Chapter 124 – Obstacle

“Don't know when I last deserved a level that much,” John grumbled, putting all of his new points into Endurance. “That was fucked up.” He looked up and found the serene sight of the endless green expanse in front of him. After the fungal forest, it was doubly welcome.

Magoi was nowhere to be seen, although movement inside his copy of the house indicated that he was still around. John just hoped he hadn’t gotten sick or something like that, if Magoi was unable to uphold the barrier, John would be in deep trouble. However, the guy was also seriously weird so maybe he was just having some eccentrical stroke? Who could say.

John decided to check the loot basin. Not with a lot of hope, after all the only thing he had cleared was that Forest Elemental dungeon once. It had given him the last level and more than half of the current one. Beyond that, it didn’t look that impressive in terms of rewards. To defeat the Sporehost reliably, it always had to do that tongue attack. It was probably better to find a boss that was easier to exploit and grind.

He looked into the basin and, much to his surprise, found two items there. The same item two times, the only one that was on every monster’s Loottable, a needled orb of bright red colour that looked a bit like an urchin. The needles were extremely thick and dull so John picked it up with little hesitation.

“The fuck is a NATE?” John, still somewhat agitated, wanted to know. He looked at his companions, he did not expect much from Aclysia, all her knowledge came either from him or the internet, but maybe the elementals had an idea. For this occasion, he brought back Gnome as well. The little girl was completely restored, probably due to the level up he had had.

The elemental girls exchanged information for a bit before Gnome stepped forth and spoke, “Uhm, no idea, John.”

So that remained a mystery. Now for the more interesting question though. Should he do it? If the last Bonus Dungeon was anything to go by they were extremely worth it. A boss sounded a bit harder than a mini game though. “Should we do it?” he put it out for vote again. With level 49 he was almost at the recommended level so that would not be the problem (or at least he thought so).

Aclysia withheld her vote. “I feel this might be worthwhile but am unsure about the safety of it, master,” she explained. Salamander and Sylph raised their hands in unison, “Let’s burn stuff!” “I kinda want a challenge but I also don’t want to break a nail…hihihi, that sounded so girly, I don’t even have nails, or do I? What are my hands? What is the meaning of existence?! Oh, pretty grass!”

 Undine once again just kept her serenity and did not vote either way while Gnome voted against this time, “We should prepare first.”

So, two in favour, two undecided and one against. It was up to John. “Let’s go then,” he decided. His rationale was quite simple: He had two and if they failed he could always retry another day. Although he did not look forward to a near-death experience so trying to win was best.

He stored the two Infested Spores in his inventory and went back into the gate. Then, like with the Dog Mini Game, he was presented with a window asking him whether or not he wanted to enter the Bonus Level or access the normal Spawn Table. He chose the former and found himself inside the forest once more.

The Infested Spore dashed from his inventory and burrowed itself straight into the ground. John watched the ground tremble for a bit then calm down, although the place where the spore burrowed itself was suspiciously caved in.

Only two familiars? Well that was not good. If he was to fight some kind of mushroom monster it should be Salamander for the fire effectiveness (Hopefully, after all the boss could have high resistance like the Sporehost) and Aclysia because she was still the best combat member of the party. There was an argument to be made for Sylph as well. Generally, for now, Salamander was more useful in combat situations. “I will see you all in a bit,” John declared and the remaining elementals nodded, in agreement with his decision.

A window popped up asking for his selection and then the unchosen elemental girls vanished. A moment later an arm broke from the depression in the forest floor. It was definitely a humanoid, that much John could make out just by the arm. Sure, it had four fingers instead of five and was of a crude, almost spongey, brown texture, but the long limb was definitely human in proportions. A head quickly popped up as well. He had a long face, earless, with a wide nose and pale blue dots as his eyes, his head crowned by a large mushroom cap of red colour with white dots. He looked at John for a moment, John looked back, both continued staring. “Wow, can you look any dumber?” the mushroom-man suddenly asked and nonchalantly unburrowed the rest of his long-limbed body. He brushed the dirt off his brown body and, once he got somewhat clean, put his hands on hips. “Hi, I am Nateward.”

“Or, actually, you cannot face Nateward because that would kill you, I am a spore of Nateward. Pleased to meet you,” The mushroom-man continued as he looked around, “So, I am semi-sure I am here to fight you.”

John was not sure what to answer, this whole situation was a lot weirder than he had anticipated. “Well,” he started, “I can only get out of here if I kill you, so yeah.”

“We are going to burn your face, shitake man!” Salamander announced in a way less friendly tone. Aclysia kept the Sword of Glory at the ready.

“Pff, you? Kill me? Kiddo, all I need to defeat you is some candle-wax,” Nateward told Salamander and ignored her following complaints, instead turning to Aclysia, “And what is up with you? Some kind of Exhibitionism Fetish? Your taste in clothing is pretty shit.”

Aclysia gripped her weapon stronger, “Master gave me this dress.”

“Your master being that spaghetti looking guy?” the mushroom-man asked and pointed at John with his cap.

“HEY!” John cried out and looked down on himself, personally he thought he had gotten relatively well-built since raising his Strength. Sure, he wasn’t the most impressive of frames, but at least he had a visible six-pack now!

“Oh, puh-lease, look at this,” Nateward said and posed. “You may not like it, but this is what the ideal male body looks like. Speaking of peak performance.” He jumped at John, “Let us get this party started!” he exclaimed and tried to karate chop the Gamer’s head.

“I AM GOING TO FRY YOU!” Salamander screamed, incredibly angry and got in between the two of them. John instinctively gave her his mana, his Mana Protection shield had not yet restored from the earlier boss fight so he’d rather use his mana for offensive action instead of getting it vaporized again by some form of attack.

Salamander’s fire burst outwards and engulfed Nateward. The monster shouted and was thrown backwards. After landing, he skipped further back, his front now charred black. The attempt at getting away had not been made with Aclysia in mind. The Artificial Guardian rushed in and swiftly chopped off one leg.

“Ow, hey, that hurts,” he complained and, with extreme nimbleness, executed a double backflip on one leg before jumping up high and grabbing a tree branch. “Is it what I said about your dress? Sorry, I just think you would look better without it!” Nateward just kept on speaking. He extended his hand to the left and touched the tree's trunk. “I am sure nobody will disagree with me,” he retracted his hand just a moment later. John watched with a mixture of horror and fascination as the tree started dissolving into little particles that flew towards Natewards stump leg, restoring it. It didn’t even take long and so the mushroom-man jumped back on the ground, even as his charred front half healed as the tree continued dissolving. “Pretty impressive, huh? Conshruume, I call it!”

That was a terrible pun, who came up with something like that? However, that wasn’t the problem here. John could see the spores on the tree, they had stopped working now that their host was completely restored and simply laid there as a red hue over the tree's surface. Nateward started running, touching two more trees before engaging in combat with Aclysia again. A small exchange of blows followed, Nateward ducked under Aclysia’s first strike, side-stepped the second and then hit her chest with his palm.

“Petite and still bouncy!” he said with glee and jumped back. The strike was only a bit concerning, 50 health which Aclysia could regain in 10 seconds.

John fired a Mana Ray at the same time as Aclysia got a successful counter-strike in and Salamander once again engulfed Nateward in fire. All of it hit, their success confirmed by Natewards shouts of pain. Shouts that turned into laughter as the spores from the trees regenerated him. Each of the affected areas dissolved independently, tripling the mushroom man’s effective health regeneration.

 “I win.” Nateward struck a victorious pose, causing John to raise an eyebrow. Sure, he had a massive disadvantage but he hadn’t lost just yet. John was quickly proven wrong, as the three trees Nateward had touched suddenly keeled over, hollowed at the base from the mushroom-man’s spores, and fell on top of him with unnatural speed. He saw the infested bark on top of him, knew that both his barrier and himself would get squashed.

Then he suddenly found himself under the night sky of the barrier. The grassy plain around him only interrupted by the two houses and the Loot Basin. He fell backwards onto the grass and looked up at the sky. Yesterday had been interesting with the incredibly slow sunset, but today only the moon kept shining down. Aclysia, free from the spores, and Salamander had appeared alongside him. He looked around, Magoi still wasn’t there, however his preparations had just saved John from the very unglamorous fate of dying by tree-fall. Of all the things he felt endangered by, that was the last of his worries and yet it was what led to his first failure.

“How is that boss recommended for level 50?” he asked. That regeneration + damage over time skill was insane. He could not out damage that guy if every tree he touched increased his health gain. Also, he could not risk it touching Aclysia and then prolonging the fight until she died, his heart would not be able to take another loss, a real one no less. More out of habit than out of logic he shared the information of that fight with everyone else through the mental connection. Rematerializing the elementals, he asked, “Should we try again? I vote no.”

“Bastard is too tough,” Salamander said, clicking her tongue.

“We need more power,” Aclysia agreed, her expression darkening. “I will cull him for his comments in due time.”

“It seems like that is an obstacle we can’t fly around, oh well, sucks, we got other stuff, right, right?” Sylph added.

‘Undoable,’ was all Undine had to add to the conversation.

“I vote yes.” Everyone’s attention turned to Gnome. The small, brunette girl in her yellow sun dress smiled. “I have a plan, will you listen to me, John?”