Cold, sticky, and fizzing liquid splattered all across the monitor.

What started off as a calm day with old favorite shows, turned into a shocking experience akin to being tasered by an officer.

Joanne felt as if someone had poured a whole bucket of ice-cold water all over her.

When she came to work this morning, this "Rune" was still offline. She watched some cool fantasy show about a sorcerer apprentice growing up next to some king and felt very pleased with where her day was going.

She had watched at least a whole season, gobbled up a bag of chips and while switching to the next season she decided to take a look at how things were going for the all-brawn no-brain guy she was shackled to.

Not really expecting much more than another tunnel, or perhaps a pile of cobbles, she felt pretty calm as she switched tab.

But after a minute of inability to react she spat out her pop soda all over the monitor which takes us right back to where we started.

Cold, sticky, and fizzing liquid splattered all across the monitor.

Marcus raised his eyebrows from across the room. He decided to pick up a fake phone-call in an attempt to seem busy.

Yet, Joanne didn't rush up from her position to yell at him about how absurd whatever she saw was.

Instead, she kept on staring at the monitor.

What had she seen? Well, the first thing she saw when she changed tab was Rune sitting inside some weird fungi prison-cell. The scene itself was confusing enough because of the fact that to her knowledge, there weren't any areas with such structures.

Then, the figure on her screen tumbled backward, dodging the strikes of two spear-wielding mushroomlike creatures. In an intoxicated haze and with foul movements, the man in her monitor sent the mushroom guards flying, knocking them out.

After a short while, more humanoid mushrooms showed up, and before she could comprehend the situation, they all knelt. Even the spear-wielders that came to had decided to follow suit.

And that's when the most absurd of absurdities happened. They made him a king.

The group of mushroom people lead Rune up some stairs and straight out grand gates. 

They found themselves on well-lit streets carved out of the mountain floor. Neon streetlight better described as lanterns shone in different colors, revealing magnificent structures never seen before.

Buildings consisting of carved out fungi covered the area the street pierced its way through and in an instant, the streets got crowded. New fungi-men came flooding out of the buildings to celebrate. They raised brass instruments to the rocky roof that could easily be mistaken for a night sky. 

A fanfare blasted out of Joanne's speakers, drawing the attention of every coworker close enough to hear it.

Marcus was the first to walk over and as he tried to make sense of the scene in front of him, it became evident that he had no clue what exactly he was watching.

More coworkers walked up to Joanne's desk and stared at her screen, all eager to see what could create such noise.

As if watching a cinderella story, they all witnessed how green-glowing mycelium raised itself from the ground in front of what appeared to be guards, with a player among them. Soon, horse-like creatures took form, beautifully sewn together by the threads of the mycelium. Behind the fungi-horses, a shining carriage appeared just as the horses did before it.

The singing crowd of mushroom-men and women raised Rune up in the air and the carriage door opened itself. With vigor and ecstasy, they threw Rune into the carriage and the guards mounted the horses. They took off and went along the streets as more people poured out of the buildings. In the distance, an enormous castle made out of mushroom caps made its appearance.

The main building consisted of four towers, three of which were brightly lit.

One tower shone in red, the second in blue, and the third in yellow. The fourth tower, however, created a wondrous beacon of green light. 

Joanne's hands were shaking as shivers went down her spine. Why was all of this happening? This lunatic she had to watch over had once again made her drop her jaws.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Joanne, update" Marcus muttered.

Joanne flinched.

"You see, well... uh..." She began but couldn't find where to start.

She hadn't actually seen how Rune ended up in this situation, nor had she seen where this place was. 

Marcus poked her shoulder as he said; "You didn't just watch series all day, did you?"

Joanne turned around slowly and trembled as she tried to meet Marcus's eyes. She knew she was allowed to watch some series, but obviously not for the whole time.

Her coworkers slowly backed off, but not too much. They still wanted to see what was going on in the game.

Joanne brain-stormed. She had to come up with something that sounded plausible to save her skin.

'This guy, he only mines stone...' She began in her head, trying to twist some half-truths into believable sentences.

She opened her mouth and began; "You see, Marcus. This guy was only digging. He has been at it since he logged on. While digging in the darkness, it got too hard for me to actually see what was going on. I decided to take a small break and when I got back, he had managed to get into so much trouble he was immediately put in jail. The rest has been too far fetched of a story that you wouldn't even believe me if I told you!"

She was nervous. Obviously, she could watch some shows as she had done. But Marcus might not forgive her if she missed something as important as this.

Marcus tapped his fingers on her desk and asked; "Anything else?"

He could always check her web-history to see how much time she had spent doing other things, but he figured he should give her the benefit of the doubt. Joanne was usually hard-working, but this guy was obviously a lunatic. He knew that this guy had managed to dig up dirt and stones for more than a day. There were few people who could do something so boring and monotonous without getting anything in return.

"No, but I sure hope Osmodeus won't make a mess out of this," Joanne responded.

Marcus sighed, and his eyes looked back at the screen. The carriage had reached the brilliant castle they previously gazed upon.

The castle door flew open and two mushroom figures walked out.

One of the mushrooms was sending out blue glittering light, shining just enough to create an almost fog-like aura around him. This figure stood tall and proud, with a dark blue armor neatly placed on his torso. He had a sharp nose and fungi hair that almost like dreadlocks. He stopped at the top of the stairs leading down to the carriage.

The other figure walked out and stood beside him. It was a short and stout red woman.

Her arms showcased biceps large as watermelons. Her hair was set up in twin ponytails, and it made her look younger than her bulky body allowed one to believe.

She crossed her arms and looked at the tall blue man on her right. Then she followed his gaze with an anticipating smile down to the carriage.

The carriage door swung open fast, creating a loud noise as it fell off the hinges. A sharp green light beamed through the opening. The origin of this new walked forward, making the two mushrooms at the top of the stairs even more curious.

The figure took another step, and...

He fell out of the carriage, collapsing.

Three mushrooms dismounted their horses and rushed to his aid, helping the almost paralyzed Rune stand.

Marcus eyed the large dent on the carriage door that lied beside Rune.

It looked as if Rune and the carriage door had gotten into a heated fight and tied.

"Joanne, how high stats must this guy have?" Marcus asked.

But Joanne didn't think his stats could be that high. He had mostly been mining all day. No, there must be something else. She pondered for a second and realized she had seen Rune kick two guards just a few minutes ago. The common denominator? He collapsed right afterward.

 "I think he learned a new ability, raising his stats to an extreme level but only for a mere instant." She said with a dull voice. She didn't feel as if she had the energy to enjoy this happening as much as her coworkers did.

'What kind of ability would be so double-edged?' Marcus thought.

I was furious. 'These insane long-nosed crazy people just don't listen!' I told myself as I gathered the strength of the green spores.

'I had enough of this bumpy ride!' I yelled to myself as I released all the spores in a fit of rage.

The door I punched didn't stand a chance against me fell off the hinges in an instant.

 Fuming with anger, directed at these crazy people, I took a step forwards. Then another one, but before I could even vent my anger I collapsed. 

The pain that the ground inflicted on my face wasn't calming in the slightest. With no idea where I was, or why any of this was happening, I could only pray that I would be allowed to leave this nightmare soon and get back to Toby.

I heard footsteps coming closer and felt multiple arms pull me up on my two feet again.

With the whole world spinning, I tried to look forward.

A red carpet laid out on golden stairs met my eyes.

I traced the stairs upwards and saw two shining figures meeting my gaze.

One blue man and a red woman. Or so I thought, I hadn't actually cracked the code of what men and women looked like in this godforsaken area.

My helping hands pushed me forwards to the stairs, forcing me to walk them.

The two figures at the top frowned. I wasn't too sure why though, maybe it was because I ruined their carriage?

Pulling at my arms, the three guards took me upstairs to Mr. Blue and Ms. Red at the top.

"Greetings!" Ms. Red said, reaching out her hand for me to shake.

I gently greeted her back.

"I'm Hygrocybe, but please call me Cybe!" she said.

"Rune" I answered, as I turned to Mr. Blue, who reached out his hand for me as well.

"Caerulea," The blue fungi said, gritting his teeth.

'Wow, what a temper!' I thought to myself.

To be honest, this Caerulea fellow isn't my cup of soup... Wait, that didn't feel quite right?

'Cup of coffee?' I asked myself. Nope, still not right.

Struggling to find the right sentence in my head, I might have been quite for a tad bit too long.

The situation turned awkward fast, but I believe I wanted to be here the least.

"Hey, Blue... Can I go back now?" I asked, breaking the silence.

"Go back? You jest, You haven't been crowned yet and you expect to come and go as you like?" He snorted.

Having said that, Caerulea turned around and walked through the castle doors and Cybe followed suit.

Watching the grumpy tall man walk away, I decided to follow them. If I wanted to get back to Toby and Agda, it shouldn't hurt to listen to what these people had to say.