Chapter Six: The Fall

As soon as the giant Sporeling's foot hit the centre of the keep, the spot sunk down, and everything in a nine hundred metre radius started falling into the stem of the mushroom, which was hollow.

Tens of thousands of Sporelings fell into the hole as well as the giant Sporeling since it had put all it's weight on it's front foot. Falling though the air, Karl looked at the Sporelings all around him that were roaring incessantly, and he thought "I'm gonna die."

The giant Sporeling, which was the Guardian, was trying to slow it's fall by grabbing the inner walls of the stem, but it's arms weren't able to grab on to anything. It wasn't able to get a grasp on the inner walls since the were too hard and smooth.

They need to be hard and strong enough to support the weight of the entire mushroom and any creatures that decide to make it their home. Approaching the ground at a faster and faster speed, Karl eventually reached terminal velocity, but not before the Guardian and most other Sporelings did.

Because Karl was only bones, he was significantly lighter then most of the Sporelings, weighing approximately 20 kilograms, which was because he still had most of the moss and other plant life on him and also because his bones were slightly denser than the average human bones.

With a resounding thud, the Guardian hit the ground first as it was the heaviest and reached terminal velocity fastest, and then most of the other Sporelings hit the ground. Karl was going to be one of the last ones to hit the ground

Back to the situation with Kris and Matthew, they had reached the city limits before they had to stop because they had seen the Guardian appearing, and then they spectated the situation with a spell from Matthew.

Pointing his wand at Kris and himself, Matthew chanted in an unknown language, "Thigow gos fo do gi nido" which basically just translated to "Enhance our vision", and it was like they were standing right in front of the Sporelings and Guardian.

Matthew didn't bother casting it on the other five members in their group since they had only met at the Gathering a few days ago. Observing the situation at the giant mushroom, they weren't able to tell if it was a person from another Safe Haven that they new of, but the definitely knew it was a Human.

Only Humans caused that kind of reaction in the Sporelings, which was quite bizarre considering that only the human turned Sporelings had that reaction towards Humans. Other animals or living beings that have been infected by the spores don't have the same reaction to Humans, instead they just ignore them unless they are attacked or are purposefully aggravated.

"Me and Matthew will go and investigate the city and see if we can find anything related to the identity of this person. Maybe they left some signs somewhere in case someone came looking for them, such as a note in one of the bunkers below the city or a map of where they had come from and were heading too."

Kris said this as she landed in the more urban area closes to where Karl's skeleton had been laying, she also whispered something into her raven's ear before it flew towards the giant mushroom. Understanding her meaning, Matthew landed beside her and commanded his bird to stay near the larger mushrooms outside the city and to only come and get him when he sent the signal.

Because of their increase in intelligence, the ravens were now as smart as a six year old child, at least the first generation is, the new chicks were showing signs of being that smart at only a month old, they were getting smarter with this new generation.

Having whispered to it to go and see if it can take note of the current situation happening on top of the mushroom, Kris watched her raven fly away as she started heading in the direction of Karl's previous unconscious location while Matthew was loosely holding his wand and walking behind her.

Not even a minute into their journey, an earthquake started happening as they heard a loud thud accompanied by a pained roar, and then it was silent. Standing still for a few seconds, Kris and Matthew continued walking towards the location that Karl had been in every other time they had been here.

Arriving at the spot that Karl had been in, Kris and Matthew were shocked at what they found. They found nothing. Every other time they had been here in the previous months Karl's skeleton was in this location, steadily being overgrown by moss and mushrooms.

A month after the attack, they had become confident enough to take a trip from the Safe Haven to the city, and they did. Flying there on their ravens, they used a dark blue mushroom as a lantern since it didn't produce much light and wouldn't attract much attention.

When they had been walking around in the city, they went to the location that Karl had been in just before they had been teleported away, and they saw a skeleton with one of it's femurs being chewed on by a Sporeling that was lying on the ground.

It was lying on it's stomach chewing on one of the femurs since it wasn't able to lift the bones at all. The tiny symbols that the hand had inscribed actually weighed a kilogram each, but only under certain conditions, such as a hostile being touching him without his consent.

Looking closer, they saw that some scraps of clothing were still on the skeleton, and those scraps of clothing made them have a realization. It was Karl's skeleton that the Sporeling was munching on without a care in the world.

With her face contorting into one of anger and bloodlust, Kris took her sword, which was just a smaller longsword than the one she has strapped on her back in the future, and she charged towards the Sporeling.

Turning around, the Sporeling was about to roar at Kris, but it's head was lobbed off before it could do anything. A notification sounded in Kris's head about gaining EXP from killing the Sporeling, but she ignored it as she kneeled down to inspect Karl's skeleton.

Touching the bones, she realized that she wasn't able to lift them up to pick them up, or even able to make them budge. Stopping her attempts to try and move the bones, she looked at Matthew, trying to communicate something with her eyes, but Matthew was clueless as to whatever that was.

"Ugh. Cast a spell around his skeleton so no Sporelings try and damage it, I don't want to see the remains of the man I love being reduced to nothing but dust. We can come back once a month to renew the spell if we need, and to strengthen it as you get stronger."

Smacking his forehead and clicking his tongue, Matthew did as he was told, since Kris is his friend and because she was a higher level then him, and he cast the strongest protective spell he had, which was only a measly level one spell.

It would last a month, but it wasn't very strong, it could last against a few attacks from the lowest level Sporeling before it was destroyed. They then continued walking around the city until they arrived at the university, and then they went to their old dorms.

Because it had only been a month and most Sporelings don't just randomly destroy things, the university and dorms were still in relatively good condition, all that needed to be done was a little bit of cleaning and it would look as good as new.

Walking through the dorms building, Kris and Matthew arrived at their old room, and they entered. Passing the threshold of the door, they were immediately attacked by a small Sporeling the size of an 8 year old child, and they sustained some minor injuries to their faces as those were the only unprotected places.

Matthew received eight small injuries all over his face before he reacted to the tiny Sporeling, which promptly jumped to Kris's face after Matthew started reacting to the sudden attack, but it was only able to get a single scratch on her face before it was cut in half.

Looking down at the tiny Sporeling, Kris looked at the notification from the system about what kind of Sporeling it was as she had never seen it before, and she was surprised at the silly name of it. Being aptly name for it's small size but fast speed along with it being a Sporeling, it was called "Sporedster", a mix between Sporeling and speedster.

Shaking her head, Kris didn't know where the names for some of these things came from, but they weren't very good. Deciding to change the names of some of the creatures mutated by the spores after she got back to the Safe Haven, Kris walked into her own room while Matthew went into his.

Searching around, she didn't find anything of interest except for the dress she had been wearing when she first met Karl. Being a bright vermilion, it was a dress that reached just above her knees, stopping a few inches above them.

While looking at the dress you would get the illusion that you were looking at a phoenix because of how beautiful it was, there were even two phoenix pins on the shoulders that would keep the dress from falling down.

From the bottom of the dress to halfway up there was an opening meant for ease of movement when wearing it, like the one that most celebrities had on their dresses, but the difference was that there was a thin layer fabric that was in that area that prevented the wandering eyes of strangers.

It was just the right thickness to not be seen through but thin enough that it wouldn't impose on the movement of the legs. Basically it was just a very beautiful dress meant for use in places that had dancing with very wide ranges of motion, like where Kris had met Karl for the first time.

Meeting at a heavy metal concert, Kris and Karl had been moshing close to each other when a particularly enthusiastic man had knocked Kris down a little to hard. Bumping into Karl while falling, Kris had ended up dragging him down with he as she was falling.

Using emergency evasive maneuvers gained by being around unruly horses, Karl had managed to dodge most of the feet that would have trampled him along with the Kris while simultaneously dragging her away so she wasn't injured.

Due to this, Kris was smitten as Karl was her knight in shining armour saving her from a grievous fate, and she was carried away in a princess carry while staring at Karl's face, which still had special glasses on, even in their first meeting Karl still had them on.

After reaching the edges of the mosh pit away from the rowdy crowd, Karl and Kris introduced themselves and exchanged contact details, and then they learned that they were both going to the same university in a few days.

Anyway, Kris put that dress in a special bag that would keep it safe, and the she searched the bathroom for things that women need every month. Matthew on the other hand, he was looking at the vintage magazines he had obtained from his father that he hid under his bed.

Coming out of their rooms, Kris and Matthew both went and searched Karl's room, where they found the safe under his desk. Kris hadn't been sleeping when Karl opened it the day the attack happened and spilt his drawings on the floor, so she saw everything, and that included to code for the safe.

Entering the code 1685, the safe opened to reveal the folder with thirty-three drawings inside it, and Kris took the folder out of the safe. Opening the folder, her and Matthew both looked at the folder as they realized that they were all drawings of the current events that have happened already.

Such as the world being on fire, the giant mouth swallowing the sun, and the deformed/ mutated animals with mushrooms growing off of them. Finding the last few pieces to be bizarre, Kris and Matthew looked at the drawing depicting the three Safe Havens, and decided to copy that piece and leave the original here.

Doing just that, they had just finished copying it, putting it along with all of the other drawings inside the same bag that the vermillion dress was in, and closing the safe when there was a large crash. A large fist crashed through the wall, destroying almost everything in Karl's room.

Terrified at what was currently stuck in the wall, Kris and Matthew ran out of their dorm room right after Matthew chanted "Flacurè flumas", which meant "Quick Flame", while pointing his wand at the giant fist. With a spark, a small quick flame hit the hand, with the fire spreading quickly over the fist and up the forearm, Kris and Matthew continued running, which is why the didn't notice that their dorm room started catching on fire.

A roar of anger resounded as one of the Sporelings that was a hundred metres tall was angrily pulling it's arm out of the building. Grabbing its ablaze arm, the Sporeling pulled it's arm out of the wall, and it started rampaging all around the dorms building and the university as well.

Trying to find Kris and Matthew, who had already flown away after calling for their ravens, it destroyed the entire university before calming down. It then sat on top of the rubble of the buildings as it looked around it's surroundings.

Back to the current situation, Kris and Matthew looked around for any clues as to where Karl's body went, but there were none. Before they could investigate further, they had to leave because they were spotted by a Sporeling they couldn't kill yet, it was one of the one hundred metre tall ones that didn't join the group going after Karl.

Whistling, Kris and Matthew waited a few seconds before their ravens appeared before them, and they climbed on their backs and flew off to join the rest of the group. Karl's situation was a lot more dire than it seemed, it had only been thirty seconds since Karl had started falling, and he was about to reach the ground.

Grabbing one of the smaller Sporelings, Karl got an idea. Twisting it's head off a message appeared before his eyes, "Your have killed a Juvenile Sporeling, you have gained 400 EXP, as a bonus for killing this monster for the first time you gain double the EXP. Congrats! You have gained one level, all stats restored to maximum."

Like music to his ears, he quickly tapped the back of his skull and saw that his health was now at 12 and was full, deciding to test another theory that he had come up with while falling, he put two of his now four points into his health, which increased by another 10, so he was now at 22 health.

Half a second after he had finished that small interaction with his system he hit the ground and broke apart into many different pieces. His skull along with his spine, rib cage, and an arm flew in one direction, while all his other bones flew in other directions.