The North-East Road was surprisingly long, stretching over eight kilometers. After the one hour mark they reached the city's borders. The air got hotter and creepier as they got further away from the city.
Two hours later they reached a stone crevice. It was enough to fit two people side by side.
"Sit down, let's wait for Edwin" Ariel said, using his halberd as a cane to sit down.
Amy and Peter sat down as well. After 30 minutes of waiting in this hot and humid air, Peter jumped out of the ground. "Let's explore the forest!" he said before they could counter. "Come on, just for a bit. Edwin won't get angry for a sneak peek."
Ariel sighed "Sure, but no more than half an hour," he said, getting up from the ground, ready for exploration. "Are you coming too, Amy?" he added.
"The Mushroom forest caught my interest as well." Amy answered. She got up and walked to the entrance to the forest.
The walls of the crevice were stone at first, but later the air changed from moist to dry and smelled more like molten metal and less like a cavern. Going further in the walls were coated with a shiny liquid with a complex pattern that dripped down to the floor.
"This should be raw mana, a liquidized form of mana in the air..." Amy said and she pulled a cup to fill it with raw mana for experimentation. "It was only theorized until now." Her face lighten up with awe. She closed the cup and put it back in her backpack.
"I wonder what else this forest holds." Amy said quickening her steps.
As they continued to walk, the crevice expanded into a 9 person wide cave. The mana from the ceiling was rhythmically dripping down into a pool of some sort. The bottom of these pools was solidified into crystals and shined with a turquoise color.
"These look exactly like fire stones." Peter said as he looked at one of these pools.
"They are fire stones." Amy answered. She reached for one of these pools drenching her hand in raw mana and pulled out a naturally-shaped crystal from the pool. The crystal began to heat up and light up like a lamp.
Suddenly they heard faint footsteps from behind. The group turned to the source of this sound. "I didn't think you would figure it out this fast." Edwin said in a soft voice.
"Let's go further in, the artifact is in the depths of the forest." He said, as he closed in.
Before they went any further Amy dipped her orb in raw mana. The little orb started to float freely again.
With Edwin, the group began their journey to the Mushroom Forest. The cave expanded even further, to a full-blown cavern with fire stones sticking out of every wall. Going further in the smell of spores and rot slowly filled their lungs; overgrown mushrooms of all different colors -red, blue, orange, purple...- and sizes, were present in front of them. The air pressure doubled. It was harder to move but the moist air gave them a chance to ease the heat.
Amy concentrated mana in her eyes and looked at her surroundings, looking for something. After a while she looked at the ceiling, "Mana is rushing in from upwards..." She whispered, deconcentrating the mana.
She signaled for them to stop "I was wondering all this time where mana came here from." She explained "My theory is, the forest is using the blood but sending the mana to the depths because it can't consume"
"Forest..." Edwin said to himself, in a whisper. "Tell me about it."
As they continued to walk Amy explained the Crimson Forest, the fruits and the flowers, the beast that they encountered and the ground opening up.
Edwin chuckled lightly and he turned to Amy "You guys had a great journey, right?" He turned back to the mushrooms in front "They say that the exit was sealed to protect civilians underground, from vile beasts on the surface." His face was invisible since he walked on the front. To lead the group.
As they continued to walk, the forest began to fill with soft mumbling and incoherent but distinctive conversations. Foots smashing against the soft ground all around them, Ariel gripped and slowly drew his halberd out of its scabbard; his steps were softened. Seeing Ariel's reaction, the group pulled out their weapons and slowly walked away.
The ground shook and waved.
Suddenly a large, vaguely humanoid beast emerged from the ground with mushrooms sprouting all over its body. Without a chance to react, the group got thrown around.
Amy got slammed into the spongy ground. She gasped for air. Before she realized, she got up and reached for her backpack. Footsteps were rushing in. She pulled the first thing that came to her hand.
Raw mana should do.
She threw the mana around, before it could reach the ground. It exploded with a blinding light and nearly deafening everyone in the cavern. Already unstable ground crumbled under the explosion with a crack. The ceiling got farther and farther away. Amy grabbed onto anything she could find. Her consciousness slowly faded away.
...
After a good hour Amy woke up. She grabbed her head. it felt heavier than before. Her vision was blurred, barely making sense of her surroundings and groaning out of pain she smelled the blood and the dampness of the dirt.
That wasn't planned
After a few blinks she could perceive the surroundings better. Light sponge-like dirt covered all around her and her clothes. After getting up she looked around. It was only bigger mushrooms, but these ones were reaching to the ceiling. The last support of the Upper Caverns had been blown away.
More importantly, she couldn't see any of her friends anywhere. "This again?" She grumbled coughing out the dirt in her lungs. She reached for her backpack. Surprisingly, the backpack was unharmed after how many falls it encountered. She shook the dirt off her clothes and got ready to get out of the Lower Caverns.