Khha offers you the task: “Stock up on food”!

The Goal: Find 10 turquoitus, 10 rubitus, 10 emeraltus, 1 transparentus, and 10 haloptirius for the cave bug.

Accept: yes/no?

I accepted the old fellow’s task and asked him what I needed to bring and where I should look for it.

“A turquoitus is a mushroom with a gorgeous cap that glows with a turquoise light. A very tasty thing, by the way. A rubitus is a mushroom, too, but of a smaller size, and it grows near the glittering stones from which the two-legged make their claws. Its most distinctive trait is a reddish glow that forms a halo around the cap. An emeraltus is not like the previous mushrooms, it has a thin cap. These mushrooms are very small, they shine with a very weak, dark green light and while standing close to them it’s possible to see them sparkle in a dark green hue. As for a transparentus… it’s a bit more complicated. This is a quite large, transparent mushroom and it doesn’t glow. These kinds of mushrooms accumulate water inside themselves, so you should look for the transparentus near small lakes. Haloptirius are small creatures similar to caterpillars; they are quite often found near cave moss.”

“I see,” I nodded, memorizing everything the old fellow told me.

“But before you leave, I’ll teach you a skill, since there’d been no time for you to be taught properly before,” the cave bug touched my head with its sharp leg, and something strange happened.

“Spatial pocket” skill acquired!

Description: allows you to create a spatial pocket that clings to your body. The pocket provides you with five cells where you can put any items.

Level: 1

“Use the skill.”

“How?”

“Just think that you want to place something in the space available to you,” - the cave bug clarified. “For example, this pebble.”

I took the pebble and began to examine it carefully while imagining how it would fall into a pocket. Nothing happened for a while, and when my eyes began watering from the strain, the stone jumped up and disappeared.

“Wow!” I twitched in surprise from such an unexpected result.

“Now close your eyes and imagine this pebble in front of you,” Khha continued to explain.

I followed the old bug’s advice and saw a black window pop up in front of me. It was divided into five cells, and my stone was being kept in one of them.

“Now reach out toward the pebble and get it out of there.”

Once again, I did as instructed, and the stone was back in my hand.

“Without this skill, you would not be able to bring back everything that I had asked for,” - the bug scratched its shell. “Develop this power and the number of cells will expand. You can also try to get a ripper’s bag, then you will have an additional way to collect items. However, keep in mind that it will be extremely difficult to do so.” He paused thoughtfully for a second.

“Well, alright, I’ve told you the basics, now practice them. I think at least fifty rebirths must have been given to you after you appeared in this world but be careful: life runs out so quickly that you don’t even notice it,” Khha said and disappeared under the big stone.

“Thank you,” I told the old fellow and went to get the items.

First, I went to the place where the turquoitus grew. I just needed to figure out how to get them. It was a pity that I had to walk for quite a long time and I couldn’t move quickly. I should work on my mobility. And in the meantime, I need to practice.

Along the way, I picked up different sorts of pebbles and placed them in my pocket. Some of them were stored in one cell and others were distributed among the rest. Honestly, I didn’t see any visual difference, but, apparently, it was there. However, it didn’t matter. The important thing was that this training raised my level of ability to three.

Finally, I reached the right place and immediately saw the glow. The mushroom was on the wall, but very high up. It looked to be about five times my height and it seemed a very difficult task to fulfill.

I tried to climb up several times, but I kept falling back down onto the sharp stones. The third time was especially unsuccessful, and more than a dozen hit points were lost. My shell hurt, so I didn’t want to climb anymore, and I had to think carefully about my next steps.

Well, there are only two options available to me. I have experience and I need to either invest it into my mind to get smarter and come up with something or throw the points into my legs and hope that my mobility will improve. What am I supposed to do?

Warning! Your brain cannot cope with processing and analyzing the incoming data!

And here’s a warning about how stupid I am! I’m not even allowed to think properly. Do I want to see it again? No. Therefore, the issue is resolved. I threw all my points into the mind stat.

Your brain is evolving. Now you have an ordinary brain!

Stats: mind +5, evolution +1.

Well, great, my head definitely feels better after that. Now let`s think about what to do next. Hmm... exactly! I have a lot of stones! I took out a pebble and threw it at the mushroom. Surprisingly, I had enough strength for the throw to make it to the mushroom, but I couldn’t hit it. Throwing upward wasn’t very convenient because of my body, but I couldn’t do anything with it now. On my seventh attempt, I managed to hit this ill-fated turquoitus and it fell to the stones. I picked it up and put it in my pocket. Phew! Now I need to find nine more pieces. I wonder how the old fellow would’ve gotten them.

I continued on. It seemed like half an eternity passed while I searched for and collected these turquoitus, but I did a fine job. I was lucky, especially toward the end. With only one mushroom left, I found three of them and knocked them down from the wall in three hits.

Holding the turquoitus in my hand, I observed this very interesting mushroom closely. What a pleasant light it emitted. My eyes felt so good, as if I were resting. Lights were flickering inside the cap and stalk, and its internal structure sparkled with different shades of blue.

It was strange; when I’d first seen this mushroom, it had looked a little different. Perhaps an improved brain can process the sights of the world much better. I thought a little more on it and just ate this delicacy.

What a divine taste! Now I understood why the old bug had asked me to bring them to him. Now I needed to go to the lake and look for a transparentus. I spent a few hours looking for this mysterious mushroom, but I couldn’t find anything.

After drinking water from the lake, I once again saw the pebble that I’d recently thrown away. I grumbled a little, plunged into the water and reached for the stone. It wasn’t so far away this time since I hadn’t had enough strength to throw it that far out.

I grabbed it and while I was heading back, I ran into something strange. It seemed as if there was something in the water and I could not keep going. I took out a luminous turquoitus from my bag and saw the shape of another, rather large mushroom, which was growing right under the water.

“Yeah, right, by the lake,” I snickered, remembering Khha’s words. “Not ‘by’, but ‘in’.”

I swam for quite a long time, and whenever I got particularly cold, I went ashore. I wanted to find a couple more of these mushrooms for myself. You never knew when they would come in handy. If I was right, these mushrooms shouldn’t have any taste, but they could be used far from a water source.

How strange, the stones could be adjusted for this purpose. I saw a couple of suitable ones that had holes in them. A few hours later, I finally found another mushroom and climbed ashore, feeling satisfied.

Your shell is evolving. Now you have a cold resistant beetle shell!

Stats: evolution +1, life +1.

Effect: cold protection + 2%

20 points of experience gained!

Level up! Current level: 5.

Wow! At this rate, I’ll soon be able to use the healing gene that Trirlil left me. I stretched my frozen legs and went over to the green emeraltus mushroom that had poisoned me.

It wasn’t clear why the old fellow needed them, but if he’d asked for them, then there had to be some reason for it. I found them much faster than I’d expected, and it took me two hours to collect fifteen mushrooms. Why fifteen, and not ten?

It was simple: you never knew when they could become useful. I had only one cell left. The moss grew in a completely different area, alongside those sparkling stones, next to which the rubitus were supposed to grow. Therefore, I decided to go back to the old bug and hand over the items I’d already found.

“Oh, you’ve already returned,” he said, surprised. “Let’s see what you got for me. Alright, so: transparentus, turquoitus, hmm... what are these?” He pointed to the mushrooms that were glowing green.

“Emeraltus,” I replied.

“These are not emeraltus,” Khha shook his head. “This is amanita. Look here, there’s a light green glow, whereas emeraltus’ glow is darker. Besides, an amanita is a poisonous mushroom, and it is quite dangerous. Don’t eat these mushrooms.”

“Okay,” I frowned and didn’t tell him about my experience with them.

“So far, you’re doing well, keep it up,” the old fellow nodded and disappeared under the stone again. Slightly upset, I hid the mushrooms and that pebble with white crystals inside it and headed to the place where I had found the cave moss.

That place turned out to be harder to find than I’d expected, but after wandering around for a while, I finally found it. I picked up some moss again and put it in my inventory. Then I noticed something strange nearby.

Small, slightly elongated, translucent creatures with many legs were swarming near a pebble. They seemed to be the haloptirius. I couldn’t resist and tried one of the caterpillars.

The taste, however, was somewhat unusual, and somewhere in the back of my mind, disgust appeared and then immediately disappeared. The old fellow seemed to be a foodie. The caterpillars turned out to be very sweet and tasty. I collected twenty-two of them. After that, I wandered around some more and finally found the emeraltus. Yes, they really did look like amanita, but they were a bit bigger and glowed with a darker light. Besides, they smelled completely different. Such an unusual smell, like... what’s it called? Oh! Spruce! Yes, these mushrooms smelled like spruce!

I somehow managed to track this smell and found thirteen of them. I didn’t eat them—I was too scared to try. Now I only needed to find the rubitus, and the place where they were supposed to be was very close by.

I found the glittering stones pretty fast. They were very solid and durable, and if I had at least one shard of them with me, I could attack the rippers.

When I saw the halo around the cap of the first rubitus, my heart immediately began to beat wildly. I got scared because its color resembled blood. It took me a while to get over it. Then I had to throw away twenty pebbles to make room for them in the spatial pocket.

After collecting fifteen pieces, I finally calmed down, and having put the last one in my inventory, I ate the sixteenth. How wonderful it was to experience such an incredible taste. The word strawberry popped into my head, and the taste got even better.

“Hey, Gardner, come see,” I heard someone`s voice call out. “There’s a bug devouring a rubitus over here.”

“Where?” Another one replied, and horror gripped my soul when I saw two of the two-legged in their shining shells.