Chapter 69: The Abyssal Frenzy

  A brief council followed, but it quickly became clear that everyone wanted to risk collecting pieces of the Abyssal mushrooms. Petra took out a sturdy rope, tied it to a rock, and the group slowly began to approach.

  The pulsations soon intensified, and Varis leaned in and whispered in Emilia's ear.

  "Get ready, it's about to start any moment."

  Soon, an incredible sight unfolded before them. The Abyssal mushrooms began to launch their magical spores, the mana in them so dense that it could be seen even with the naked eye.

  The spores themselves reflected the light in thousands of different ways and slowly, like a mist made of thousands of flashing colors, began to ascend high into the sky. There, they formed a cloud, powered by the various mushrooms that continued to slowly launch their spores. This cloud was like a gigantic octopus with numerous tentacles.

  "How beautiful," Emilia murmured, and Petra approached and squeezed her hand.

  Meanwhile, Titus and his wife Lora stood hand in hand, their eyes filled with the colorful reflections of this enchanting magical cloud. Emilia could see the warmth in their eyes and feel the tenderness of their affection, reinforced by years of shared dangers and hardships. But right now, at this moment, hope and confidence could also be sensed in them.

  Emilia, for her part, felt like a small child seeing true magic for the first time. This incredible feeling of wonder, the sincere astonishment at the incredible colorful phenomenon. She felt like she wanted to start clapping her hands and rejoicing and laughing like a three-year-old baby, seeing the play of the colorful lights in the sky.

  The animals also stood motionless, gazing at the sky. They were like a vast garden of statues, illuminated by the motley lights of the cloud.

  But everything had its end. The air mana released by the spores began to fill the air, and a strange phenomenon began to form around them.

  Winds from several directions began to disperse the cloud, scattering it into countless small threads, each flying in a different direction, carried by the wings of the wind.

  The magic of the spores was released slowly and gradually, and it would continue to feed the winds for a long time, causing strange colorful phenomena wherever they passed. Perhaps even at night, illuminated by moonlight, the spores might twinkle with a strange light, coloring the moon in different shades.

  At that moment, Emilia felt Varis's strong hands grasp her firmly around the waist, and a minute later, with an incredible leap, they found themselves at the bottom of the huge hole. Then the group scattered in different directions.

  Emilia immediately focused on her skills and spotted a piece of an exploded mushroom and rushed toward it. At that moment, a huge tiger appeared from somewhere and casually nudged her with its body, and with two leaps, it reached the piece of the mushroom and swallowed it in one gulp.

  Emilia flew three meters, hit the wall, and her mouth filled with blood. Her head spun fiercely, and she desperately began to circulate her mana. Before she had fully recovered, she activated her skills and looked around in all directions, searching for new dangers.

  The various animals were collecting the pieces at immense speed, sometimes resulting in instantaneous clashes between them. Emilia tried to collect a few pieces, but several times she had to immediately change her direction and give up the treasure in front of her, as one or another magical animal swooped down to it.

  In the distance, Boss Titus pierced a huge beetle with his sword, and Varis was dealing heavy blows with his axe to a three-meter-tall bear. Petra was fast and agile. Like a dancer, she weaved in one direction or another, occasionally managing to stop and collect a piece of mushroom. The larger and more visible pieces, however, were the subject of fierce clashes.

  Emilia gritted her teeth and continued to search with doubled efforts, but her success was poor. Dispel Ignorance—she activated her skill, and the world before her suddenly became much clearer, and the chaos of auras and mana froze for a moment before her. She quickly managed to identify a few harder-to-find pieces of mushrooms near her and deactivated the skill. Then she fired a fireball at a fox and rushed forward, clutching her talismans in readiness.

  Actively using her skills, Emilia finally managed to collect a few pieces of the mushrooms. She immediately swallowed a part of them, feeling their incredible energy slowly being released into her body. She placed the others in a reinforced porcelain bowl, in which she stored some more specific herbs.

  Several times different creatures attacked her, and she had to retreat to use her defensive talismans. The animals grabbed the mushrooms and immediately headed to look for the next ones. No one had time to deal with her.

  Soon, however, most of the easy-to-find pieces were collected, and the animals began to head toward the bodies of the mushrooms themselves. Many fierce battles were being fought there, and even Titus and his group gathered and attacked one of the mushrooms. Emilia got a little time to rest and continued to look for smaller, hidden pieces of the exploded mushrooms. Soon, however, she heard the voice of the Great System in her head.

  "Attention Emilia, you have received a new divine quest."

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  Emilia stopped for a moment, and after opening the quest, the voice of Hecate's aspect echoed in her head. At the same time, she felt a strong pull toward one of the walls.

  "Emilia, the body of one of the mushrooms is hidden here. It is quite well preserved but will soon be discovered by the other creatures. Your task is to collect twelve parts of the mushroom that I will point out to you."

  "A special child will be born soon. Guided by the light of three stars, three wise men will gather to bestow their gifts upon him. Hand over the mushroom parts to one of them, in exactly two weeks in the church courtyard. Hurry, Emilia. Time is of the essence."

  Emilia immediately accepted the quest and headed toward the Abyssal mushroom hidden in a niche. Guided by a strange divine sensation, she quickly recognized the parts she needed to collect and pulled out her knife.

  She worked at a furious pace, her eyes constantly darting around. At that moment, a harpy with a wounded wing appeared from somewhere and swooped down toward the mushroom.

  "No, you don't."

  Emilia immediately fired two fireballs at the creature and even clenched her spear tightly, activated a strength talisman, and attacked, taking care to approach from the harpy's wounded side.

  Partially guided by her mana, the fireballs hit the harpy just above the chest, and a wave of heat energy engulfed the monster. Emilia took advantage of the harpy's momentary confusion and strongly plunged her spear into the harpy's body. Then, she immediately retreated, even activating a defensive barrier. Despite its wounds, the harpy responded almost instantly and tried to attack the young girl.

  But this harpy was one of the weaker ones, those who didn't want to risk fighting the others for the mushroom bodies in the distance, despite the incredible attraction they felt.

  Emilia took advantage of the clash between the harpy and the defensive talisman and attacked again with her spear, even managing to hit the creature's lungs. They were located on the sides of its body and took up a significant part of the harpy's torso. The stab wounds quickly began to fill with blood, and the harpy desperately retreated.

  Emilia didn’t have time to chase the monster and rushed back to her task. Meanwhile, the wounded harpy let out cries of pain, drawing the attention of nearby monsters.

  Shit, shit, shit... I have to hurry, this cursed harpy, why didn't it die even though I stabbed it twice with my spear.

  Emilia's hands gripped the knife tightly, and she collected the mushroom parts at a desperate speed.

  If it weren't for this sinister creature, besides the parts pointed out by the goddess, I would have been able to collect more of the mushroom's flesh.

  Only seconds later, Emilia collected the last of the twelve parts, cut off a huge piece of the mushroom that she barely managed to fit in her backpack, and immediately started moving away with all her strength.

  A large group of monsters was already fighting nearby, and the strongest of them reached the mushroom just moments after Emilia left the rocky niche.

  Her heart was pounding wildly in her chest, sweat was sticking to her forehead, her mouth tasted of blood, and her eyes were still hurting from the tiger's blow. Her hands were gripping the spear, and she desperately looked around.

  Maybe there are more mushrooms hidden nearby. Emilia decided to take a risk and focused entirely on the sensations of her skill and Soul Sense.

  The nearby mushroom gave her a good orientation for what kind of soul fragments she should be looking for. She started running along the walls, focused on her senses.

  "There, to the left. Hmm, no, that trace is too faint. Maybe that piece behind this rock." Emilia approached. "This one is already eaten." Emilia ran around until, at one point, her senses felt a strange barrier in front of her.

  Dispel Ignorance—she activated her skill and gasped in surprise. In front of her, there was an entire row of mushrooms that had not released their spores into the sky. They stood like rows of soldiers next to the wall, even seeming to make a strange natural formation. They were protected by a strange wall of illusion and glowed with incredibly strong mana.

  Emilia tried to move forward, but there was an extremely strong barrier in front of her. She frantically began to look around.

  What's going on here? she wondered, and then she remembered that this strange place was about to descend back into the depths of the earth. Surely these mushrooms are responsible for the rising and falling of the rocky chamber.

  Then a strange idea struck her, and she began to look around. She was no longer looking for mushrooms and used the power of Dispel Ignorance to reduce the auras of the surrounding monsters, as well as that of the mushrooms.

  A chamber like this, coming from the depths of the earth, might hold other treasures, she mused with hope.

  Almost immediately, various faint lights unfolded before her gaze. She immediately headed toward them and began collecting various mosses, strange minerals, strange-looking water full of magical energy, filling three entire bottles.

  Then she found a red-pulsing magical vein close to the very border of the invisible illusion barrier. She began carving with her knife, chipping off pieces of the strange glowing mineral and putting them in her backpack. The pieces were small, like crumbs, but the energy in them was dense and heavy. One, two, three—seven larger pieces soon found their way into her backpack before the strange chamber began to tremble.

  "Emilia, we have to go," she heard Varis's voice.

  "A little more," she shouted, grabbing two large pieces of the mineral.

  Varis was running toward her at an incredible speed, and ten seconds later, he was next to her, grabbed her, and carried her along with her backpack toward the rope.

  "We had more time," Emilia tried to protest, but Varis ignored her, and with the help of the rope and a few powerful jumps, they were back on the surface.

  Meanwhile, the remaining monsters also began to flee from the energy-pulsing rock chamber, and the wounded ones among them let out heartbreaking moans. Two large magical bulls passed by them, one of them continuously exhaling fire through its nostrils. Instead of fur, it had gray-green scales, and its horns were sharp and curved forward.

  Varis kept running, and Emilia managed to distinguish the rest of the group, running among the animals. Everyone was rushing to get as far away as possible from the trembling cave chamber.

  The tremors intensified, and the ground under their feet began to become unstable. Varis seemed to sense something and jumped forward, hugging Emilia even tighter.

  The ground began to shake, and many monsters started falling around. The two landed, Varis embraced Emilia and pressed her against his chest, and they tumbled several times. A powerful and prolonged rumble began to be heard from the chamber, followed by a huge amount of dust. Emilia's senses began to glow with the feeling of the immense amount of mana coming from the rocky chamber.

  Soon, the magic of the mushrooms activated, and the chamber, in a way that contradicted both physics and logic, began to sink downward, and the gap of the hole began to close at an incredible speed. A huge amount of earth mana rushed out of the hole and struck the fleeing creatures. Soon, however, the wave passed, and the tremors became weaker.

  Varis stood up and continued to run forward, joining the rest of the group a few minutes later. They didn't stop running for a whole hour until they were completely away from the swamp and the enormous number of magical creatures in it.