Making my way out of my little cave, I mentally debate on which direction I should take. Surveying each path, I get a feeling for the enemies within them thanks to my {Soul Sense}. Using that, I decided to go right where there was the strongest resonance.

  While I was moving along in the corridor, I suddenly remembered about my two new mutations so I opened them up.

  {Half-Spectre: your body is partly spiritual in nature, Slightly decreases physical damage taken but slightly increases magical damage taken}

  {Camouflaged: your presence is harder to detect through normal means, Increases the effectiveness of all stealth-based skills}

  “Quite decent, though the line about taking more magical damage kinda sucks but oh well what can you do.” I mentally shrug. Now knowing exactly what my new mutations did, I began workshopping methods of attack and luckily for me I found a target to try them out on. More specifically 5 targets.

  {Gloom Shroomling: Lv 4}

  {A sentient fungal monster. Though looking rather dopey, these pint-sized terrors may still prove a threat to anyone wanting to take them down. Able to use their gloom spores to deadly effectiveness, they are able to incapacitate and slowly drain their foes of energy. The deadliest thing about these mushrooms however is not their spores but their interconnectivity with one another. For the colony will never surrender}

  “Wow, what an impressive status for such silly looking guys.” I wasn’t saying that to demean them but just one glance at them and you can already tell these guys were fodder enemies. They had no eyes, mouth, or anything like that, only stocky arms with three fingered hands. The tops of their heads were covered with a purple mushroom cap, with tiny mushrooms also growing from them.

  “Let’s see how strong these guys are.” There were two level 4s, two level 2s, and one level 1s. It looks like they hadn’t seen me (can they even see?) So before they could react, I used {Phantomstep} to appear behind both of the level 4s and swiftly slice both of them with {Ebony Claws}.

  {You have inflicted 8 physical & magical damage to Gloom Shroomling: Lv 4}

  {You have inflicted 8 physical & magical damage to Gloom Shroomling: Lv 4}

  {You have slain Gloom Shroomling: Lv 4}

  {You have slain Gloom Shroomling: Lv 4}

  {You have gained 2 Exp}

  The other shrooms instantly react to their comrade’s death and two of them rush me while the other one starts emitting a gaseous purple fog which I assume to be their spores. Not wanting to get caught in the fog, I levitated back all the while firing {Mana Spears} at all three of them.

  {You have inflicted 9 magical damage to Gloom Shroomling: Lv 2} X2

  {You have inflicted 8 magical damage to Gloom Shroomling: Lv 1}

  {You have slain Gloom Shroomling: Lv 2} X2

  {You have slain Gloom Shroomling: Lv 1}

  {You have gained 1 Exp}

  “It looks like the higher leveled you are, the less exp you gain from lower leveled enemies.” I mentally noted that down. Gazing over the shroomling corpses I don a small satisfied smile and make my way deeper into the corridor.

  After about 6 minutes of moving, I encountered a crossroads. Thinking for a bit on which path to take, I suddenly heard and sensed several creatures to the left so I stealthily made my way to check it out.

  What I encountered was odd to say the least, A group of seven {Gloom Shroomling} fighting against a trio of zombies. {Identify}

  {Ghoul: Lv 6}

  {A more evolved version of the common undead. These undeads can be found almost anywhere that corpses reside. They have low intellect and sluggish movements but are a threat in large groups.}

  Feeling curious at the fighting, I got closer but still kept a sizable distance so as to not alert them. Both parties appear to be relatively equal in strength with neither side losing ground, that is until the shrooms all rush aggressively towards the {Ghouls} intent on killing them.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  The {Ghouls} looked stunned for a moment before they roared and charged forward in retaliation. The two parties clashed head on with each ghoul taking on several shroomlings in combat. As this occurred, I silently waited and bided my time for the perfect moment.

  {Hiding has risen to level 4}

  A {Ghoul} grabbed two {Gloom Shroomlings} to use as improvised weapons, he flung them around and pummeled his enemies with them. While another {Ghoul} resorted to simply biting chunks out of the shrooms.

  The mushrooms weren’t defenseless however, as since the battle began they had been spreading their spores around the place, resulting in a thick purple fog enveloping the area. Yet the spore’s are not as effective as the mushrooms would like if their harried movements were anything to go by.

  “Those ghouls must have the same Undead mutation I do, no wonder the shroom's spores aren’t affecting them as much.” I thought. The battle was nearing its end and both groups could sense it, there were two {Ghouls} remaining with the third having already been incapacitated by the spores. The mushrooms were down to less than half of their original group with only 4 shrooms alive, but quite injured.

  The {Ghouls} slowly shamble towards the remaining shrooms intent on slaughtering them. Would be a shame if someone interfered and stole all the exp, now wouldn’t it. *Fwing*

  {You have inflicted 10 magical damage to Ghoul: Lv 7}

  {You have slain Ghoul: Lv 7}

  {You have inflicted 9 magical damage to Ghoul: Lv 6}

  {You have slain Ghoul: Lv 6}

  {You have gained 4 Exp}

  {Mana Spear has risen to level 2}

  The {Ghouls} bodies drop down dead with one having a sizable hole in its chest and the other losing its head entirely. I make myself known at this point and instantly {Phantomstep} over to the shrooms. Without much delay, I activate {Ebony Claws} and behead three of them with a single swing.

  {You have inflicted 9 physical & magic to Gloom Shroomlings: Lv 3} X2

  {You have inflicted 7 physical & magic to Gloom Shroomlings: Lv 2}

  {You have slain Gloom Shroomlings: Lv 3} X2

  {You have slain Gloom Shroomlings: Lv 2}

  {You have gained 2 Exp}

  There was still one remaining shroom guy so I moved over to finish him off when I suddenly had a thought. “I wonder if Ebony Claws work with punches.” Wanting to know, I activate {Ebony Claws} and shape a fist. Without wind-up, I simply striked the shroom in the head and the results were just as impressive as I had hoped. A fist sized dent was embedded in the guy’s skull, he was dead of course.

  {You have inflicted 8 physical & magic to Gloom Shroomlings: Lv 2}

  {You have slain Gloom Shroomlings: Lv 2}

  “Hehehe, I could get used to this.” I left the area in search of more sources of exp. I'm really starting to enjoy this world.

  Elsewhere in the world

  Two people were walking side by side, one was a young man dressed in ornate cerulean armor and the other a young woman dressed in mismatched cloth armor, the pair at a glance may seem human but a closer inspection at the young man’s pointed ears and the woman’s thick coat of red fur will dispel any notion of the thought.

  The pair were currently bickering as they always do. “I still don’t understand why we have to attend this stupid class, it’s just gonna be Miss Nymeria scolding us again.” The woman said with annoyance in her eyes. “Don’t you mean scolding you.” the young man said with a teasing tone but his face quickly paled when the girl shot him a death glare. The woman let out an animalistic growl so the man quickly apologized, “Sorry, sorry y’know i’m just joking with you Enya” he says while making a placating gesture.

  “Hmph, fine but again do we really have to be here.” Enya asked for the umpteenth time that day. “Headmaster Arwan specifically told all students to be there, so we have to attend.” the boy responded. “But Theon, we’re one of the best rookie adventurers in the academy, wouldn’t it be better if we were training and adventuring instead of being forced to join these pointless assemblies.”

  “The fact that we’re one of the best rookie adventurers here, is exactly why we're being forced to join, haven’t you heard the rumors.” Theon countered. “What rumors?” Enya asked. “The one about Pontiff Ciro, of how he got a divine revelation from his deity and that it's imperative that he share it with all of us.” Ulric answered. “Well that explains why those Church of Durran guys were running around all over the place, any idea on what the news is.” queried Enya.

  “Nope, not a clue, hopefully it's something simple like having to relinquish more crops to Durran so that this rainy season isn’t as damaging.” Responded Theon. “Oooh, I wonder if it’s another {Storm Hunt’s Decree}.” Enya said with elation in her eyes. “The last one was so fun.” “The last one almost cost me an arm and you an eye.” Theon sternly reminded her.

  “Awwh but didn’t you enjoy it, I remember you excitedly telling me all about how you speed leveled your {Hydro Knight} job.” Enya retorted. “Yes, be that as it may, that event wasn’t something we do for fun, it was something we do out of necessity. Now be quiet, we're near the lecture hall and you wouldn’t want Nymeria scolding you again now would you.” Theon said while opening the door inside. Enya wanted to spit out a witty retort but thankfully kept her mouth shut.

  The pair entered the room unknowing that their life’s were about to get a whole lot more dangerous.