Isekai Losers!

Ch 21: Losers and the Fungus Cave 3!

The party continues traversing the cave. The deadly maze was lit by countless glowing blue mushrooms. Along the deafening silence that filled the cave, this created an illusion of peace and safety. This only aggravated them from keeping their guard up.

After a while of aimless walking through the cave, Lynn finally disrupts the eerie silence.

"Ivan." She utters.

Ivan doesn't react, seeming entranced by his map as he kept on walking.

"Hey..." She continues, again receiving no response.

"Hey Ivan." She gives him a nudge.

"Huh? Oh-" Ivan looks up before turning to Lynn. "Hey..." He yawns.

"How are we doing? Seen anything familiar yet?" She asks.

"Huh?" Ivan gives her a puzzled look. "I... I am not sure." He says, seeming lost in thought.

"What? You've been staring at that map the whole time!" She says, raising her voice in frustration.

"I know, it's just...I don't remember any of it." He says.

"I got tired and kind of lost track of time and where we're going." Ivan explains, gazing at Lynn with sleepy eyes.

"You idiot!" Lynn shouts. "We've been walking for God knows how long and that's the only thing you have to say?? You absent, lazy piece of s-"

As Lynn was about to insult him, Gabriel interrupts her. "I don't think it's him, Lynn."

"Huh?" She turns to Gabriel.

"My memory of what happened the last hour or so is very fuzzy as well." He explains. "Ever since we left that dead end and started searching for the exit again, all of us have been walking through the cave without second-guessing where we are going. In fact, we barely talked at all."

Lynn thinks to herself for a moment "I guess you're right.." She utters, growing more confused.

"The fact that my energizer should've kept you guys extremely focused and full of energy for a while but it barely showed any effect makes this even weirder." Says Lan.

"Maybe I messed up the ingredients while making them..." Lan suggests, looking down in disappointment.

"That's not it, Lan. The juice was good." Gabriel reassures her. "There's just something very strange going on right now."

As everyone looks at eachother in silence, showing their complete bewilderment, Ivan suddenly speaks.

"The mushrooms are speaking to us."

Everyone turns to him.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Lynn gives him a puzzled look.

"They wanted us to come here." Ivan says, looking at some of the mushrooms on the wall.

"Some of Barnies instructions make sense now. If just touching these with your bare hands isn't safe, then I imagine being around them for too long is dangerous as well." He explains, seeming almost entranced by the mushrooms.

"Are you suggesting that the mushrooms are messing with our minds?" Gabriel asks.

"Something like that." Ivan nods.

"That's sounds a bit far fetched.." Lynn argues.

"Guess we're about to find out." Lan says as she points into the cave.

The group looks at Lan before looking up ahead again. They discover that the path they were following ends in what seems to be the entrance to a massive room. It emits a blue light similar to the one of the mushrooms but much more powerful.