Chapter 32: Heading to the Temple (2nd Update) (Bonus)

Chapter 32: Heading to the Temple (2nd Update) (Bonus Chapter)

It's a rose, not the hero's sword.

Dorin quietly gazed at the rose, unable to utter a single word.

The mushroom studied his expression—or rather, his helmet—and asked, "Wanna grab a drink next door? Though we're running low on time."

There were still over three hours until midnight struck 2 AM.

Dorin stood there fidgeting, not answering at first. It took him ten minutes before he finally asked, his voice hoarse, "You remember what happened yesterday?"

Jiang Ye raised an eyebrow and said, "Is that even yesterday's business? If it counts..." He nodded.

"I..." Dorin hung his head like a kid caught misbehaving, not knowing how to defend himself.

As Dorin hesitated, the mushroom asked, "You didn't get hurt yesterday, did you?"

Dorin looked up at him, startled, and said, "You care about me? But I'm..."

His voice was barely a whisper: "...a crow."

The mushroom didn't seem the least bit surprised and said, all proud, "I was three when I first heard Beauty and the Beast—a prince turned into a beast, servants turned into candlesticks, a child turned into a teacup, and so on. Those are fairy tales, not horror stories."

Jiang Ye wasn't scared one bit—I mean, he'd turned into a little mushroom himself.

A mushroom and a crow—guess you could say they were birds of a feather.

Dorin never expected the mushroom to take it this well.

Yesterday, the hero's sword's holy light had washed over Dorin, transforming him from a human into a crow right before Jiang Ye's eyes. He'd freaked out so bad he'd crashed through the window and flown off.

After flying off, Dorin was a nervous wreck, and when he saw the mushroom coming after him, he hid.

Then midnight struck 2 AM, and everyone fell into a sleep they couldn't fight—except Dorin.

The moment 2 AM hit, the crow spread its wings, black clouds swallowed Sun Town whole, and a silent spell rewound time.

The fresh new day snapped back to the past, and everyone got stuck in a loop.

Both the players and the townsfolk lost their memories. That way, Dorin could get the mushroom's gift all over again, and as long as he took the box and didn't open it, the hero's sword's holy light wouldn't get him.

The plan was flawless—but a little snag popped up.

Dorin never in a million years expected the mushroom to remember what happened yesterday and swap the hero's sword for an eternal rose.

Dorin frowned and said, "It's the sapphire crown's fault..."

The mushroom fished the crown, broken into three pieces, out of his mailbag and said, "Yeah, I figured that was why."

The system said the sapphire crown could shield its wearer from damage you couldn't even imagine. Turns out it wasn't just bomb damage—it also covered memory-wiping damage.

The mushroom hung his head, all deflated: "But now it's busted... my crown..."

"I'm sorry," Dorin said quietly.

The mushroom waved it off, all generous, and said, "I'll hit up the jewelry shop tomorrow—I think they do repairs. Not sure if it can be fixed, though."

"I'll go with you," Dorin said. "If you're still okay with me tagging along..."

The mushroom nodded and said, "Of course, we're friends."

"You're really... not afraid of me?" Dorin felt like this whole thing was surreal.

The mushroom shook his head and said, dead certain, "I won't be afraid of you."

Dorin let out a sigh of relief, then the mushroom asked, curious, "Were you always a crow? Or did the Chief Deity turn you into one?"

Dorin froze, staring at him blankly.

Jiang Ye started filling in the blanks: "Did you pass by the temple and run into the Chief Deity messing around out of boredom, and he turned your head into a crow's head, so that's why you gotta wear the helmet?"

Dorin: "..."

The mushroom continued, "I found the Chief Deity's stash before—it was full of Sun Town folks' stuff, but those folks said a crow swiped their things."

"That's because..." Dorin said.

The mushroom said, "I know—the Chief Deity must've made you his slave to steal people's stuff, right?"

Dorin: "..."

Dorin went quiet for a beat. He'd almost thought the mushroom knew it all. But...

Dorin scrambled to defend himself: "The Chief Deity's not a bad guy."

The mushroom shook his head: "You're way too soft-hearted. The Chief Deity turned you into this, and you're still speaking up for him."

Dorin: "...The Chief Deity is actually quite pitiful too."

"That's true." The mushroom nodded again. I mean, the Chief Deity was just passing through when he got his head chopped off—that's pretty rough. And besides...

The mushroom smiled and said, "Plus the Chief Deity's so hot—anyone who's a sucker for a pretty face couldn't stay mad looking at him."

Dorin asked, "Face? You've seen the Chief Deity?" That was impossible.

The mycelium pulled the portrait of the Chief Deity from the mailbag and showed it to Dorin, saying, "Look, the Chief Deity looks like this. I won it as the first-place prize in the cooking competition."

Dorin froze when he saw the painting, his eyes full of all kinds of complicated feelings. He couldn't help reaching out to touch the Chief Deity's face in the painting. His fingertip traced from the Chief Deity's forehead all the way down to his lips.

"Uh..."

The mushroom wasn't the petty type—he didn't mind Dorin touching his portrait. It was just...

Jiang Ye couldn't quite name the feeling, but Dorin's look was way too complicated, and he kept stroking the Chief Deity's face like that.

The mushroom cracked, "Dude looks even more shallow than I do. Could it be..."

The mushroom sucked in a sharp breath internally—Dorin had a crush on the Chief Deity!

No wonder Dorin was still sticking up for the Chief Deity after getting turned into this.

"02:00"

Crap, the mushroom's head spun—time was up.

Jiang Ye hit the floor with a thud, and right before blacking out, he thought, If that ain't love, I don't know what is—that's some serious devotion.

At 2 AM, the mushroom lay there, round and still, on the floor.

Dorin bent down, gently scooped up the mushroom, and carried him back to his tent-cat bed.

He whispered, "Good night."

Then...

Morning came.

"Spring, Day 14, Friday"

"6:00"

The mushroom rubbed his eyes and sat up, couldn't help saying, "Ah, it's finally the 14th!"

Originally, the cabin upgrade only took a week—7 days—but now it had been dragged out to 8 days!

"Open Grandpa's cookie tin?"

"Congratulations! You got Yogurt x1"

Jiang Ye placed the yogurt into his mailbag. Today's blind box was pretty ordinary—could it be because I bad-mouthed Lord Chief Deity last night?

"How did I end up back in the cat bed?"

The mushroom cautiously crawled out and looked around. Nothing weird happened again, right?

"Wow!"

—Morning.

The mushroom heard a crow cawing, along with a man's voice.

He turned to look. The crow was perched at the window, tilting its head at him.

The mushroom said, "Dorin, you're here."

The crow hopped off the windowsill, holding something in its claws, and placed it on the table in front of the mushroom: "Wow."

—For you.

The mushroom hopped onto the table to look. It was a sapphire.

Wait...

The mushroom was astonished. The sapphire was beside the point—why could he suddenly understand the crow?

"Friendly reminder: You've read the Monster Compendium and learned a new skill."

So it was because of that book. It suddenly clicked.

The crow nudged the sapphire with its wing, signaling for the mushroom to take it.

The mushroom shook his head. "I can't take this."

"Wow." The crow insisted.

Dorin had broken the crown, and he felt he should make it up to the mushroom with a brand-new one.

The mushroom shook his head again. "Where'd you get this gem?"

The crow cocked its head.

The mushroom said, "Did Lord Chief Deity give it to you?"

Jiang Ye had always thought it was weird—Dorin seemed loaded, with money coming out of nowhere. Now that he thought about it, it was probably that the Chief Deity had enslaved the crow to do shady stuff, stealing from people, and then paid him off as a reward.

The mushroom spun more wild theories in his head and said, "If you take the Chief Deity's stuff, he'll keep pushing you around. I can't take this gem. The crown can be fixed."

The crow: "..."

The crow looked like it wanted to say something but stayed quiet.

Today, the mushroom needed to hit the jewelry store to ask about fixing the crown, then swing by the seed store for the automatic sprinkler blueprint.

The crow planned to tag along, but being in crow form was a pain—people would scream and panic at the sight of him.

So right in front of the mushroom, the crow instantly shifted into Dorin's form.

The mushroom waved. "Let's go."

Leaving the inn, the mushroom hopped on his bike, waved at Dorin, and pointed to the back seat.

Dorin hopped on, and the two headed to the jewelry store.

The jewelry store was usually empty, looking pretty desolate.

They pushed open the door and walked in. The Gem Appraiser was wiping down a framed picture and said, "Welcome in."

The mushroom said, "I wanted to ask about how much it'd cost to repair this." He pulled out the broken crown.

"A sapphire crown—what a shame." The man put on gloves and carefully picked up the pieces, saying, "It's completely shattered."

The mushroom asked, "Can it be fixed?"

The young Gem Appraiser smiled. "Of course. I'm really good at this."

"That's great." The mushroom asked again, "How many rupees would it cost to fix?"

The young Gem Appraiser shook his head. "It's not about the rupees."

"What's wrong?" The mushroom's heart sank, sensing something was off.

The other party said, "To fix a crown this perfect and beautiful, you need something called slime oil."

Slime oil? The mushroom thought. Never heard of it.

The Gem Appraiser explained, "It's an item dropped by a special type of slime."

Regular slimes drop slime gel—Le Yi Li still had a ton of that, but it can't be used to fix jewelry.

Only Metal Slimes drop slime oil. It's pretty magical stuff—looks like mercury and can seal up cracks in jewelry.

"It's super rare." The Gem Appraiser said, "I've been buying slime oil from adventurers, but it's been out of stock for ages."

Metal Slimes are famously skittish—at the first sign of trouble, they bolt, so they're super hard to even find. Plus, Metal Slimes have extremely high defense; even if you do run into one, it's not easy to take down, and during the fight, there's a good chance it'll slip away again.

The Gem Appraiser frowned: "Plus, Metal Slimes only show up near the temple—and that place is way too dangerous."

The mushroom said, "Then I'll go try my luck."

"Be careful," said the Gem Appraiser. "If you can find slime oil, I can repair this beautiful crown for you free of charge."

"That'd be great."

Mushroom thanked him and left the jewelry store.

Dorin followed him out and asked, "Are you going to look for slime oil?"

Mushroom said, "I wanna give it a shot. But first, I gotta hit up the seed shop."

The seed shop wasn't exactly close, but Mushroom could bike there in a few minutes.

When they got there, players were streaming in and out of the seed shop. Looked like everyone was there for the auto-sprinkler blueprint.

The auto-sprinkler blueprint was only 1,000 rupees—pretty fair. The catch was the materials you needed to build it.

The players who'd grabbed blueprints all looked stumped. Mushroom bought one too and held it up to read.

"Blueprint: Automatic Sprinkler"

"Required Materials: Battery (1), Copper Ingot (1), Small Stones (5)"

Mushroom wondered where you even bought batteries.

Someone griped, "I don't even have a copper ingot—what the heck is a battery?"

"You gotta buy the solar panel blueprint too, or you can't get batteries," someone nearby said.

You couldn't buy batteries—you had to craft a solar panel, leave it in the sun, and wait for it to generate them.

Mushroom checked it out and bought a solar panel blueprint too—another 1,000 rupees. Okay, this was... getting pricey.

More grumbling: "Damn, what the heck is slime oil? Never heard of it."

"I haven't heard of it either."

"See? Making a farming game hands-free was never gonna be easy. It's a total money sink."

Mushroom opened the battery blueprint next.

"Blueprint: Battery"

"Required Materials: Slime Oil (1), Small Stones (5)"

"It needs slime oil too," Mushroom said. "Guess we're heading to the temple after all."

Dorin glanced toward the temple. "Don't worry, I'll go with you. It won't be dangerous."

"Then let's head out."

It was still early. Mushroom hopped on his bike, Dorin in tow, and they tore out of town toward the temple.

The sun was bright, and the wind whipped past Jiang Ye's ears. The country roads were bumpier than the town streets, but that didn't slow Mushroom down.

"Mushroom..."

Dorin, riding behind, suddenly tapped Jiang Ye.

Tapped Mushroom's helmet.

Mushroom looked back. "What's up?"

"Can we stop a sec?" Dorin said. "We're almost there—I'd rather walk."

Mushroom was confused—why walk when they were so close? Could it be...

Dorin got motion sickness.

Jiang Ye never imagined someone could get motion sickness on a bike!

Mushroom stopped. Dorin clutched his helmet, staggered off, and leaned against a big tree, looking truly miserable.

Mushroom was half-sure he was gonna puke in his helmet...

Jiang Ye asked sheepishly, "You okay? Want some yogurt?"

Dorin waved him off. "Just give me two minutes. I'll be fine."

"No rush, take your time," Mushroom said kindly. "I didn't know you got this sick. Maybe the roads were too rough..."

Dorin looked like a lost puppy as he sat down to rest.

Mushroom sat next to him and pulled up the social channel.

"Social"

"The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King": You're not all going to the temple, are you? That place is scary as hell. No way I'm going.

"You Got Nothing Better To Do": For the sprinkler, duh!

"The Cold-Faced Pig-Raising Succubus": Looks like Lao Li went.

"The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King": Lao Li? Lao Li? You there, buddy?

"Mushroom Soup": I'm heading there too.

"You Got Nothing Better To Do": Lao Li's gone quiet. I was DMing him, and he just stopped replying.

"The Man Who Would Be Smoked Fish King": Ahh! That's terrifying! He hasn't already been killed by monsters, has he?!

"Mushroom Soup": ...Don't freak people out.

Everyone took turns pinging Le Yi Li on the channel, but he stayed silent.

The temple was just ahead. The forest was a dense, dark mass—sunlight couldn't get through, and it was black as night.

Every so often, weird noises came from inside—like a kid laughing. Then a heavy thudding, like a big ball slamming into the ground, rolling and banging over and over.

Mushroom gulped. "Inside... uh..."

Dorin had mostly recovered and stood up. "Don't worry, I'll take you in. It's safe."

Mushroom nodded.

Jiang Ye stowed the bike and followed Dorin into the dark woods. Mushroom stuck close behind Dorin, wishing he could just clip onto his belt like a keychain.

The forest was a maze, but Dorin clearly knew it like the back of his hand, weaving Mushroom through the twists and turns.

After about twenty minutes of walking, Mushroom suddenly heard voices.

—Someone's coming.

—Quick, hide.

It wasn't the sound of human speech, carrying a hazy quality—it was a special skill Jiang Ye had comprehended in effect. It turned out to be two slimes talking, their voices soft and tender, one sounding like a little girl, the other like a little boy.

Mushroom's eyes went wide in surprise. He followed the sound and spotted two metal orbs in the grass.

They weren't perfectly round—bright silver, like they'd melted in the sun, and sprawled lazily on the ground.

The orbs had big eyes too—weirdly cute.

Mushroom thought, could these be the legendary Metal Slimes? They're kinda cute—I really can't bring myself to kill them.

Mushroom didn't dare make a peep, carefully poking Dorin to get him to look back.

They made eye contact!

Just then, Mushroom locked eyes with one of the Metal Slimes.

—Ahh! Help!

—So scary! Run, run!

Before Jiang Ye could react, the two Metal Slimes were already screaming and booking it—even a bike probably couldn't catch them.

The mycelium couldn't help touching its plump, round cap and said, "Do I really look that scary?"

Dorin: "..."

Dorin pushed aside the waist-high weeds and said, "They went that way. Follow me."

Mushroom stuck close and followed.

The slimes were faster than flies!

They kept going, and suddenly a massive building loomed ahead, out of nowhere.

Mushroom jumped and said, "What is this?"

Dorin gave it a calm look and said, "A temple."

"This is the temple?"

Jiang Ye stared at the building a bit longer—it felt like something from a dream, massive and oppressive, yet bleak and abandoned.

This was the temple where the Chief Deity's head was sealed away. The folks of Sun Town held festivals to celebrate the Chief Deity's birthday, hoping he'd bless them with wealth and happiness, but they also feared him and never dared get near this temple.

Nobody came here without a reason.

Mushroom looked over—a big lock hung on the temple door, which was shut tight, so you couldn't see inside at all.

Mushroom said, "It's locked up."

Dorin nodded. "They don't want the Chief Deity leaving. The key to that lock is hidden somewhere in Sun Town."