Chapter Twenty-Five
Ambrose held the key and thought about going to the first beast. In a single instant of blackness he appeared at a cliffside cave just above a small beach. Ambrose stepped through, gripping his axe tightly as he scanned the area, the gateway closing behind him. Noelle tightened around him, sending him a warm feeling and an image of rain, a small tiger cub huddling in a warm cave.
Ambrose smiled and sent reassurances to her. She wasn’t wrong. The rain pelted the area in constant pitter-pats that filled the air with its natural music as the wind blew over his arms. Anyone else may have been miserable right now, and while Ambrose found getting wet to be annoying, he wasn’t cold. His constitution stat putting in the work, it seemed.
The cliffside cave’s entrance was surrounded by pulsating plants, vines, and flowers, all the colors of a deep, ugly bruise. A rancid smell floated on dank air. It wasn’t all that different from the first cave Ambrose had found himself in, as a matter of fact. He felt an awareness from the flowers and veins, a malevolent presence that was very aware that he was there and who he was.
Ambrose set his lips into a grim smile; eyes gleaming.
“Yes, I see you now, Modred. I’m coming from you. This is my island now, and you haven’t paid your rent in decades.”
The presence got sharper; the flowers writhed, and the veins slithered on the wall. Ambrose stepped inside the cave, moving downward into its depths. He came to an open cavern, much like the ones he had been in previously, except there was no magical sealing of the entrance behind him. He could see the tunnel moving onward and deeper.
That ominous feeling that permeated the air exploded, and little dark purple and red mushrooms began to pop up from the ground like kernels of popcorn on a hot skillet. They began to pulsate and grow, stretching into slimy, horrifying things with beady yellow eyes and a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. Tiny arms grew from their sides and legs that popped out of the bottom of their stems.
There were dozens of the little monsters. Ambrose used [Insight] on one.
[Cursed Mushroom-Level 69]: Once edible and flourishing within Avalon’s cliffside caves, these mushrooms have been corrupted by Mordred’s curse and leashed to his will. They release a cloud of poison from their tops.]
Ambrose snorted. Not even D-Grade. Two of the mushrooms blasted a cloud of green gas at him in a hiss. He paid the poison no mind. It was E-Grade and wouldn’t harm him. Instead, he activated [Infernal Sanctuary]. A ring of red and black flames washed outward from him as Ambrose felt a pull on his core. While the fire looked ominous, the feeling that pulsed from the flames was far different. It felt like a bonfire on a cool night, surrounded by friends and good food.
That didn’t last long. Infernal Sanctuary was an upgrade to what it was previously. He no longer had to worry about himself being affected by the skills effects. The same could not be said for the mushrooms that attacked him. Spectral chains dancing with black fire lashed out from the greater ring of fire that surrounded them and pierced the mushrooms that sought to kill him with poison and fang.
The mushrooms screamed, a symphony of hatred and pain as the chains cut through their bodies and wrapped around them, burning their very spirits as well as their flesh. Ambrose stepped out of the way of the poisonous cloud that threatened to surround him. While he wasn’t worried that it would harm him, it would still be uncomfortable and cloud his vision.
His skill would not kill the mushrooms, but it did immobilize them and inflict horrible pain. Even as more mushrooms popped up from the ground, more spectral chains of black fire lashed out like striking serpents, piercing them. Ambrose felt the drain on his core, his mana bleeding out of him in a stream. It was a lot, but he had mana to spare. He didn’t hang around and let his mana leak out of him. He took his axe and began hacking through the mushrooms like he was dicing them up for supper. They screeched like nails on a chalkboard, but Ambrose did not care in the least.
The Infernal Paladin had no mercy in him for the monsters. He dismissed his skill as he killed the last of the monsters. He had gotten so used to leveling up he expected the familiar rush of strength and power. None came. The mushrooms hadn’t rated as a threat enough to earn him a level in the System’s eyes. Ambrose thinned his lips in a sour, disappointed smile before he made his way down the tunnel.
However, before he stepped along the path, he stopped. A squelching sound echoed throughout the cavern, like a dirty wet dishcloth being pulled across a messy table. Ambrose closed his eyes, slowly turning around. The mushrooms were pulling themselves together, squishing together like a blob that shifted into a much larger, much more menacing mushroom that took up a huge portion of the cavern. Ambrose used [Insight].
[Cursed Dire Mushroom-Level 75]: Formed from its dead brethren, the dire mushroom is the last-ditch effort of the mushroom kind to protect its territory.]
Ambrose shook his head, blinking as he brought his brows together, muttering.
“The mushroom kind? Seriously? It’s a fucking mushroom.”
He hefted his axe and triggered [Aura of Righteous Wrath], the skill flooding out from him, blanketing the air in an oppressive force of rage and power. The dire mushroom did not care. It roared at him, vibrating the air around it as its arms extended toward him like lashing, slimy tentacles.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Ambrose fended them off with slashes of his axe, cutting through them like tissue paper. The tentacle stocks dropped to the ground, going limp. The mushroom monster merely grew more of them. Ambrose activated [Infernal Sanctuary], and the spectral chains blazing with fire pierced the mushroom.
It pulsed with acidic green light, and the chains blew apart, breaking like twigs in a storm. Ambrose dismissed the skill. No reason to waste mana if the skill wouldn’t do anything to it. Ambrose used [Infernal Infusion], and his axe burst into black-red flame. Ambrose flung himself to the side as the tentacles lashed out at him, this time covered in a poisonous cloud.
He flung his axe forward in an overhand throw, activating [Infernal Smite] as he did so. The black-red flames flared as it sank into the rim of the mushroom’s head. It detonated in an explosion of fire that pierced into the mushroom-like daggers made of living fire.
The mushroom shrieked, stalks wiggling as Ambrose used [Recall], and seemingly with a will of its own, the axe tore itself free from the mushroom with a flash of fire and whirled end over end, handle slapping into his palm as Ambrose wrapped his fingers around it once again. The mushroom began waddling toward him at impressive speed, stalks wriggling and lashing like whips at him.
Ambrose threw his axe at it again, but the mushroom dodged, flinging itself to the side as a stalk sped towards him, wrapping around his waist and sticking. Ambrose recalled his axe and hacked at the stalk, but the dire mushroom had tricks of its own.
The stalk pulsated like a feeding leech, and green light bloomed around it. The light repelled his smite, and the mushroom began to make a growling chuffing sound. It’s laughing! Ambrose realized as it began to pull him toward its open mouth.
As Ambrose was pulled closer and closer into the mushroom's open maw, he began to smell its stink, like rotting compost. He fought it, pulling against the stalk, digging in his heels, and hacking with his axe. But the dire mushroom was a D-Grade monster. A true D-Grade is not something that has advanced the wrong way or just had the level. This thing had compressed its core and must have had decent stats because Ambrose’s strength wasn’t doing anything for him here.
Ambrose concluded that the mushroom would succeed in at least getting him inside its mouth if not outright eating him.
When you know you’re about to lose, boy, you prepare for it.
“What? How?”
Raylen flicked a cigarette to the ground and stepped on it with a combat boot, grinding the smoking cancer stick into the ground.
“Sometimes all you can do is mitigate the damage. Why do you think I trained you to take a blow on the side rather than the head?”
Ambrose shrugged,
“The head would disorient me, put me out of the fight a lot faster and potentially permanently.”
Raylen nodded,
“That’s right. Same thing applies here. If you’re gonna lose, make sure you prepare for it. Don’t allow it to be permanent if you can.”
Ambrose took a breath and prepared to lose. The first thing he did was think through his options. Raylen had taught him that if he couldn’t beat his opponent, he should see if his environment could. He looked around the cavern and noticed a large stalactite sharpened to a point above him. That gave him an idea, which he filed away. The second thing he needed to consider was how he would be eaten and what he could do to avoid the damage as best he could.
It would likely be game over if he went into the mouth headfirst. Most of his armor protection was his chest and lower body. The best way to go would be feet first, then. How could he avoid the damage? There was only one way he was sure would protect him best. He had a plan, and now it was time to put it into motion.
When the mushroom pulled it into his mouth, he lifted his legs up to go feet first. At the same time, he activated [Infernal Infusion] and [Shield of Conviction] infused his armor. With a rush of power, his armor erupted into black-red fire, which danced and writhed around him like a living thing. The mushroom’s fangs bit into him as it lit itself up with that green light that repelled his flames.
It began to chew, fangs screeching against the infernal-infused metal. Black-red fire swirled in its maw like some kind of fiery mouthwash. It flashed with the green light, creating an eldritch burst of flaming light that cast abstract shadows around the cavern walls. Ambrose tried his best to ignore the chewing sounds and the pressure on his lower body. Instead, he eyed the stalactite above them.
He hefted the axe and threw it at the base of the sharpened stone connected to the ceiling. If he had just thrown the axe normally, nothing would have happened. Except his throw was nothing but normal. Ambrose had infused it with infernal power and activated [Smite] and [Aura of Righteous Wrath], making his smites more effective. The stalactite was not D-Grade. It was a heavy, unyielded, jagged, sharp stone that must have weighed a ton. The stone cracked, pieces of it falling downward, pelting the ground.
The mushroom didn’t notice. It was too busy trying to chew him into bits it could swallow. Ambrose [Recalled] his axe and immediately threw it again. With more cracks, the rock began to shake. Ambrose repeated the process one more time, and that did the trick.
Like some massive spearhead, a giant stone dropped towards the dire mushroom with all of the force of its weight and the power of gravity. The mushroom may have been D-Grade. It may have had that green repelling skill about it, but it was focused on repelling his fire, not the giant stone it wasn’t prepared for.
That massive stalactite pierced the mushroom-like some god stabbing it with an enormous utensil. It burst apart in a spray of green ichor, splattering like thick, gooey paint all over the room. It crushed against Ambrose’s lower body, but his armor was not the same as the mushroom; it was thick and metal, and Ambrose had flared an extra few hundred points of mana into the infusion right as the stone crashed into them.
It still took a while for Ambrose to lift the rock off of him. The collision had rocked the room with shattering booms, breaking apart in a shower of rocky shards, one cutting across Ambrose's cheek but not breaking the skin. It left chunks of rock all over him and the crushed dire mushroom.
He had to break up some of the chunks with his axe in order to drag himself out. He took several deep breaths as he stood up and dusted himself off. Then he addressed the notification.
[You have defeated [Dire Mushroom-Level 75] and have gained enough experience to advance to level 76.]
Ambrose smiled as power rushed through him.
It was time to take care of Mordred’s Avatar deeper within.