“Balm Spores,” I muttered and the pain was replaced by a stinging sensation. White, fur-like fungus sprouted at the edges of my wound, growing inwards till the hole was more or less blocked. Balm Spores was an all-purpose healing spell, able to instantly fix skin-deep wounds such as cuts or burning and close off larger ones to prevent bleeding. It was one of the only healing spell options I had with Healing Spores and Fix-up Fungus.

That fight was a good starter, I learned that not only did I bleed yellow but I was also tougher than I expected. Getting stabbed twice barely slowed me down, granted the bleeding probably would’ve killed me eventually but I didn’t even realise it until after the fight. It’s a shame that I can’t see my HP bar. Hendrix complained about how HP was overrated since even a tank would instantly die if someone cut off their head due to the hyper-realistic settings. Which I translated to meaning, ‘You’ll die if it makes sense for you to die.’

I cast Balm Spores again on my back, closing up the other wound and stood up. I needed to get going, there were still three to four goblins that ran the moment they saw me. An odd amount of intelligence for tutorial mobs but it made sense if they were going for a realistic world.

If I remembered correctly, following this corridor should lead to a food court. The Macca’s here served great chips. Which led me to the realisation that going outside might actually give me an advantage in-game. I chuckled at the thought of couch potatoes everywhere suddenly going outside to better play the game. I wasn’t any better of course, but I finally might be able to work off my pot belly. Maybe even get a job-

I paused as I heard footsteps. I had arrived at another intersection, the footsteps were coming from the left corridor. Slowly, I crept towards it, hiding beneath a ruined display counter. I peeked my head out, before rapidly bringing it back in.

What the actual fuck!? There were at least thirty-something goblins! I know that this is supposed to be a realistic game but have some concern about game balance! I’m only level 1 damn it!

Ok. Fuck. Calm down, I took a deep breath. I can work with this. Maybe. First off, I needed to leg it. They were still far off and with how much noise they’re making it was unlikely they’ll hear me running. Probably. Shit. Start running Declan. Why of course Declan. I began quickly crawling behind the display, before rising and full-on legging it.

They can’t expect me to try and fight that horde. I might be able to one-shot the goblins but they were a lot faster than me. I could probably manage five but any more than that and their numbers advantage would just screw me over.

Was the goblin camp earlier some kind of outpost? And by not managing to kill them all before they escaped it triggered the event for the goblin horde. Was this a roundabout way of saying my actions had consequences? That was very likely. Which further proved that this wasn’t the type of game that would just spawn in an army of goblins. The fact that those goblins ran in the first place meant that they had a place to run to. I reached the intersection where Hendrix geared me. The goblin horde came from the left, so my current right. I headed down that corridor.

Now, if I was a rabid horde of goblins out for mushroom blood, how would I best murder said mushroom? Spread out, split the goblins into at least pairs and scour the entire mall. Upon contact immediately run and grab other goblins before swarming the myconid.

I, as the myconid being hunted by said goblin horde. Needed to avoid that situation. If they split up I could thin the horde, but I increased the chance of death by mobbing. So I needed to go where they have already searched.

It’s more or less confirmed at this point that Gaia was a real, living world, which meant that everything had to make sense in some way. The goblins needed to have come from somewhere. However, it was also a game world. A place where you're meant to grind levels like in normal games. Furthermore, I was in the beginning tutorial, a controlled environment. This meant that there had to be a solution, a way to beat that horde somehow. I just had to find it. The goblins probably originated from a larger camp, I needed to find that camp and decide my actions from there.

The mall here had a grid-like design. Assuming the goblins took a semi-straight path, then I could loop around and search for the camp or at the very least avoid the horde for the moment.

I turned right at another intersection. Soon finding myself on the path the goblins had already tread. I quickly peeked my head out to look on both sides. The goblins were nowhere in sight. Good.

I began heading left, following the goblin tracks. It wasn’t difficult. The grass and moss here were clearly flattened by the dozens of feet that ran through it. I’d be blind to not notice it.

I paused, catching my breath. I had more stamina in this body compared to my real one but not by much.

I was now on the opposite end of the mall. At what was once a food court, a large circular area with dozens of chairs, tables and benches scattered around, with various restaurants and fast food stores bordering it. The court was mostly cleared out of that stuff here, replacing it was some sort of tribal looking village. The village followed a circular design, a central large hut in the middle with more huts spreading out from there. Some white smoke drifted from the central hut. It looked empty and checking the doorways I could tell that the village was definitely made for something as short as a goblin. No ceilings oddly enough and the village overall looked very flimsy, I suppose the mall roof provided enough cover from the weather.

The annoying thing was, the entire food court was lit up by sunlight. There was a glass ceiling, which while it looked a bit dusty now, sunlight still streamed through it. With my Sun Sickness debuff, I wasn’t sure how far I could make it. The description said it only drained my stamina but I had no idea how quickly it would be. Not only that getting here had already tired me out by a fair deal. It felt like I was recovering quickly but I had no idea by how much.

Rest and prepare it is then. I stalked the edges of the food court, staying to the shaded areas away from the sunlight. Reaching a place where I was in view of most the entrances of the village.

Guarded, I sat down cross-legged. Placing my hand on the ground, I quietly whispered, “Mushroom Meal,” and a large, brown flat-topped mushroom sprouted next to my hand. I picked it up, looking it over before taking a bite out of the top

Hmm, tender but had a rubbery bouncy texture to it. I took another bite, there was a savoury liquid in it as well, which made the mushroom pretty juicy. My mouth felt weird too, like it was methodically grinding down the food. Definitely not human teeth, but not sharp like most predators’ or the flat ones herbivores have. I’ll check what my mouth looked like the next time I find a mirror. I felt my body slightly warming up a bit as I swallowed the mushroom.

Mushroom Meal was not only a pretty filling meal, but it also restored stamina and slightly boosted HP regeneration, with how many debuffs my race had in regards to stamina I figured this was a must-have spell. One should be enough to restore around half my stamina pool, with the passive regeneration I should be completely topped up by the time I’m finished.

I took another bite out of the mushroom. It was better than I thought it would be. The tenderness and juices made it like a medium-rare steak but the bounciness gave it an extra pseudo-crunch sorta like a vegetable.

Finishing the mushroom I stood up, just in case I cast another Mushroom Meal and kept it in my hand as a snack, before entering the village and into the light.