued farther upward than I could follow. Whenever I thought I had found the highest roof, another appeared through the leaves above it.
One building had a wide metal funnel mounted on its roof. Pipes ran from it into a glass tank filled with clear water, and thin trails of smoke curled from several chimneys before disappearing between the branches.
The others caught up behind me and fell silent. Anja stepped beside me and stared toward the houses.
“What is this place?” she whispered. “It looks so peaceful.”
The strange mushroom raced across one of the distant walkways and disappeared through a tiny door.
Kevin stared up at the structures. “Whoa. What did we find?”
Ambrosia gazed at the houses scattered across the enormous trunks. “This is amazing…”
I opened my minimap and put down a pin. “Guys,” I said. “I think we just found a hidden map.”
