D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad
Chapter 1883 Mushrooms

Chapter 1883: Chapter 1883 Mushrooms

--- Kat ---

Kat had been tempted to explore the lake a bit. After leaving, and hopping up into the air a bit... the idea struck her. There HAD to be something useful inside... but it would also piss off a lot of people and this was just the first day. Better not to tempt fate like that. So instead, Kat flew away from the village, making mental note of where it was, what landmarks she could use from a distance to find it again as she was flying away.

And then Kat got started scrounging around. Looking for orbs and mushrooms. Different mushrooms anyway. It was in some ways easy, and in other ways quite hard. Kat hadn’t really been looking at the mushroom trees as distinct entities, but instead as ’mushroom trees’ but taking a second look they really were quite different. Normal mushrooms were already a crazy variety but magical ones? Really magical ones not just drugs? Those came in even more shapes and colours.

Just as an example, Kat ran into a giant morel mushroom. The ones with the deep grooves in them that sort of looked a bit like honeycomb, acorns, or even brains depending on how you looked at it. This thing was huge, and the gaps in it were large enough that smaller birds had taken to nesting inside. No orbs, so Kat didn’t stick around long but it really was something to see.

On the crazier side Kat managed to find a glowing mushroom that looked like a jellyfish. It was shining a beautiful blue with long strands hanging off it... and it was tiny. She didn’t find a giant glowing mushroom. Kat also wasn’t sure she really wanted to pick it either. She’d found this one hidden in a patch of what looked like chestnut mushrooms. They’d all grown around this blue one almost protectively.

Then there were the ’bark’ mushrooms, the ones that grew off of trees like oyster mushrooms. In this case... well they grew off of other mushrooms and almost looked like flowers or stepping stones growing out from the ’tree’ itself. Which is actually what made it so hard to determine things.

What counted as a unique mushroom? Kat found more than one patch of mushrooms, bunched up under a larger one and enjoying the damp space... that contained a dozen varieties. Kat was pretty sure that’s not how it worked on earth but here there clearly distinct mushrooms all bundled together... and some less distinct ones.

To go back to the morel’s. Kat knew of at LEAST four different kinds that were on Earth... and no idea how that translated here. Was that one over there that was two shades lighter a different kind of morel? What about that one that’s nowhere near as wide and twice as tall but the same shade? Or that odd looking one with a big hole in the middle. Is the hole natural? Or is it healed over damage? Kat was no mushroom expert and she didn’t know the answer to these questions.

Of course there were a few orbs found along the way. Even if Kat was still heading further away from the town she was still fairly close and found exactly two of the smallest ones in her search, and it was just after finding the second of these, that Kat found something interesting. A small clearing with moonlight shining down on the centre... and in that centre? A mushroom that looked to be made from gemstones. It didn’t glow blue though, it was red, a bright red ruby mushroom in the centre of the clearing.

*So like... this has got to be a trap right?*

[Has to be. At the same time...]

*Feels like you have to spring it anyway?*

[Yup.]

Kat strode forward, keeping her eyes and ears peeled for anything noteworthy as she approached the mushroom. It really was too blatant. The gemstone mushroom HAD to be important and it was also probably a trap. Still... you couldn’t really ignore an invitation like this. It was practically a red carpet complete with lights and camera flashes.

Kat stopped just one step short of the mushroom. She’d expected something to happen before now but... nothing. Kat knelt down and jammed a finger into the dirt, half expecting a monstrous scream to ring out as she pierced the flesh of some giant monster hidden underneath the mushroom... but nothing. Just dirt.

Kat flicked it off her finger and glanced down the hole. Shrugged and then moved a foot over it and blasted demonic fire down into the gap. Still no response. *Is it really not a trap?* Kat moved forward. She was right next to the mushroom now. Just had to reach out and grab it... but it might be best to take a patch of dirt around it as well right?

Kat started to dig around it. Once she’d dug out a little trench Kat started to wiggle her fingers and tail underneath and separate the square from the rest of things and put it in her bag. It was just as her tail had reached the centre where it tapped something hard. Now, Kat had been very careful, not wanting to damage the mushroom stem or too many roots if she found them.

Instead, the moment her tail just barely brushed against the mushroom space around her twisted like she was being sucked through a straw. Kat was spun around and around as colours exploded all around her and she was eventually thrown against a wall. The wall gave first, cracking and breaking as Kat pushed off and started to fall. Flaring her wings to stop that Kat, looked around. She couldn’t see. There was no light at all.

A bit of demonic fire fixed that and Kat found... she was certainly not in the forest anymore. *Shit. Weaver is going to be annoyed if I’m not around for that meeting. WAIT THE BAG!* Kat reached back to the bag she had on her back. She’d been storing orbs inside and surely they were... shattered? Kat paused confused. As she ran her hand along the outside of the bag she could still sort of feel the orbs inside. Moving it around to her front Kat reached a hand in... and the orbs were fine? So was the node.

*What? The node I sort of expected, it’s made of tougher stuff but like... the orbs too?*

[It’s probably enchanted or the silk is just that good at absorbing the impact damage. Now focus.]

Kat looked around. It really was just a normal shaft. *Focus on what?*

[I don’t know. This is clearly a trap that you’ve ended up in.]

*Right but it clearly wasn’t designed with people who can fly in mind. Sure it was meant to stun you a bit first but honestly that strike didn’t hurt me too much and... well... I can just fly down at my leisure. What’s got you so worried?*

[Urgh. Nothing I guess? I suppose I freaked out when I ’watched’ you get teleported and then slammed into a wall... but it’s really not that big of a deal is it?]

*Nope. Didn’t even break my wings. Heck, there are no tears in them either. That’s pretty common and I’d expect most demons can heal that in a few minutes at most. Wings are fragile as it turns out... but nope. Nothing. It really wasn’t that much of an impact, might’ve just been meant to wind whoever a bit and make them less ready for the landing?*

[Go ahead then I guess.]

Kat smiled and let herself slowly glide downwards. It didn’t take too long until water became visible at the bottom of this tunnel. Kat shrugged and closed her wings, dropping down into the water. As soon as she hit the water the tunnel above slammed shut and lights beamed down on her from the walls. *Hmm...* Kat looked around and noticed that while there were lights everywhere, one of the directions wasn’t quite as bright.

Swimming in that direction, Kat was able to make it through multiple bubbles of light that seemed to be there more to blind people then light the way. Once she was past it though Kat could see the underwater tunnel just seemed to continue for a while... so swimming it was.

For someone else, this would’ve been a tense situation with a lack of air causing panic. There were a few tiny areas that, had Kat investigated, would’ve provided her with a tiny bit of extra air to keep her going...

But Kat wasn’t winded, she had more than enough air just to swim the whole tunnel and it took her about ten minutes. There were a few traps but... none of them were too hard. Just calmly looking at most gave her the answer. Like the nets that didn’t quite cover everything forcing you to move to one side. The spot that looked like a dead end where you just had to swim down to see there was more tunnel and other similar ’traps’. Kat was actually grateful for the chance to look at something other than mushrooms for a bit, if she was being honest.