Markets and Multiverses (A Serial Transmigration LitRPG)

I spent the next few hours feeling out any differences in my body. The boost from the mushroom I had eaten had definitely made me stronger, but I vividly remembered the strange, feverish sensation that had been swirling through me before I had dispelled it with a Renewal. I wanted a firm idea of what had or hadn’t changed before I ate another one.

In the meantime, I shared my discovery with my friends. I didn’t know if their trial had similar items inside of it, but I thought it was worth discussing, at least.

Felix had the most interesting idea.

<I wonder if that was part of your trial to begin with,> said Felix, after I shared my discovery with him.

<What do you mean?> I asked. <My trial is supposed to be explicitly focused around taking a bunch of items, tossing them into a bath, and then soaking in the water for a while, right? And I’m only supposed to get alteration essence out of it. I didn’t ask my trial for any sort of physical boost - it’s just not useful enough for me to invest in.>

<Well, here’s the thing,> said Felix. <We already know that some things in our trials have gone wrong. But that doesn’t mean they’ve completely collapsed, right? After all, your trial was originally supposed to be some sort of romp through the woods as you collected resources and prepared your magic bath.>

<I… suppose?> I said.

<My theory is this - the giant soul in the center of the centipede lair was there from the very beginning. It’s one of your three bath ingredients. Originally, you were supposed to go into the centipede lair, fight off any centipedes, grab it, toss it into the bath, and then soak in the water for a while.>

<So you think that the improvements to Miria’s physical stats might be some of the power concentrated in the original ingredient dispersing over time, or something like that?> Said Sallia.

<That’s my theory, yes,> said Felix. <I could be wrong of course, but it makes sense, based on what information we have so far.>

<I suppose it makes sense,> said Anise. <After all, the odds of some kind of major power-up item just randomly appearing in a trial seem kind of low. But it’s also a bit disappointing. I was hoping that if Miria’s trial had something like that, mine also might. I would have loved even more manifestation essence.>

<Keep an eye out just in case,> said Felix, as he sent us the mental equivalent of a shrug. <I could be totally wrong. I’m just guessing here. But I think my guess is correct, unless further evidence proves me wrong.>

<So keep an eye out, but don’t get our hopes up,> said Sallia. <I’ll see what I stumble across.>

Was Felix right, about the giant soul in the centipede lair being one of my original objectives? If so, that would be quite disappointing. However, it would make sense. It also meant that I shouldn’t get my hopes up too much about getting extra boosts in this trial - in fact, I should keep in mind that any physical stats I got here might have originally supposed to be alteration boosts. That was even more disappointing, but there wasn’t a whole lot I could do about it. I sighed.

<I’ll see what happens when I reach the giant soul in the middle of the centipede lair. Maybe a system message will pop up and explain what I’m looking at,> I said. <I can always hope for a clear explanation, at least.>

<Good luck,> said Felix. <I’ve been hoping for a System explanation of my own, for whatever is watching me while I go through my trial, but I haven’t had any luck so far. I did discover that the feeling of being watched disappears if I end up in a hot enough area, so I’ve been sleeping as close as I can get to lava pools for now. But the whole experience is awful. I want to kill this thing so that I can actually be at ease while I’m asleep. Maybe a trap or something will work?> Felix sent a mental sigh through the bracelet. <I’ll think about it. Anyway, be careful, Miria. See you when we finish our trials.>

With that, Felix cut off his connection to the communication bracelet. Anise and Sallia also said their own goodbyes, before they also left a few minutes later. I felt full and excited, but I also didn’t want to return to the centipede cave until I had a good reason to. So I spent a few hours staring at the creepy dead forest before I finally managed to doze off.

When I woke up, I took another few bites of my mushroom, before I grimaced. The taste of the mushroom was very different than before. It tasted off, and I didn’t feel the same surging energy in my veins that I had felt yesterday. I had a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn’t actually give me any stat boosts anymore, although I finished chewing and swallowing just to be sure.

Sure enough, after several minutes of waiting, I didn’t get any new stats. Not even a hint of some sort of growth or improvement. I just felt a swirling heat in my gut, which I quickly realized was the beginning of a bout of pain, nausea, and possible vomiting. Before it could get that far, I used a higher strength renewal on myself to dispel the poison in my stomach. My healing seemed a bit more expensive this time, consuming closer to a quarter of my essence instead of a tenth, which made me sigh. Clearly, these mushrooms were only useful for a short period of time before they turned useless. 

I checked the rest of the mushroom, and confirmed that there were a few visual tells, now that I was looking for them. The soul of the mushroom had already departed from the actual mushroom’s body, leaving behind a soulless husk. The mushroom’s skin had also started to turn a green-yellow color. Its previous color hadn’t entirely faded, but it was in the process of doing so.

I sighed. I still wanted to eat more mushrooms. If I could get stats by eating them, I felt that there was no reason to stop cramming them down my throat until they were no longer useful. I waited a few hours for my essence to regenerate, and then started walking back towards the centipede cave. 

This time, after I entered, I saw a singular centipede along the left path. However, this one was much weaker than the massive centipede I had originally fought. I snuck towards it, because I wanted to confirm what it looked like. This time, I got a pretty good look at the creature, and nodded to myself. The little monster definitely looked like a baby centipede.

A quick extinguish nearly killed it on the spot, although it didn’t quite die, even after spending my entire alteration essence reserve. However, it was weakened enough that a quick lightning bolt to the face finished it off.

The difference in Achievement was staggering - not that I thought it was unreasonable. There was such a massive gulf in strength between the first outer centipede I had fought and this little thing that they were practically different species. It was like the difference between a dragon and a lizard.

Either way, the 350 Achievement was still enough to boost me from 52,721 Achievement to 53,071 Achievement.

I was, however, a bit surprised to see that this Outer Centipede also generated a new Skill for me to use via the work of {Endless Hunter of the Ocean}.

After I finished reading the new Skill, I felt an urge to roll my eyes. It wasn’t actually a new skill, even though I had originally thought it was. Instead, it was a much weaker version of the skill I had taken from the original outer centipede. I immediately dismissed the new skill - there was no need to absorb a weaker copy of a skill I already had, especially if it didn’t give me some sort of attribute boost.

After that, I crept much more cautiously through the centipede den. I had just spent all of my alteration essence and a good chunk of my absorption essence fighting a centipede, and I didn’t want to get into another fight right now. If something tracked me down, I would need to flee using my umbrella and what remained of my absorption essence. Part of me was even tempted to just flee from the cave entirely, and return only when I was full of essence again - however, the other part of me wanted to at least get a few more bites of mushroom ready first. The renewal I had used to stave off poison wasn’t that expensive, as long as I ate the mushroom quickly.

By constantly using my soul-sight, I managed to find another mushroom after about an hour of searching. I dug it up, ate a bite of mushroom, and then threw all the alteration essence I had into a renewal as I dashed towards the cave entrance. I had only had an hour to regenerate my essence, but it proved to be enough to shut down my body’s reaction to the mushroom as I left the cave behind. This time, I also felt the telltale signs of energy starting to surge through my body, as my stats slowly improved and my body adjusted to an increased level of power.

I smiled. I could make a routine out of this. I decided right then and there that, until the mushrooms stopped benefitting me, I wasn’t going to do anything else in this trial. Getting more mushrooms wasn’t that risky, and each one could provide me with a few stats, so I had no reason to do anything else until the mushrooms stopped being useful. I didn’t know exactly what had gone wrong in this trial in the thousands of years since its last use… but I was definitely going to be as ready as possible before I faced it head on.