Anja studied the glowing archway. “This isn’t a dungeon gate, right?”

“Doesn’t look like one,” I said.

“Should we wait for someone to come out?” Ambrosia asked.

Kevin glanced at the village in the distance, then checked his inventory. “We’re getting low on supplies after everything we fought today.”

I stepped closer to the portal and reached toward the golden light. My fingers stopped against an invisible surface. It felt like pressing against solid glass. I pushed harder, but my hand would not pass through, and a red notification appeared in front of me.

[Access Denied]

[Required Skill: Myconese Lv. 20]

Before I could examine it further, the golden light vanished. The enormous root forming the arch released a deep wooden groan and began lowering toward the forest floor. Smaller roots untangled from its sides, the glowing fungi dimmed, and the hanging vines settled back into place. Within moments, the portal had returned to the thick root we had chased the mushroom toward.

“What did you do, Cloud?” Ambrosia asked.

Kevin stared at the root. “Did you break it?”

“The portal says we need a skill called Myconese at Level 20.”

Anja looked between me and the root. “What’s Myconese?”

“My guess is a language skill for communicating with mushrooms.” I looked at Ambrosia. “You want to jump in on this?”

She continued staring at the place where the portal had been. “One of the books I read mentioned unconfirmed accounts of Sulfurblast spores allowing people to communicate with mushrooms.”

Kevin raised an eyebrow. “So we just inhale the spores until we understand them?”

“That would be a terrible idea,” Ambrosia said. “Sulfurblast spores are poisonous, and exposure to the spores alone probably wouldn’t be enough.”

“We eat the whole mushroom, then,” I said.

Anja stared at me. “She just said it was poisonous.”

“How poisonous are we talking? We have potions.”

Ambrosia finally turned away from the root. “If you eat an entire Sulfurblast, your next contribution to our research will most likely be a tombstone.”

“So that method needs work.”

“We can research it back in the city,” she said. “We’ve been fighting since we entered the basin, our supplies are running low, and we still have to get back.”

Kevin rested his hammer against one shoulder. “Bro, I know you want inside, but the village will still be here tomorrow. It’s getting late.”

“I’m hungry,” Ambrosia added. “I need dinner, Cloud.”

“Fine. We’ll come back prepared.”

I opened my minimap and placed a marker where the portal was. Even if the portal remained hidden, we would be able to find the location again. Then I checked the clock on my portable UI.

[21:07]

I stared at it. “What?”

Everyone looked at me.

“It’s nine o’clock.”

Kevin immediately opened his own clock. “No way. It’s still bright out.”

The giant forest remained filled with pale green sunlight. Golden beams passed between the upper branches, and the air looked closer to midday than evening.

“I was going to mention that earlier,” Anja said. “The light hasn’t changed since we arrived here.”

Kevin looked up through the layers of branches. “There was a lot less sunlight in the forest before we chased the mushroom.”

“This region must have its own daylight cycle,” I said. “Either that, or the light coming through the canopy isn’t natural.”

Anja checked the time again. “We should head back. I have to log off soon.”

Nobody objected. I turned toward the route recorded on my minimap and said, “Stay together. We’ll follow our path back until we reconnect with Zamira’s route.”

We retraced our movements through the giant forest. The Level 10 slimes still occupied the upper branches and shelf fungi, though most had settled into clusters around the pools and tree hollows. We kept to the edge of their territory and avoided every group we could.

That worked until a slime dropped directly into the narrow passage between two roots. It landed with a wet slap and spread across the path, but Kevin stepped forward before it could reform. His hammer struck the center of its body and forced the darker core toward the surface. Anja’s arrow followed immediately, shattering the core before the slime could begin dividing.

“Keep moving,” I said.

Two more dropped behind us. I caught the first against my shield and pushed it into the side of a root, while Ambrosia drove the pointed end of her staff into its body to buy enough time for me to pull away. We left it alive and continued running. The second slime bounced after us, but its larger body moved more slowly than the ones from the tutorial grounds. Each jump sent it high into the air, followed by a heavy landing that gave us several seconds to widen the distance.

More slimes began descending from the branches, so we stayed on the route instead of stopping to fight. Kevin knocked one aside with the shaft of his hammer, and Ambrosia used her staff to redirect anything that landed too close. By the time the giant trunks began thinning, the slimes had fallen far behind us.

The change in light came almost immediately. We crossed between two trees and stepped out of the bright giant forest into darkness.

The familiar section of Viridian Basin had become nearly pitch-black. Only a faint strip of moonlight reached through the ordinary canopy, barely enough to outline the nearest trunks. Ambrosia lit a torch, and Anja took out one of the flashlights we had purchased at the general store. The two beams gave us enough light to follow the trail, though everything beyond them remained hidden.

My Night Vision skill came online. The forest emerged in muted shades of gray. Roots and trees became easier to distinguish, while the darkness between them remained thick enough to hide anything standing farther away.

Kevin took the lead. His armor and hammer made him the best person to absorb the first attack if something blocked the trail. Ambrosia and Anja walked behind him, keeping the torch and flashlight directed ahead, while I took the rear.

For the first few minutes, all I heard were our footsteps, Kevin’s armor, and the insects calling from the darkness. Then something moved behind us. Leaves shifted somewhere beyond the range of the torch. I turned, but the sound stopped.

We resumed walking, and a few moments later, another branch bent beneath something heavy.

Whatever followed us only moved while we moved.

“This part of the forest is much creepier than last time,” Ambrosia said.

“Watch for spiders,” I said.

Kevin glanced over his shoulder. “Spiders like the elite one you fought out here?”

He sounded more excited than concerned.

“I need some elite spider materials.”

“Careful,” I said. “You might get your wish.”

“We gained a lot of XP today,” Anja said. “We should be able to handle one together.”

“Probably. Kevin, since you’re so interested in spiders, maybe watch your back.”

He started to turn. “What’s behind me?”

“Keep walking.”

Kevin faced forward again, and Ambrosia looked over her shoulder at me. “What did you see?”

“Everybody stay calm. Something large has been following us.”

Ambrosia nearly stopped. “What?”

“Keep moving,” I whispered. “It’s maintaining its distance.”

Anja quickly swept her flashlight behind us. The beam passed over roots, ferns, and empty trees. “I don’t see anything.”

“Neither do I. Night Vision only picked up a vague outline once. I’ve mostly been tracking it by sound.”

“Do you think it’s dangerous?” Ambrosia asked.

“It’s following four armed players through a dark forest. I doubt it wants directions.”

Kevin tightened his grip on the hammer. “Why haven’t we fought it?”

“Because I can barely see it, and I’m not picking a fight with something that hasn’t attacked us.”

Ambrosia checked her minimap. “We’re getting close to the place where we fought the Wolffang Spider.”

“I know.”

The movements continued behind us. Sometimes they came from the left. A few minutes later, I heard them from the right. Whatever followed us could move through the forest without entering the light.

“Keep your eyes open,” I said. “We’re close to the outer trail. We might get through without fighting anything.”

We continued for another ten minutes. The torchlight passed over a familiar patch of exposed roots.

A shadow jumped from the undergrowth.

“Left!”

The creature struck the middle of our formation before anyone could react. Ambrosia and Anja were thrown across the trail, and the torch bounced from Ambrosia’s hand before rolling through the leaves, sending shadows spinning across the trees.

I raised my shield as eight thick legs spread over the path. A small silver crown appeared beside the creature’s name tag.

[Lv. 15 Wolffang Spider]

The spider was larger than the one Ambrosia and I had fought before. Coarse pale hair covered the dark plates of its body, and its hooked feet dug into the roots as it lowered itself for another attack.

Kevin turned and brought his hammer down. The spider skittered sideways, and his hammer struck the ground hard enough to split a root. “That thing is fast!”

The spider lunged at him. Kevin raised the haft of his hammer and caught both front legs against it. The impact pushed him backward, but his armor held. I moved to his side and slashed at the joint beneath one of the raised legs. The fang dagger pierced the softer tissue, the spider recoiled, and Anja’s first arrow struck its body before it could retreat.

Ambrosia recovered the torch and held it toward the spider’s face. The reflected flame burned across its eight eyes, and the spider drew back.

“It still hates fire!” she shouted.

“Keep the light on its head!”

Kevin swung again. The hammer clipped the edge of its abdomen, tearing away a patch of pale hair and cracking one of the dark plates. The strike dealt heavy damage, though the spider’s speed made landing a clean hit difficult.

It circled us with its body close to the ground. Kevin and I turned with it, keeping ourselves between the spider and the others. Ambrosia moved left with the torch, while Anja circled right with another arrow ready.

The spider feinted toward me, then rushed Kevin. He swung, but it changed direction before the hammer reached it. One hooked leg scraped across his breastplate with a harsh metallic screech, and Kevin caught another against the shaft of his hammer before forcing it away. Anja fired into the exposed underside, and the arrow sank deep enough to make the spider jerk sideways. Ambrosia lunged at one of its rear legs with the pointed end of her staff, but the tip missed, and she immediately backed out of reach before the leg could strike back.

Its HP fell steadily. The fight remained under control as long as Kevin and I held its attention. Whenever the spider faced us, Ambrosia and Anja attacked from behind. When it turned toward them, we struck its legs and forced it back.

Kevin’s hammer dealt the most damage whenever it connected, but most of his full swings missed. The spider moved too quickly between the roots, slipping aside right before every heavy strike. Kevin adjusted by shortening his swings and using the hammerhead to block whenever it lunged. I stayed close, cutting into the same two leg joints until one began dragging behind it.

The spider’s health dropped below half, and its movements changed. It stopped circling and planted its front legs against the ground. Its abdomen rose high behind it.

The spider twisted with sudden force and slammed its heavy abdomen sideways.

“Ambrosia!”

She tried to jump back, but the abdomen struck her across the body and launched her into the base of a tree. Her health bar plunged from yellow into red, and the torch fell beside her.

The spider turned and rushed after her before she could rise.

I crossed the distance and threw myself between them. Its front legs crashed against my shield, and the impact drove me down onto one knee. The spider pressed forward, fangs scraping over the upper edge as I struggled to keep them away from my face.

“Get it off me!”

Kevin’s hammer struck the side of its body. The spider rolled away and hit the ground hard, and Anja fired twice. One arrow bounced from its carapace, while the other buried itself beside an eye.

Ambrosia dragged herself upright and recovered the torch. Her HP remained in red, but she raised the flame toward the spider’s face, and it recoiled again.

“Ambrosia, stay back!” I said.

“I am back!”

Kevin and I advanced together. The spider tried to circle, but its damaged leg slowed it. I lunged first, driving my dagger toward the joint of its front leg, and the spider dodged away from me.

Straight into Kevin’s swing.

His hammer crashed into the cracked plate on its abdomen. The fracture spread, dark fluid leaked between the broken sections, and the spider’s health dropped into red. It backed away, legs scraping frantically across the roots.

Anja’s next arrow struck one eye.

The spider stumbled.

Kevin raised his hammer over one shoulder. “Got you.”

Something huge and pink flashed past us. It struck the Wolffang Spider with a wet smack, then immediately snapped back, dragging the entire spider through the air and into the darkness before any of us could react.

Kevin’s hammer struck the empty ground.

The four of us stared at the place where the spider had been.

“What just happened?!”