He padded softly across the ground, and eventually came to a clearing, where he was able to properly survey the village. It blocked the only way out of the cavern, and there was a primitive gate standing in front of the entrance to the deeper parts of the cave. Jonathan saw one of the monsters that he had noticed earlier scampering across the ground, running in a strange manner. It looked like the statues that he had seen, but in a vague manner, as if it was some distantly removed cousin along the evolutionary tree. The creature was about ten feet in length, and walked on all fours, somewhat like a gorilla. Its skin was a mottled green color, and it had a spade shaped head, with a wide mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. Jonathan quickly analyzed it as it passed within his field of vision.

Troglodyte Harvester(Basic)

Level 54

It was on the lower end of the level range, and Jonathan was confident in being able to take it down, if he ever had to. The monster seemed to be snuffling around in the moss, looking for something to bring back with it. There was a crude wicker construction on its back that was half filled with some of the moss from the cave. In it were other plants, with some form of white tuber being quite prevalent.

Contrary to its grotesque appearance, this monster seemed to be more peaceful than not, as shown by its name. It was a harvester, which indicated that these creatures had at least some degree of sapience. There was no reason for Jonathan to kill them unless they attacked him first. However, he was quite certain that would end up happening at this rate, judging by what he had seen so far. They were clearly guarding the deeper part of the cave, what with the village set up directly in front of the cave entrance, and with their large wooden gate. He would have to fight his way past them.

Looking further into the village, he spotted a large number of troglodytes walking around, some of which looked like they were part of a warrior caste. They wielded crude oblong stone clubs, and wore what looked to be primitive hide armor. Jonathan had plenty of time here anyway, and he could easily wait until the coast was clear and the monsters had gone off to rest. In any case, this cavern was so large that there were clearly other reasons for its existence. Those stone statues had been in here, which meant that there might be other, more valuable loot to find within the cavern.

Jonathan waited until the harvester had left, and then began to walk towards the far edge of the cavern, spotting the cave wall a few minutes later. He could go along the edge so as to not raise the suspicions of the monsters guarding the city and wandering around. He knew that he could effortlessly kill one of the harvesters, but he wasn't sure whether he could kill one fast enough to stop it from making noise.

In any case, there were no more within his general vicinity, and he found himself undisturbed. The edge of the cave was quite removed from the rest of the cavern, and the moss cover was less here than in the central parts of the cave. Instead strange, glowing mushrooms grew there, mushrooms that gave off a faint sense of worth to Jonathan’s keen senses. His body seemed to resonate with the mushrooms, and before he knew what he was doing, he picked one up and took a tentative bite. A warm feeling cascaded down his throat, and upon finding no ill effect, Jonathan quickly downed the mushroom, feeling a tidal wave of heat course through his body. The sensation became slightly painful by the end, but it was soon gone. A notification popped up, and Jonathan opened it rapidly.

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You have consumed an unknown magically enhanced mushroom.

+1 to Resilience

Jonathan had actually gained something out of the test, and he wondered whether it was the mushroom itself that had given him the stat point, or whether it was from having tried a slightly toxic type of plant. Seeing as he had never been given stat points from anything like that before, he assumed that it was the former of the options. That meant that he would find it in his interest to eat more of the mushrooms.

He quickly ate another one, feeling the heat wash down through his insides. However, nothing else happened. Quickly picking up another one, Jonathan ate it, and this time he received the stat point. It seemed that there were diminishing returns to these mushrooms, and he would need to eat rapidly increasing amounts of it in order to see a benefit. In addition, the pain had been worse this time, and Jonathan suspected that he was poisoning himself quite quickly. However, it was worth it in the end. He could think of it as some sort of extreme training, nothing more than that. If it ended up being dangerous, he would stop. This was too great of an opportunity to pass up. He wondered why these mushrooms were here, and because there were no plants on the surface world, he decided to take a few up with him to sell. They seemed to be valuable enough in any case.

Jonathan quickly worked his way through more of the mushrooms, the requisite number doubling every time. By the time that he had gotten to 64 mushrooms, his health bar was below half, and he had gained 7 stat points in total. At that point, his body was aflame with the poison of the mushrooms, and he knew that if he continued, it would mean his death.

Jonathan stuffed the rest of the mushrooms in his satchel, and waited for the poison to leave his system. With all of the boosts to his Resilience from those mushrooms, it ironically took less time than it would have before. After he was fully healed, he continued his circuit of the walls, not finding any more mushrooms. He found more of the statues, and what looked to be a derelict shrine, that was clearly made for the people that the statues were modeled after. Words were written on the altar, and as he looked at them, the words revealed themselves.

We were once a people proud

A wise and ancient race

One day however, an evil cloud

Came down upon us with a monstrous face

It took our souls and left us here

Without leaving anything but stone, and a tear

The words ended there, but Jonathan was able to make out what it was getting at. Whoever had built this shrine had been originally a wise and powerful or at least prosperous, race, but some evil monster had come here, and had either ruined their civilization, or, if he read the lines literally, had turned them to stone. This would also fit with the theme of the dungeon, which was about desolation.

Their intelligence had been destroyed, and now all that was left were the troglodytes. The latter option, with the monster having turned them to stone, would explain the statues. This sounded like the work of a gorgon, a creature from Greek mythology that would turn people into stone with its hideous glare. Seeing as the face of the monster was referenced here, that was quite likely. Perhaps that would be the final boss of this dungeon, in which case, Jonathan would need to be careful. He had no idea what sort of stats would work against petrification, if any at all. However, judging by the way that power was scaled within this world, he doubted that there were no limits to the gorgon’s abilities. That would be a gulf that he would have to cross when he got to it.