Markets and Multiverses (A Serial Transmigration LitRPG)
Chapter 380: Trial (5)

My first step into the cave was filled with the prickling feeling of setting foot into somewhere else. It felt as if I had stepped into a foreign world - one ruled by a creature that I couldn’t see, but that I could sense stirring as I approached. I immediately stopped, and scanned the area. However, I didn’t detect anything unusual. Was I jumping at shadows? Was I imagining some kind of threat where none existed? The only living things I could detect with my soul sight were centipedes, and the closest one was still quite a ways away. The only other living thing I could detect was the giant ball of life force that had led me into this cave to begin with, but that hadn’t moved at all. I squinted at it, and wondered if the giant ball of life force was hostile towards me. Thus far, I had been thinking that the giant ball of life force was something more like a resource - after all, it didn’t look anything like a regular organism’s soul, so I had been assuming that it was artificially made. However, what if that assumption was wrong? What if it was some sort of hive mind monster, or something like that?

I frowned, before I shook my head. I didn’t have room to second guess myself. If I sat around in this trial, I would never make any progress. I needed some kind of powerup to keep pace with this world - I was just too far behind people like Elder Veridian without some extra stats to back me up. The ball of life force might be a threat to me - but I didn’t know enough about it yet. All I knew right now was that my nerves were on edge.

Besides, much of the forest seemed like an endlessly repeating slog of dead trees and cramped spaces filled with nothing. This was the only point of interest I had found so far, and if I kept wandering around I might run into something like the centipede again and die. Besides, the trial was supposed to be at least relatively safe - if I needed to escape, I could ask the trial to return me to the staircase. I just needed to keep my wits about me and be ready to leave if I got in over my head.

I took a few more steps into the cave, and kept my soul-sight activated as I watched the giant orb of life force deeper underground. It didn’t seem to be moving, much to my relief. However, a few more steps later, I finally noticed something else.

There was a second soul, buried inside of the giant one deep in the cave. It was wearing the other soul like a blanket somehow. I frowned. Whatever the second soul was, it was probably the reason why I felt so on edge. I couldn’t even get a good look at it - the soul it was hiding inside of was too bright for me to catch more than glimpses of it from the corner of my eyes.

Now that I knew what to look out for, my tense nerves settled down a bit. If the soul in the center of the cave moved towards me, I would just need to flee the cave. However, as long as it didn’t react to my presence, I would probably be safe to at least explore the cave a little bit.

I kept a wary eye on the souls at the center of the cave as I crept further. It wasn’t long before the cave started to slope downward. It wasn’t steep enough that I wouldn’t be able to climb my way back out, even if I didn’t resort to flying with the help of {Breath of the Storm}. It was still quite steep, though. I would need to slow down if I was fleeing for my life and tried to come back out of the cave through this point.

I eyed the two souls in the center of the caves again, and then sighed, before I started carefully lowering myself deeper into the cave. My Perception stat was at least somewhat capable of compensating for the low light in the cave, but I was definitely starting to have a harder time seeing where I was going. 

After lowering myself further into the cave, I came across my first junction. There were two tunnels that branched out from my current position - one led to the left, and slightly upwards, while the other branched to the right, and was marked by more steep declines in altitude.

I decided to explore the left cave this time. I doubted I would be going anywhere near the core of the cave system in just one exploration, so I would probably end up exploring both directions soon. For now, I just went with the less dangerous looking direction. As I walked, my boots scrabbled for purchase against the stone, and I kept my umbrella ready in case I fell into a pit or something and needed to fly my way out.

Fifteen minutes of careful walking later, I came across my first oddity. I noticed a tiny little soul, buried in a patch of dirt just left of the stone. The soul had a pearl color to it, and it was completely stationary. I pointed my umbrella at it, in case it was some kind of buried enemy - but the pearl-colored soul didn’t move. It sat there, as if it were totally oblivious to my presence. What was I looking at?

I glanced around, and confirmed that there were no centipedes in my immediate vicinity. I could spend a bit of time investigating this odd soul. If it turned out to be an enemy, I would know to extinguish similarly-colored souls in the future. This thing didn’t have very much life force, so I could probably kill it with less than a tenth of my essence pool. It shouldn’t be very strong, so I decided to unearth the odd creature first and see what it was.

I used the sharp tip of my umbrella as an improvised digging tool, and started to shovel chunks of earth away. It only took me a few minutes to start wishing I had a real shovel, but unfortunately, I didn’t have anything that would make digging easier. It took me nearly ten minutes to get through the layers of earth separating me from my target. Of course, part of the reason it took so long was because I kept glancing towards the two souls at the center of the cave - but even so, the process was painstakingly slow and frustrating. When I finally reached my target, I was even more confused.

I had unearthed a mushroom. However, it wasn’t like any other mushroom I had ever seen before. It was rainbow colored, and there was a thin but noticeable current of essence running through it. It also smelled amazing. Even more unusual, the mushroom reminded me of the giant ball of life force in the middle of the cave. I looked at the mushroom, and then compared it to the giant bundle of life force in the center of the cave, before I blinked in surprise.

The giant ball of life force was like a giant patchwork quilt of smaller souls - and each of those souls looked like a severely discolored version of the mushroom I was now holding in my hands. They weren't a perfect match in shape, but they were at least 70% similar to each other.

Maybe the giant soul in the center of the cave was some kind of artificial ball of mushrooms, or something? It was a rather odd notion, but one that I felt made sense, at least for now. If my suspicion was correct, perhaps the mushrooms here had some sort of magical property, and the second soul I could see hovering around the center of the cave was a guardian of some sort.

I glanced around, and confirmed that there were other mushrooms in the distance. Many of them were buried beneath layers of dirt or stone, but the further into the cavern I looked, the more of them there were. A moment later, a new suspicion started to form. There were quite a few centipedes here, and monsters still needed food. Was this their food source? Normally, a few mushrooms couldn’t possibly feed such massive creatures, but these mushrooms obviously had some kind of magical property to them. It also smelled delicious, and I could heal myself if I ended up poisoning myself. The mushrooms might also have some kind of beneficial effect if I ate them. Was it worth eating?

I decided to try it - but I would not do so in the middle of the centipede cave. I didn’t want to potentially spend a bunch of essence healing myself, then get attacked by some centipedes right afterwards. I could still probably win, since these centipedes were much weaker than the first one I had fought, but there was no reason to tempt fate. I retreated from the cave, and much to my own relief, I didn’t run into any centipedes or problems along the way. I returned to the surface, and after some thought, I retreated even further, until I returned to my crappy lean-to shelter. After that, I crammed the mushroom into my mouth and started to chew.

After two bites, I started to feel full. It was as if I had just eaten an entire banquet. I wasn’t just full. I felt stuffed. The taste of the mushroom was wonderful - it tasted like some kind of mixture of nuts and meat, but I could definitely tell how the centipedes were sustaining themselves. I spit most of the mushroom back out. If this thing was filling me up this much after only a bite or two, my stomach would probably explode if I ate the whole thing.

A few minutes after I finished eating the mushroom, I started sweating. It felt like I had suddenly gotten a fever. I could still function, but it definitely felt like I was sick. I tossed a moderate strength renewal at myself, and about ten percent of my alteration essence disappeared. A moment later, the feverish feeling vanished, although the sense of uncomfortable fullness remained. A moment later, I got a new System message.

I blinked in surprise, and checked my Status Screen.

I noticed that four of my stats had improved after eating the mushroom. My Mental stat boosts were all from my runes, and they weren’t much different from the last time I had checked my status screen. However, my Strength, Agility, and Fortitude had all increased by 3 points each, and my Alteration Essence had increased by 2. My Strength had even increased by one grade.

Had the mushroom just given me a permanent boost from eating it?

I grinned.

I had a new strategy for clearing this trial. I just hoped my friends had similarly advantageous resources laying around in their trials.

A moment later, a new thought occurred to me. Just eating about a quarter of one mushroom had given me a small, but noticeable boost.

If that was the case… what would happen if I ate the giant bundle of life essence in the middle of the centipede territory?

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