It was damp near the water's surface.

"So now what?"

"We'll probably have to swim."

Jodie and Gram were at back at the pool, wondering how to exit the cave. Gram dipped a finger in the water and felt it. "Still stings; still cold."

"I wouldn't want to swim if we can help it. Is it still raining? Wouldn't want to go through that for nothing."

"John should know, I wonder what's taking him so long?"

Jodie shrugged, and recast [Torch], expanding the small guidelight into a campfire. "I'm just grateful for this convenience."

John emerged from the passage a few minutes later. He unwrapped the pocket watch around his hand and gave it one more look. He then tried to store it into his inventory, failing. That was expected and John fittingly placed it into his pocket.

"Hey," Gram called out. "We leaving?"

John checked his menu for the time. He had been tempted to use the pocket watch. "It's almost five. It's been an hour or two of rain. The acid storms tend to come and go pretty fast and are few and far between."

"That's a relief."

"Yeah, but we'll still have to swim."

They unequipped their items and entered the pool, swimming back under the tunnel. At the exit, there was a film of sorts that solidified on the surface. At least it was the sun was out, completing the brown tint of the region. They broke through into the musty air, gasping for breath only for the scum to fill their mouths.

Gram spat wildly. "Disgusting."

Jodie swam to the edge, grabbing it. "It's so slippery." Ground level was a few meters above them, and the sulfuric rain had smoothed the already steep entrance.

"Use a weapon," John instructed. "Try to keep it out of the liquid and work quickly before the durability disappears."

John equipped his starter dagger and stabbed it into the weakened walls, using it like an ice pick. Gram hesitantly stabbed his sword into the rock too. The acid formed a black mush as it splashed onto the metallic blade. Grams face dropped as the durability did too.

Simultaneously, Jodie was struggling with the staff. "Wait, guys!" she said with a trace of panic. "What about me?" The staff lacked the edge to penetrate the walls, but at least it seemed to somewhat acid resistant.

"If you can't make it out, just wait for a bit, we'll pull you out," John reassured.

John was the first one out of the hole. As a person with a good amount of experience and a nimble class, the slippery slope was fairly manageable. Gram was up a minute later. Near the top, he tossed his corroded greatsword over the edge.

"Here," John said, pulling the heavy warrior up.

The two then turned to face the helpless, freezing, half-naked pyromancer in the hole.

"Doesn't this power feel great?" John laughed.

"You're evil," Gram replied. He laughed too though. It felt a lot better than when he was stuck in the pitfall.

The two melee classes managed to pull out the mage after some effort. They had Jodie climb as high as possible and reach with her staff.

At this point the was sun setting, a consequence of the winter day. Normally, a sunset composed a mural of bright colors, yellow, orange, the pinks; leading towards the purples and dark blues of the approaching night. Supposedly, the brights were the result of a long path through the air, scattering most colors.

The same was true through the ghastly fog of the tainted lands. However, the unnatural particles scattered the light into an intense array of neon purples and reds. The three adventurers, huddled once again in of a [Torch] campfire, were caught in this supernatural phenomenon. Jodie and Gram took a deep breath as the initial brown evolved into vibrant swirls of red, like city folk gazing at the Aurora Borealis for the first time.

"It told you that this was a great spawn." Gram said.

"You said this was a great combat location, nothing about natural beauty." Jodie corrected.

"Can't it be both."

"Sure, it can, but it doesn't mean your choice was a good one. It just happened to turn out this way."

"Call it intuition," Gram said with a smug face. "Didn't I find mister expert here?"

"That was fate at best."

"Fate is also a skill."

"…"

"It's just like luck."

The streamers' conversation continued as the tainted sunset did as well.

The two talked for a while, and John listened quietly. He could understand why their stream had gotten a fair following. He warmed some water in his canteen and munched on the biscuits. He checked the pocket watch in his jacket. The acid had no effect on the immaculate finish, rather cleaning the remaining dust. The time was accurate too, hands ticking in perfect unison. John latched it, then took a sip and smiled with satisfaction.

In the past, he had spent many sunsets hunting. The breaks he took were always quick, just a munch on cold biscuits. Why would any high-ranking player take the time to heat a drink and enjoy the night?

John wasn't fully aware of it, but death had changed him. Of course, he knew he had changed: it was fairly obvious that anyone would change after such an experience. He acknowledged that the ambition he somewhat lost after his youth had been reignited. In the later years of RISE, after so much success, the guild had stagnated. Now with such an advantage, how could he not reclaim his position at the top, and probably obtain even higher?

But there were also changes that he couldn't quite perceive. The group took a while to recover their health. They were still sitting around the fire long after the HP read 100%, even neglecting to reequip their armor.

…

The show of exotic colors eventually faded into darkness. The three adventurers were returning to Gyead. Jodie's [Torch] burnt bright, carving a path in the darkness.

"We need to keep pace," Gram urged Jodie. Mages didn't have the same physical prowess as most other classes.

"That's easy for you to say," Jodie panted. "Isn't this harder than it was before?"

"That's part of Assimilation removal level one," John answered. "You have the same endurance, but tiredness is felt more, especially at lower stamina levels."

"Yeah, sounds about right," Jodie coughed out.

"Anyways," John added. "We don't need to keep going so fast."

"Night has just fallen and we're several miles out. Shouldn't we hurry back?" Gram asked.

"It's only a bit past six, so nightfall doesn't mean anything. Most RISE spawns aren't based on a regulated schedule rather than solar time. When was the last time you saw a rabbit?"

"I guess, but shouldn't mobs come out at night?"

"They do, but six to seven is a sort of twilight period, even if it's not twilight right now. It just because winter days are shorter. The diurnal mobs are gone and the nocturnal ones won't be about for another hour. It's the safest the tainted lands are ever gonna get."

"Alright, I guess that's not ba-"

"Stop," Jodie interrupted. "You almost stepped on this little mushroom here."

There indeed was a mushroom, red with blue polka dots. It looked fake, like an object from a cartoon.

"It's just a mushroom," Gram muttered. "You shouldn't be so sudden at night. You could scare someone."

"Alright, enough," John said, smushing the shroom under his boot. "Weapons up."

"What?" Jodie questioned. They pulled out their weapons. "Didn't you just say there'd be no monsters?"

"Torch, maximum intensity, into the sky," John ordered.

Jodie understood the seriousness of John's voice. The flame at the end of her staff devoured Jodie's health bar and shot vigorously into the air, hovering thirty feet in the air.

The conflagration rapidly increased in brightness and violence. The area was hit by the unstable firelight, revealing a small forest of mushrooms. The changing shadows laminated their meaty stipes, and caps, colorful like a tropical poison.

"Mushrooms… This is ridiculous," Jodie said weakly. Torch was a beginner utility spell that had a surprising intensity range. The pain had taken its toll.

"Those are barely mushrooms," John answered. "What kind of mushroom emerges hours after a rainfall? What kind of mushroom grows in negative ten-degree weather and thrives off sulfuric acid?"

"What kind of mushroom can move?" Gram added as one of them shifted across the earth.

The light gave John a better idea of the field ahead of him. This was a Shroom Surge, as called by players in the past life. They only appeared after the sulfuric rain and lasted six hours or so. But they were extraordinarily rare, one of them existing per region at most. In fact, John had only seen it in videos.

They were slow and rather easily avoided, but they encompassed a sizeable area. The fast spawn speed made it that the biggest danger was being surrounded as they grew from the ground. They were incomparably deadly though. Players wouldn't even be able to fight it until well into the 200s but slippery classes could at least escape from its midst by level 150.

Level two players, however, would be devastated if they even touched a shroom. Of course, they could just avoid the Surge. But that would take them well into the night with a possible ten-mile detour. Nocturnal monsters, suited for level 20 players, would chew them apart.

Luckily, they seemed to be near the edge of a branch of the Surge. The mushrooms were neck high at worst and didn't emit serious fumes. The fungal monstrosities at the heart of a Surge had enough poison to kill a level 200 tanker in seconds.

"Flash them," John commanded.

Jodie nodded and raised her staff, launching a max intensity Fireball at the Torch in the sky. She took several sharp breaths, under heavy stress after using half her health on spells.

The dead silence of the night was immediately broken. The two fiery elements collided, producing a blinding light like the Flashbang of an optical elementalist, only longer lived and brighter. An audible shriek was heard as the shrooms shriveled and retreated.

Torch produced very bright and concentrated flames. It was like a burning liquid, only it did no damage. By hitting a high-intensity Torch with an explosive force, it dispersed, dramatically increase the surface area and burn rate. This military-grade flare was a popular technique pioneered by pyromancers in the past.

"Just make a run for it and stay behind me. Protect Selene, Helios." John shouted over the roar of flames. "Do not touch them! It should only be a couple of hundred meters."

John led the group into the surge at full speed, blinding light burning against their backs. The sprint would destroy his stamina, but he could only pray the branch was as thin as expected.

At first, the mushrooms didn't bother with them, shrieking under the light brighter than the sun. These organisms would be hindered by the dim daylight of the tainted lands, let alone such a flash.

But the field grew denser as they entered deeper. After the first two hundred meters, the light lost its effect due to distance, and the mushrooms displayed their sentient nature. The larger mushrooms could move, but only slowly. They instead, tended to release a small crab-like organism that would swarm after anyone.

[Tainted Fungal Spawn]

Level: 3

HP: 10/10

"John, there's a crab." Gram shouted. "It's level three."

Indeed, it looked just like a crab. It had the distinct six jointed legs and sharp claws. A thick purple chitin shell protected the tainted crustacean organism's black eyes and snapping jaws.

"Just keep moving, we can't get surrounded." John urged.

A first it was only one spawn, produced by a low-level mushroom that they quickly past by, but as the mushrooms grew stronger and the darkness consumed the dwindling light, more appeared. It was one from the mushroom to the left, then two from the giant shitake look-a-like, and six from the king oyster wannabe right before them.

The entire forest became alive with the squirming of hundreds of thousands of fungal spawn. Mushrooms for hundreds of meters around vibrated vigorously, retching up the filthy mobs.

"Damn it," Gram muttered as a collection of the crabs obstructed his path. He gave a broad swing of the greatsword, activating Sweep. The blade easily ripped through the spawn, killing half a dozen.

The crabs might be level three, but their health was a sixth of a common mob. Their numbers were, however, more than enough to overwhelm a level 100. And this was just a small branch at the outskirts of the surge.

"To the left. Don't stop moving." John ordered. He fired his first shots. The fragile fungal growths exploded under the hot lead, taking several of its brethren with them.

Fifty meters behind them, at the epicenter of fungal of formation, the density reached absurd levels. The fungal spawn introduced into the world were crushed by their brothers and sisters. Their excited legs strained to push past the living mass, dislocating and snapping in their rabid frenzy. The individual spawn seemed to coalesce into a single wave of twitching limbs.

"Don't look back," John directed. "Focus on the path ahead."

The mobs in front of them grew more concentrated as well. A pair of discharges from the pistol positioned perfectly at the swarm ahead denied the fungi's efforts temporarily. They managed to push forwards another twenty meters before the wall became near-impenetrable.

From a bird's-eye view, one would have seen the teardrop shape of the fungal tsunami spearheaded by the adventurers.