They Wanted a Hero. They Made a Monster: Born at the Bottom
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 50: Nearly Killed Them Without Thinking
The edges of the parchment booklet had grown fuzzy from handling. Calvin checked it for the third time and still could not connect the guide’s description of the Fifth Stratum with the scene beyond the stairway.
This was supposed to be the brightest stratum?
Not a single patch of Glowgrass remained. Within the blackness, the eerie light of mushrooms provided the only illumination.
Along the path leading away from the stairs, rows of bioluminescent mushrooms grew on either side as though deliberately planted.
Calvin found the scene even stranger than the small cavern they discovered on the Second Stratum.
Even Gray began considering retreat. “This is nothing like your guide! Are we ... still going forward?”
“We’ve come this far. Let’s at least take a look.”
Only after stepping out did they realize that mushrooms covered the ceiling as well. Their combined Bioluminescence formed something like a glowing sky.
Calvin could not shake his discomfort. He felt as though someone were watching him and already regretted the decision he had made two minutes ago.
When he told Gray, however, his companion shook his head and said he felt nothing.
Calvin could not turn them around based on a feeling alone. That would be far too unreasonable.
“Are we really following this path?” Gray pointed at the mushroom-lined trail.
It certainly looked suspicious, but it led in the same direction as the forest marked in the guide.
The information might be outdated, but surely the terrain could not have changed completely.
After long consideration, Calvin drew his small wand.
Tier 1 Magic: Illumination.
A sphere of orange-yellow light hovered at its tip.
“Let’s walk beside the path.”
Squish.
The first step off the trail brought a sticky sensation beneath both men’s feet.
When they bent to inspect the ground, they discovered translucent hyphae everywhere outside the path.
From beneath their boots to the edge of the darkness, every visible patch of soil was covered in hyphae!
“I knew the ground looked strange. It’s all this stuff!” Gray stepped back in disgust. “Maybe we should stay on the path.”
Calvin could only nod.
The path itself was clean, as though the bioluminescent mushrooms on either side prevented the hyphae from crossing.
Their surroundings were unnaturally quiet. None of the monsters listed in the guide appeared.
The only thing they encountered was a corpse as large as a hill. Hyphae had decomposed most of it, leaving the remains too damaged to identify.
Everything made the two men increasingly uneasy. They remained on constant guard and stopped speaking entirely.
Only when the forest came into view did they halt.
“That’s the ‘forest’ you mentioned?”
Countless glowing giant mushrooms towered in the direction Gray indicated. Innumerable hyphae hung beneath their caps, and their uneven heights formed a mushroom forest.
Only a handful of enormous trees remained between them.
Clearly, even the terrain information in the guide had become obsolete!
Before Calvin could speak, a strange sound came from within the forest.
Puff.
Puff.
The heavy footsteps were especially distinct in the silence.
A massive Puffcap ten feet tall slowly emerged from behind a giant mushroom. Four thick mycelial tendrils swayed in the air.
More than a dozen smaller Puffcaps with similar tendrils followed beside it, identical to the one they saw on the Second Stratum.
The Puffcaps appeared to notice them and stopped.
“Calvin! We should retreat!”
“Calvin?”
Only then did Gray realize that the light from Illumination had vanished.
“Calvin, you...”
In the next instant, Gray saw his own body become transparent. Calvin’s voice came from beside him.
“I what?”
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