"Ughh!" Adam fell to his knees as pain assaulted his head. He supported himself on the ground with one hand and massaged his temple with the other. He felt nauseated and the next moment he puked.
"Haa…" The youth wiped his mouth with his sleeves. "That felt terrible."
After entering the portal, he felt as if his insides were twisting and churning. The feeling of being teleported felt like an eternity, but at the same time, it felt like it was over in an instant.
However, the nauseating feeling remained.
For the next few moments, Adam had difficulty trying to find his center of balance and standing straight. Finally, after having puked one more time, he felt slightly better.
When he laid eyes on his surroundings, he was dumbstruck. This was unlike anything he had expected to find himself in before he entered the portal. It was safe to say that what he saw completely took his breath away.
"Whoa…" the youth muttered in a daze as he looked at the luminescent mushrooms around him. Some were small, others were big. While most were as big as trees.
Adam found himself in a mushroom forest!
All the mushrooms in the forest were the same, they only differed in size. Their stems were an earthy brown color. Their caps were red and had blue spots on them.
But the most fascinating thing about these mushrooms was their gills—the area under the cap. They were neon green in color and pulsated from time to time as if they were breathing.
Adam walked toward the nearest mushroom whose height was close to two meters. When he gazed at the luminescent gills of these mushrooms that were pulsating in a rhythm, he couldn't help but mutter, "How interesting! It's as if they're alive."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})As if responding to his remark, the mushrooms in his vicinity started to sway gently. The neon green light they emitted, pulsated in unison. A soothing sound started to emit from the caps of these mushrooms.
The lights and sounds came together and made for a spectacular scene. It was a symphony of mushrooms.
Adam's lips involuntarily curled up into a smile. "Such a magical place."
The next moment, a thought popped up inside his mind. Wait, can I eat these mushrooms?
He stroked his chin, trying to come to a decision. But the next moment, he shook his head. "No, I probably shouldn't. They could be poisonous for all I know."
He chose a random direction and started walking. His first objective was to get out of the Mushroom Forest and then he would start advancing toward the center of the secret plane.
As he walked through the forest, he looked around and saw that mushrooms weren't the only things that were growing, however they were the majority. Other than that, small plants and shrubs were growing on the forest floor.
The common characteristic that the vegetation in the forest shared was that they were luminescent. However, when Adam crouched down and picked up a tiny mushroom from the ground, the mushroom stopped glowing.
"Oh?" The youth was very fascinated. "So the luminescence is directly related to the forest, huh?"
Then, he scooped a handful of soil from the area where he had just uprooted the mushroom. Following that, he kept both the mushroom and the soil in two separate containers and then put them away inside his earring.
"This could come in handy. Who knows?" Adam muttered to himself as he continued to walk. "Regardless, it'll be interesting to experiment on those samples."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})The forest for the most part was dark, however, the light emitting from the countless mushrooms was enough to illuminate the area. It added an ethereal vibe to it. However, no light could penetrate from outside the forest as the mushroom canopy was tightly clustered.
Adam couldn't see what was beyond the canopy anyway. And as far as the eye could see, mushrooms had covered the horizon. He inferred that the forest was massive and it would take him at least a few days, maybe even weeks, to get out.
He had seen a place marked as the Mushroom Forest on the map, but he didn't think it would be this big.
"The map stated that this forest was home to goblinoids and a few other magical beasts," Adam mumbled, "but those goblins should be at the top of the food chain in this forest."
The youth had never seen a goblin in the outside world. After all, these creatures were concentrated in the depths of the Murky Mountains. They had low intelligence and were weak magical creatures, their strength seldom surpassing Rank 1.
Adam had read about them but never come across one, so he was somewhat excited to face off against a goblin. Just as he was thinking about this, his ears perked up and a faint smile formed on his lips.
Speak of the devil, he thought to himself. However, he continued to walk as if he hadn't sensed anything. He wanted to see what these crafty little fellows would do.
Ever since he entered the Mushroom Forest, he had already activated his Sphere of Resonance and greatly increased its area of surveillance. He could detect anything that was happening within a radius of 100 meters.
However, it wouldn't be too detailed. This was the trade-off for increasing the Sphere of Resonance's detection area. But it was still enough to alert him of any disturbances.
He could sense dozens of goblins closing in on him from all sides. What was interesting was that he couldn't hear the sound of their footsteps or any other sound whatsoever. Moreover, these goblins seemed to be waiting for something.
A trap? Adam thought. However, he couldn't see any traps in front of him or anywhere around him for that matter.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})But that didn't mean there was none!
He stealthily took out a material component from his earring and 'nonchalantly' walked ahead. The plus twenty goblins silently converged on him.
Adam still couldn't understand how they could move without a sound even though they were only about ten or so meters away from him. He found this very intriguing. But he didn't have much time to think as he suddenly stepped on something.
The next moment, runes materialized on the stems of the large mushrooms around him.
Adam was taken aback. Runic formations?!
The runes glowed with an eerie green light, inducing great drowsiness in him. His eyelids felt heavy and he began to slowly lose vision.
Just as he was struggling to stand and was about to stumble onto the forest floor, the trap was activated and he was ensnared inside a net made of thick vines covered in thorns.
The net swept him off the ground and lifted him into the air. As he was hanging in mid-air inside the trap, from the corner of his eyes, he managed to see goblins in leather clothing appearing all around him with menacing smiles.
Some of them pointed their bows at him and shot arrows! The arrows viciously pierced into Adam's body. He was completely helpless to defend against them.
The goblins excitedly cheered at having taken down their prey. But the next moment, the smiles on their faces froze when they saw their prey slowly dissipating into gray smoke inside the net.
"Traps using runic formations that have properties of stealth and enchantment, followed by mana-infused arrows. Very impressive." A cold voice drifted into the ears of the goblins making them tremble in shock and fear.
They turned around and saw a figure standing atop a luminescent mushroom. The hems of his black cape fluttered behind him as he weaved a series of hand signs at a leisurely speed.
The next moment, this figure donning the black pointy hat looked down at these goblins and pointed his finger at them.
"Magic Missiles!"
