They opened the door to enter and looked at their surroundings, it seemed to be more of the cave, but it was no longer bare. Pepe looked up, there were higher platforms as well as mushrooms, large ones at that, some of the platforms were the mushrooms sticking out. No enemies could be seen yet, at least at this lower level. As soon as the door closed the door disappeared, there was no way back to the locker room.

There was light coming from some of the smaller mushrooms as well as from the walls, some form of biolumi-something, he forgot the word. He would need to ask the brains; they probably know what it was called. He also noticed that not all the mushrooms were the same color, there were red ones, yellow, green, and blue some had spots others solid color. The caps of the mushroom was the different color the stock and the gills underneath were an off-white or a lighter color variation of the cap.

The bottom area they were in was not huge Pepe looked left then right, he could easily walk between the sides in about five minutes. Looking up he saw that it was very tall, lots and lots of rock, very little soil around for cave plants. The mushrooms he was not sure how they even grew out of the rock. It also felt muggy, and he could see that the walls were slimy, so there was some form of water source. Where the heat he felt came from he was not entirely sure.

“So now what?”

“Well not sure. Maybe some of them skills do something.” Yeah, the skills from the uniform, they had to do something, it could not just be a super plumber for a real badly clogged sink.

So how did you activate them? Guess it could be like the skills for their jobs. “So, who want to try it out first?” Josh was giving them a choice; the boys were looking at each other no one really volunteering.

“Really guys? Is this how you all do this every time? How do you actually get anywhere?” Michelle had lost a little of her patience with this whole democratic thing they had going. Sure, Pepe was normally a little reckless, but they did not know anything, and he would have been the first one to try it. Michelle being here kind of made him think a little too much.

“Here we go, [Jump].” And with that she was flying or in this case jumping to the closest Platform, the jump was about ten feet. When she landed, she looked down at them, “coming?” Yup it was time to go, Pepe was not going to stay behind.

“[Jump].” And he was in the air, it was actually quite easy to do, it seemed that the uniform helped, he bent his knees then just jumped and up to the air he went, and then he was falling back down to the platform right next to Michelle.

The rest of the group followed, he moved out of their way it would not do to get hit by his friends by accident, there was just enough room for all of them to fit. When they were all on the rock platform, the next one was a red mushroom cap. Maybe this would be different, solid rock sure, but a mushroom, who knew. They needed to figure out the rules, even though so far this world had broken all the rules they knew about back home.

“Alright everyone, let’s take this easy, we don’t know what to expect, Michelle if you want to try that one also, go for it. Just be careful, we don’t know what we are dealing with.” Michelle gave Josh a smile, and that made Pepe a little jealous he only wanted her to smile at him.

“Sure, thing Captain!” She saluted and got ready for her jump. Slight bend at the knees and she was off, she landed on the mushroom there was a slight bounciness to her landing, not much but some. Pepe did not wait on an invitation he got ready and jumped as well.

He landed right next to her, smiling the whole way from the exhilaration of the jump, they were moving so fast with the super jumps, what else awaited them? Man, he would love to play some basketball right now, he was not tall, he was one of the shorter ones in the group, with Erin being next in line about an inch taller. Michelle was even slightly taller as well, which embarrassed him even more. That did not matter at this moment, 'head in the game Pepe' he was having fun and he was with the girl he was crushing on.

Just as before, the group came in one by one, each making room for the next one to land then waving the next one over. Pepe grabbed his cousin to stabilize him as he landed, they did not need to fall. Next came Erin, followed by Bobby, then last their fearless leader.

The next one was also a red mushroom, he noticed that it was at a slight angle and that it was way higher than the first two platforms. So how were they going to get up to that one? “Looks a little high, must be way to get to it though. We can try and throw Manuel up to it?”

“Oh, muy chistoso primo. How about I throw you down to the bottom?”

“Alright enough you two.” Josh looked at it then over to the one above them, there was no way to jump high enough to reach the one above, they would need to jump over to the one on the other side, then jump the other way.

Pepe started to jump up and down, a regular jump not the skill, and he noticed that there was some elasticity to the mushroom they were on. He continued to jump a little higher every time, with a smile on his face, he thought he had it, “Muchachos I think these things are like trampolines, we just have to get some jump when we come down, we use it to jump over there. And then over to the other one right after.” Neat trick, they would need to time it just right, it was a double super jump from one to the other end.

“Sounds good, sort of like what we do for some cheerleading where two people throw the other person real high and the rest of the squad catches them. I think we got this.” Pepe looked at his friends and stopped at his cousin’s facial expression, he did not look like he liked the idea.

“I don’t know.” But Pepe was not having it, they had been through a lot, and they were daredevils the two cousins.

Stopping his jump’s, he walked over to his cousin and put his hands on his shoulders, “You will be fine, just take your time alright. You don’t have to go first, just watch us.” The others nodded and said their part, ‘yes,’ ‘we got you,’ and ‘you got this.’

Michelle, smiled at the bigger cousin, “I will stay with you alright, you got this big guy.” Pepe appreciated her thoughtfulness, yup he was crushing hard, she was perfect in his eyes. The girl had it all, she was beautiful, smart, and thoughtful at the same time, his mom would love her. Why was he thinking about this right now? It was time to move.

“See you all on the other side.” He started his jumping once more, once he thought he had it, he was about four feet up, as he came down, he leaned forward slightly pointing his body in the right direction. His feet touched the mushroom compressed as far as it would allow, on the way up he activated the skill, “[Jump]” He went hurling toward the other side, it was tricky, he had to twist a little in midair, not an easy feat. His feet touched the soft top the springiness giving way.

He activated the skill once again, then he was hurling across to the other platform. He landed, bending at the knees to take the impact then he was standing again, he took a deep breath, he had not even breathed on the way up. He yelled down that he was fine and for the next person to come up. He saw Erin come next, just like he, Erin twisted his body a little, his feet hit then he was hurling over to Pepe. He grabbed on to him as he came down.

Then it was Bobby turn his was a bit more awkward but ended up working just fine, followed by Josh, which was a little better than Bobby’s attempt. Josh was a talented athlete back home, this was just something else he could master, made Pepe a tad jealous.

Pepe knew it was his cousin next, he saw his bigger cousin jump across, saw he did not twist correctly, one foot made contact activated his jump and he was hurling across at a bad angle. His cousins’ eyes wide, he knew he had done it wrong, he made it but only his top half hitting the platform.

The wind knocked out of him, arms waving for a hand hold, and slipping. Pepe jumped forward grabbed on to his cousins left hand, at the same time Erin also jumped and grabbed the right hand. They both pulled him up, his face red from hitting the ledge when he landed.

“Manuel are you alright?” yelled Michelle from below.

“His fine Michelle, his just a little winded. You can come up.” Pepe looked down, saw her body flying, she even did a tuck in midair got into a ball, twisted, straightened out, her feet hitting the other top, then she was hurling back the other way towards them.

They just all moved out of her way, she did a perfect landing, looked at the boys and smiled. “Man, that was so much fun. I am liking this place.”

He looked at her in amazement, man he really wanted to see the girl in one of her cheerleading competitions, if she was this good here, she was probably amazing in a competition. He grinned at her, no he beamed at her. “That was amazing.” And it had been, the other boys were just as amazed at her performance nodding.

Pepe saw her go over to his cousin and talk to him in a low whisper, Manuel nodding. Pep talks and reassurance he guessed.

Their jumping continued all the way up to the top, either Pepe or Michelle normally on the lead, Manuel still the odd man out for most of the harder jumps. Not that he was the only one, Bobby had a few close calls as well. But they had made it past this first obstacle.

Pepe saw more cave ahead, the walls still full of green moss that glowed as well as the various smaller mushroom light. They went forward to an opening that went into a larger chamber with a large drop to the bottom, there were more platforms they had to use to descend. Down below Pepe saw things moving on the large floor, being this high he could make little detail of whatever it was that was moving down there.

The way down was quite a bit easier, not much need to activate the jump mechanic, only needing to [Jump] when the gap between one platform and the next was too far. Both Pepe and Michelle were having the time of their lives, and Erin was enjoying it some but not as much as the other two. Pepe looked over at his cousin saw that he did not care for this one bit, poor primo he thought.

Pepe was the first to arrive at the bottom, he was feeling a little hungry, he had been spending some energy with all the jumping. Even though the uniform helped he was still burning calories, and he needed to replenish. Michelle landed next to him, followed by Erin, Josh, Bobby and last his cousin.

Pepe got into his pack grabbed something that resembled trail mix, it had dried berries, nuts, and some other things he could not identify. When they had asked Maria about everything, she had indicated that they could consume it just fine. If she said they could eat it then Pepe was good with that. It was actually pretty good, he liked one of the red berries in the mix quite a lot. He saw that his friends had had the same idea as they too were munching away at their trail mix.

Pepe saw it first as he was the first one done with his mix. The things they had seen from the top, it came into view from a small cave that they had not really paid attention to. They were walking mushrooms, of course they were mushrooms, I mean it was the theme of this place after all. They had four little legs and feet that carried them, there were four of them that had come out of the little cave.

“Guys, we have company.” He pointed at the creatures, his friends turning around to look. The things were about as tall as a large dog so roughly two feet tall. He saw a red top, a blue one and two green ones. The creatures were not attacking them, they did not even seem to have eyes, ears, or noses to smell them, they just walked around for a bit had a circuit of some kind then walked back into their little cave.

This same thing repeated a few minutes later. He did not think the creatures looked very imposing. This was going to be an easy fight, or a slaughter and not theirs he presumed.

“Alright let’s do this, let’s see what these things can do.” Pepe and the rest nodded to this. They took out their weapons ready for the fight. They looked funny with the big gloves, but they were able to hold them just fine.

Pepe saw his cousin ready for the fight, as the tank he would be the one to start it every time, the group of shrooms came out and he heard his cousin use his Taunt skill on one of the creatures, at first the creatures did nothing, a second later they turned in unison and just started sprinting. While they did not move extremely fast, they covered the distance quickly.

The creatures jumped in what could only be described as a headbutt maneuver at Manuel, he blocked them, they continued to jump and jump at him with the same move. The blue looked like the leader he was in the center, with the red on his right, one green on the left and the other green to the right of the red. Pepe went in for left green, slashed right then left, the creatures green skin parting, but nothing happened. Seconds later the wound closed, and it continued to attack.

Pepe heard Erin activate some of his skills behind him, “[Aim][Bulls Eye]” Pepe GUI activated on its own, showed a mark on top of the green one he was fighting, then shortly after an arrow coming at the shroom he was fighting. He repositioned himself a little to give Erin a better shot, saw his arrow land. The arrow was stuck out of the creature’s cap, but it did not slow it down at all, it continued to head butt Manuel along with its fellows.

So, what the heck where they supposed to do against these things? His attacks were not doing much to slow them down much less damage them. At this rate his cousin would start getting hurt or lose control and the things would start to go after him or one of his friends.

He saw a Fire ball going to the Green on the left, this coming from Josh, it did a little better than his slashes, the creature was on fire momentarily but then it was back out. The burn marks only superficial, Pepe saw that the color changed back to it’s normal green and then it was back to normal. They had some form of regeneration skill, was there a way to stop them from regenerating?

Pepe was beside himself, everything he tried was ineffective, it did not matter what skill he used, nothing worked, he saw that Michelle was having the same issue. Multiple arrows stuck out of the creatures but they just like his dagger work did very little to no damage. Or if they did do damage, the regeneration effect just cured them right back to full health.

Michelle yelled out to the group, “Not working guys. Going to try something.” With that she stopped her attacks then jumped high, came down on top of the green on the left. It stopped moving, it’s cap smashed down, “alright everyone concentrate on that one!”

Pepe being on the other side could do little to reach the smooshed shroom, Erin moved over and into Pepe’s peripheral vision, saw him on the left then start to shoot the indicated target. Unable to do anything on his own, he went with the next best thing, getting his side ready for the same maneuver. He stopped his wild swinging with his daggers as it was doing nothing and prepared to jump.

He made sure that nothing would mess up his other friends then activated the [Jump], up into the air he went, twisted a little to allow him to land atop the shroom he was next to. Down he came, the thing being a little spongy as he landed both feet on top, jumped back a little with the give and he was next to it once more.

Daggers out he again tried to damage the creature. He noticed that the attacks were no longer regenerating, which meant they could hurt these things now. At least they had figured it out he hopped.

Green Mushroom 1 defeated.

Josh called a stop to the damage of the green on the left, “It’s down, move to Pepe’s!” Pepe moved over to the side of the creature facing him at an angle in front and continued to damage it. He saw Michelle moved over by him and start as well, a fireball from Josh, arrows from Erin. Soon it was down, they received a notification.

Green Mushroom 2 defeated.

Josh called out to Manuel, “Move them up so we can reposition.” Manuel without even a word started to back up and the creatures moved with him.

Pepe saw Red stop, the Blue continue his head butt maneuver against the tank. Red started to do something, it shrunk in on itself then popped up. A cloud of red mist or gas went into the air, Pepe jumped back not knowing what the effects would be, saw his friends move back as well. Red started to attack Manuel once it was done with whatever the skill did.

Analyzing Skill…. Analysis Complete

[Explant Regeneration] – Revive and Regen affect for Plantoids.

Updating Database

The cloud sufficiently big enough reached the two greens, to his horror the things started to regenerate once again, while he saw the notification, there was too much chaos to process it. They shook themselves and then moved once again, this time they did not move towards Manuel instead they turned, one towards Bobby, the other towards Josh. Crap his friends were in trouble, they needed to do something fast.

Pepe heard his cousin use his [Taunt] skill and the one going for Bobby stopped in its tracks and rushed back at Manuel. The other Green reached Josh launched itself at him, Pepe heard his friend cry out after the impact. Saw him toppling backwards, was he alright, how hurt was he?

Josh has received a critical hit, 50% health points depleted. 17/33 HP

Both he and Michelle rushed over to help, Michelle being closer without stopping performed [Jump], up into the air she went. She hit the Green, as before it smashed down, and they started to wail at, once more the notification came through that it was down.

Pepe heard their healer perform [Heal] and [Revitalize], saw the notification that Josh health was back up, he reached down grabbed on to Josh and lifted once his friends hand touched his. Josh nodded, “Take out Red!”

“Got it!” then “[Jump]” Pepe and Michelle turned to see Erin landing on Red, they all moved and started in on Red, they did not need a repeat of its skill. Soon they saw the notification that the creature was down Josh called a move over to Green. They turned and like Red it had stopped, it was in the process of shrinking, ready for some unknown skill. Before it could complete it’s move, they saw Bobby in the air then back down atop Green, soon as he landed, he moved back ready to support the party.

Pepe could only nod to this action, he had no clue what Green could do, but if it was anything like that of red’s skill, he did not want to deal with him resurrecting the two down creatures or call others or whatever. This was not the time to wonder or invent bad things in his head, it was time for action. He switched over to take down Green, soon the notification came in that it was down for the count.

Creatures defeated 3 of 4.

Blue was the last standing, they needed to get him down, he did not want to find out what kind of skill either Green or Blue had. He did not want to ‘jump’ the gun, pun intended, he could activate the jump skill at the same time as someone else an end up colliding with them. He waited for Josh to call it before doing anything.

The call came, “Pepe, jump on him.” He did not even nod, [Jump] and he was in the air, he saw the boot make contact, this time it was different it did not actually smash down and stop it just kept on going. What the heck? Before he came down to the ground next to the creature, Michelle jumped, landed on the creature and to everyone’s relief it smashed down and stopped.

Pepe started in with his dagger work, Michelle followed suit, in came the arrows from Erin a fireball from Josh. No notification came, they continued, Pepe found it hard to just go in and wail at Blue, he had to coordinate with his friends. He saw his cousin slash, Michelle slash, they could not all attack at the same time, the thing was not huge after all.

Still no notification, Blue started to move again, it was back he saw it regenerate some of the cuts. No not again, they needed to get it down again. “Michelle again.” He activated the jump, down he came, boot made contact, he was out of the way and Michelle’s boot made contact.

Yet again he started in with the dagger damage his friends following suit. He was extremely frustrated with Blue, ‘will you go down already!’ finally the notification came. He kept going, not paying much attention to the notification.

“Pepe it’s down, you can stop!” He heard Michelle yell at him, it took him a few seconds to process her words, he stopped and breathed a sigh of relief.

Green x2 defeated, 30 XP

Red defeated, 20 XP

Blue defeated, 30 XP

Congratulations Thief Level Up!

Pepe was glad that they were done, he had reached Lv4, and hopped he would be able to get another level or two during the run. The fight was no fun at all, but they had the formula down, so the follow up fights would be easier. They could beat this, the mechanics were not bad, if and when they would face other creatures they would need to figure out what they needed to do. He was just glad this first one was over.