Chapter 14: The Flame Mushroom

After regaining his strength, Dachun pressed forward along the passageway once more, the sound of intense mining echoing ahead again. Approaching closer, he found himself before another vast pit, where yet another large group of level-one imps were diligently mining. The impish horde lifted their heads simultaneously to look at him but did not launch any attack.

Dachun reached the lava pool at the center of the pit, where he noticed a magical array requiring the insertion of six stones. He was unsure where this portal led, but he suspected that if he produced the stones, the imps would swarm him immediately.

In any case, he resolved to continue exploring the map.

Over the course of nearly an hour, Dachun traversed various tunnels and discovered seven large mining pits and seven magic arrays. He encountered nearly a thousand imps and avoided fifteen run-ins with overseers who remained unseen but audible. Since he dared not confront them, he could only estimate their patrol routines from these brief encounters.

Yet, no canteen appeared anywhere—not even a blade of grass or a single insect.

Dachun was baffled.

What was going on? Could it be that these imps left work to eat via the teleportation arrays? But teleporting so many small creatures seemed costly. Unless the imps consumed some form of mineral crystal for sustenance, which would leave him starving.

Undeniably, hunger was one of the most tormenting game mechanics. Even idling was not an option.

His only recourse was to leave through one of the magic arrays.

But which one? And before that, would he have to kill all the stone-stealing imps? If he started a slaughter, would they scatter and alert the overseers? It always felt that the more passive intelligent monsters were the most dangerous to provoke.

Suddenly, Dachun recalled the imps from the first pit. They had just been whipped—what was their state now?

If they were injured, it would be easier to kill them. If they were frightened, perhaps they wouldn’t steal anymore. He needed to verify.

He returned to the first mining pit and from afar heard a chorus of chuckles and pained groans.

Laughter? This must be a triggered event!

Drawing nearer, he saw each imp bore several bloody whip scars on their backs. They laughed cheerfully while mining energetically, yet their groans betrayed their pain. Two of them looked particularly weak, barely able to smile or hold their pickaxes, bearing over a dozen whip marks.

Dachun suspected these were the two traitors from before. The others, though whipped, still had energy and mined harder in response to the punishment, while these two had no strength left and thus suffered harsher beating.

Yet, the other imps mocked the severely beaten ones.

He understood: this was the demons’ logic—misery loves company. Seeing others worse off cheered them up and motivated their work, compensating for the two who couldn’t mine. Perhaps those two “traitors” were being punished.

This stirred some pity in Dachun. What fate awaited them if they failed their task in such a state?

An idea struck him: what if he seized their pickaxes and helped them finish mining? Maybe that would allow them to clock out early and return via the teleportation array to eat. But would taking their tools incite an attack? If so, he could fall back to a defensible position.

More importantly, Dachun was curious to try dual-wielding mining and see what ore they were extracting.

He moved toward the two weakened imps, who looked at him with fearful, pitiful expressions.

Activating his disarm skill, Dachun grabbed both pickaxes effortlessly. The two offered no resistance and collapsed to the ground.

—System notice: You have confiscated two mining pickaxes. Your proficiency with the basic disarm skill has increased by 2!

The proficiency gain was surprisingly low—perhaps due to their lack of stamina making the task too easy.

Nearby, the other imps merely laughed louder, offering no aid.

Dachun wondered if he launched a massacre, would they unite in opposition or have no limits?

Ignoring the rabble, he proceeded to set his mining mode.

There were three mining modes: efficiency mode, which mined ore into piles for centralized transport to carts—only safe for use in secure city mining pits since others would immediately become hostile and confiscate the ore if stolen.

Then there was the pickup mode, where mined ore was collected directly onto the player, increasing weight and lowering efficiency, typically used in the wild.

The third was a hybrid mode: valuable ores were picked up automatically, while worthless ores were discarded for others to fight over.

Dachun chose the hybrid mode, automatically collecting expert-level or higher ores and leaving the rest on the ground.

With pickaxes in both hands, he began mining—red mineral crystals in the left hand, yellow in the right.

—System notice: You have mined unknown lava crystals. Your proficiency with the basic dual-wield mining skill has increased.

Wow!

The sensation of dual wielding was exhilarating. This was master-level mining—one pickaxe could yield double the usual amount, though it didn’t increase master mining proficiency, suggesting the ore quality was modest.

The imps present were stunned. The two weakened ones snapped out of their daze, attempting to stand and struggle.

Compared to the glittering crystals Dachun extracted, their haul was mere rubble.

Ignoring them, he continued mining until a pile half a man’s height formed.

At last, the imps grew restless. Dachun, engrossed in leveling dual-wield proficiency, did not want to fight and simply moved toward the far end of the pit to mine.

The moment he left, the imps swarmed the ore pile, each grabbing a handful and rushing to the lava pool to toss it in.

Suddenly!

The lava pool erupted with a roar, spewing red and yellow smoke that swiftly blanketed the entire pit.

—System notice: Warning! You have been exposed to toxic gases. Your “Whale’s Strength” ability has immunized you from the poison.

Thank goodness for immunity! This scene seemed tailor-made for scavengers. So what kind of trial was this?

The imps erupted in screams and cheers. More imps from the tunnels flooded in, joining the frenzy.

Soon, strange growths appeared along the lava pool’s edge: small protrusions spreading rapidly—mushrooms! Red caps and yellow stalks.

So that was it. There was no canteen; they didn’t eat the crystals directly but survived by consuming mushrooms that grew from the molten ore. But if the mushrooms were edible, what about their pickaxes? They would wear out and need repair. Yet, no blacksmith or warehouse was in sight. Perhaps because pickaxes were precious, losing one was a capital offense.

As he pondered, the mushrooms spread visibly, covering walls and even the ceiling.

The imps, impatient for growth, charged to snatch them in a chaotic frenzy resembling wild dogs fighting for scraps.

Dachun grew anxious—this was his food source!

But he dared not rush in. Instead, he gathered some small mushrooms from a nearby wall.

Up close, the mushrooms appeared hazy, almost insubstantial, like a gelatinous mass formed from condensed fumes.

—System notice: Warning! You have gathered unknown dangerous mushrooms. You have successfully triggered the “Gathering” skill training.

Unknown mushrooms: Seemingly poisonous, dissipate rapidly with energy loss, and do not satiate hunger.

Huh?

Dachun was less concerned about poison—his immunity made that moot—but intrigued by the vague, subjective system description. Normally, items unrecognized without identification spell appeared simply as “unidentified,” not with speculative notes like “seemingly.”

He recalled the magic stone’s description earlier also mentioned “seemingly lucky.”

Could it be due to his 5 points in Intelligence, granting innate identification?

Intelligence was the ultimate hidden attribute—rapidly mastering advanced, expert, and master skills within the shortest time yielded achievements. Even without explicit tasks, one could deduce scenarios.

Gathering must be practiced!

Looking up at the ceiling, the largest, most vibrant mushroom cluster faced the lava pool, glowing with jewel-like brilliance. Smaller, lesser-quality mushrooms surrounded them. These were beyond the imps’ reach—climbing was required.

This was fortunate. Previously, lack of climbing almost derailed his progress. He now planned to train climbing and gathering simultaneously.

Typical climbing was vertical scaling, unlike a gecko’s ability to cling to ceilings—this was the distinction between ordinary and master climbers.

Lost in thought, the small mushrooms in his hand began to fade—they would vanish soon. Could they really serve as emergency rations?

He decided to eat one and test its poison.

—System notice: You are immune to the unknown mushroom’s poison. You seem to have gained an unknown effect.

Immunity was good enough. Whatever the unknown effect was didn’t matter—this was his sole food.

He found a slightly uneven wall and picked all the small mushrooms to replenish his stamina spent mining.

He noticed stamina replenished quickly, but hunger diminished slowly—damn! So this was the “does not satiate” attribute? In other contexts, this would be junk food, here it was a treasure.

Climbing consumed vast stamina. Novices usually relied on dried food to quickly restore stamina. Eating dried food reset hunger to zero—the state of being full—preventing further eating and forcing rest to regain stamina. But resting during climbing was impossible, making training difficult.

With these mushrooms, he could climb and snack simultaneously, never worrying about hunger resetting and inability to eat.

So he began.

—System notice: You failed to climb due to excessive weight...

Multiple attempts failed for the same reason.

The problem was the 100-plus weight of the magic stones he carried. Overburdened novices struggled to progress.

He recalled professional climbers on television who carved footholds with shovels while climbing.

He was a master miner who could dual wield, freeing one hand.

If he carved footholds with his pickaxe while climbing, perhaps he could train mining and dual wielding alongside climbing—a possible combo skill.

He chipped several uneven pits into the wall for footholds and began ascending.

This time, he found the rhythm!

But the challenge lay above. After climbing some distance, his feet found footholds and one hand gripped the wall, while the other hand chipped out more footholds. It felt like cleaning a ship’s hull with a single pickaxe yesterday.

He pressed on.

He reached the top!

—System notice: Congratulations! You have successfully mastered Level 1 Basic Climbing. Achievement reward: +1 Carrying Capacity, +1 Stamina.

Excellent! Basic climbing would ease future difficulties.

He plucked a slightly larger mushroom nearby.

—System notice: Congratulations! You have successfully mastered Level 1 Basic Gathering. Achievement reward: +1 Carrying Capacity, +1 Stamina.

A double blessing. He pressed on.

His climbing proficiency soared as he ascended to the mine ceiling, which curved midway.

Beyond this point, the difficulty was akin to reaching the heavens. Despite footholds, there was no leverage for his feet; he had to hang by one hand alone—a feat requiring enormous grip strength, beyond his current ability.

He decided to harvest all mushrooms here. These were medium-sized and more substantial, so he kept some on him to test their shelf life.

After clearing this patch, he chipped footholds to the side to gather more.

While picking and eating, the screen brightness suddenly increased slightly. Dachun startled—was this another hacker attack?

—System notice: You have absorbed a large amount of mushroom energy. You have gained an unknown effect.

Ah, it was a vision enhancement. Useful, perhaps?

He glanced at the imps, who had finished fiercely scavenging all reachable mushrooms and now staggered drunkenly, humming and mumbling.

Typical signs of intoxication. These mushrooms were actually...

At that moment, the overseer’s muffled roar echoed through the tunnels again.

Damn!

The imps snapped out of their stupor, rushing back to their posts and mining frenziedly as if injected with adrenaline.

Dachun had to hide too. After jumping down, he thought of the two weak imps. Looking back, they still lay prone, clearly too beaten and hungry to even steal, let alone fight.

He didn’t want to implicate them further, so he tossed their pickaxes back to them and moved on.