It took a while, but the passage did loop in the general direction of where the compass was pointing.

  Again, the passage in the correct direction had a broken root.

  Frustrating.

  Finally, a passage that looked promising. My time display was not working, so I was not sure how much time had passed. I felt like I had been walking the passages forever.

  I was sure that was not accurate, or I really hoped it was not accurate.

  After walking far too long, the passage split. My compass was pointing to the middle of the two passages. If the passage I was on now continued, I would be going in the right direction…

  My choice was left or right.

  I chose right, and spoiler, it was wrong. I walked forever and finally the passage went past the point the compass wanted me to go. Stubbornly I continued but finally I had to give up and backtrack.

  Left it is.

  That passage wasn’t shorter, but it did loop back toward the destination my compass had been pointing to.

  The tunnel stretched on before opening into a small chamber. In the center stood a pedestal, and on top of it sat a small bag.

  Bingo.

  I picked it up and opened it. A small green crystal rested in my palm.

  This was supposed to seal decay.

  I turned it over, watching how the light caught inside it. I had no idea how a crystal was meant to stop something from rotting, but the System had a way of making impossible things sound very practical. Maybe it froze things in place. Maybe it slowed time for whatever it touched. Or maybe it worked more like those vacuum-sealed packages back before everything went to hell—just… better.

  Either way, it felt less like magic and more like a tool. Something meant to keep whatever you put with it exactly the way it was, for as long as you needed.

  Okay then… Moving on.

  I was in the home stretch. All I needed to do was find the mycelium, take a sample, and place it in the container provided.

  Easy. Right?

  I should have known better. Nothing was ever that simple.

  A short passage led out of the chamber—surprisingly short, actually—but only because it opened into something enormous. A vast cavern stretched out before me, its floor broken into an open labyrinth of twisting paths and dead ends.

  Because of my elevated position, I could see most of it spread out below. Near the edge, a rough set of stairs led down, and beside them stood a pedestal. On top of it lay a map, neatly laid out and very, very optimistic.

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  I studied the map, then looked back at the maze, and sighed.

  The map would help. The compass would too—it was already pointing toward a spot deep inside the labyrinth, which had to be where the mycelium was.

  Still.

  I sighed again, deeper this time. Standing here wasn’t getting me any closer.

  So, I went down the stairs.

  Up close, the labyrinth felt worse. The walls were uneven, the paths twisted in on themselves, and every turn looked just a little too similar to the last. I followed the compass, took the first turn it suggested, and felt confident for about thirty seconds.

  Then the path ended. Dead end.

  I backtracked, tried the next turn, and ended up in a narrow loop that brought me right back to where I’d started.

  Great.

  The third attempt went better—at least until I realized I’d been slowly circling away from the compass needle instead of toward it. I corrected, took another turn, and immediately found myself staring at another wall of stone.

  I stopped, closed my eyes for a second, and forced myself to breathe.

  Slow down. Read the map. Then move.

  That helped. A little.

  Even with the map and the compass, I still made mistakes. I took a wrong turn and had to backtrack. Then another. Once, I followed a path that looked right, only to realize the floor markings didn’t match the map at all.

  By the time I corrected that, I was pretty sure I’d walked the same stretch of corridor three times.

  The maze wasn’t trying to kill me. It was just… wearing me down.

  Eventually, though, the compass needle stopped wavering and settled into a steady pull. The turns started to line up with the map. The paths began to make sense.

  And somewhere ahead—still out of sight but finally feeling closer than “theoretically”—was the mycelium.

  The air changed first.

  It grew cooler. Damper. It started to smell faintly earthy, like wet soil after rain.

  Then the stone walls opened up.

  I stepped out of the last narrow passage and into a wide, low chamber. Pale, branching growth covered the ground and crept up the rocks, glowing faintly in soft, muted colors. It spread in uneven patterns, like a frozen tide of roots and threads woven together.

  Mycelium.

  I just stood there for a moment, letting out a slow breath.

  Found you.

  The actual harvesting of the mycelium was easy. The System gave me everything I needed.

  I knelt down on both knees. The container lay open beside me, and with the shovel the System had provided, I carefully lifted the mycelium from the ground.

  The strands came away in a soft, tangled mass, lighter than I’d expected and faintly cool to the touch. A thin, earthy smell rose from the exposed soil, like rain on stone. I hesitated for a second, half-expecting something to go wrong, then gently set the sample into the container.

  The green crystal pulsed once as soon as the lid closed.

  The mycelium stilled, its faint movement freezing in place, as if time itself had decided to leave it alone.

  I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.

  That was it. Quest item secured.

  Right on cue the System confirmed with a notification.

  A big opening could be seen in the cavern wall, and I hoped it would lead me out of there. I got the quest done and did not want to backtrack to get out of there.

  I was lucky, very lucky because after a very short walk a door took me back to the station platform.

  The bag disappeared from my shoulder and appeared in my inventory. For a moment I wondered why I had to find the crystal and the bag, if the mycelium would only end up being stored in my inventory.

  I decided not to spend too much time thinking about it and just accept the fact that it is the way it is.

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  first Royal Road chapter of each pair. The second one won’t have pictures. If you want to see all the art together (or earlier), it’s on Patreon with the combined chapters!