They opened the door to enter and looked at their surroundings. It seemed to be more of the cave, but it was no longer bare. Pepe looked up. There were higher platforms as well as large mushrooms—some of the platforms were the mushrooms sticking out. No enemies could be seen yet, at least on this lower level. As soon as the door closed, it disappeared; there was no way back to the locker room.

  Light came from some of the smaller mushrooms as well as from the walls—some form of bioluminescence; he had forgotten the word. He would need to ask the brains; they probably knew what it was called. He also noticed that not all the mushrooms were the same color. There were red, yellow, green, and blue ones. Some had spots; others were solid colors. The caps of the mushrooms were the different colors; the stalks and the gills underneath were off-white or a lighter color variation of the cap.

  The bottom area they were in wasn’t huge. Pepe looked left, then right; he could easily walk between the sides in about five minutes. Looking up, he saw that it was very tall—lots and lots of rock, with very little soil for cave plants. He wasn’t sure how the mushrooms even grew out of the rock. It also felt muggy, and he could see that the walls were slimy, indicating some form of water source. He wasn’t entirely sure where the heat he felt came from.

  “So, now what?” he asked.

  “Well, I’m not sure. Maybe some of those skills do something,” Josh replied. Yeah, the skills from the uniform—they had to do something; it couldn’t just be “super plumber” for a badly clogged sink.

  So, how did you activate them? Guess it could be like the skills for their jobs. “So, who wants to try it out first?” Josh asked, giving them a choice. The boys looked at each other, no one really volunteering.

  “Really, guys? Is this how you all do this every time? How do you actually get anywhere?” Michelle had lost some of her patience with this whole democratic process. Sure, Pepe was normally a little reckless, but they didn’t know anything, and he would have been the first to try it. Michelle’s presence was making him overthink things.

  “Here we go. [Jump].” With that, she was flying—or, in this case, jumping—to the closest platform, a jump of about ten feet. When she landed, she looked down at them. “Coming?”

  Yup, it was time to go. Pepe wasn’t going to stay behind. “[Jump].” He was in the air. It was actually quite easy; it seemed the uniform helped. He bent his knees, then simply jumped, and up into the air he went, then he was falling back down to the platform right next to Michelle.

  The rest of the group followed. He moved out of their way; it wouldn’t do to get hit by his friends by accident. There was just enough room for all of them to fit. When they were all on the rock platform, the next one was a red mushroom cap. Maybe this would be different. Solid rock was one thing, but a mushroom? Who knew? They needed to figure out the rules, even though so far this world had broken all the rules they knew from back home.

  “All right, everyone, let’s take this easy. We don’t know what to expect. Michelle, if you want to try that one as well, go for it. Just be careful; we don’t know what we’re dealing with,” Josh said. Michelle gave Josh a smile, which made Pepe a little jealous. He only wanted her to smile at him.

  “Sure thing, Mon Capitan!” she said, saluting and getting ready for her jump. With a slight bend at the knees, she was off. She landed on the mushroom; there was a slight bounciness to her landing—not much, but some. Pepe didn’t wait for an invitation; he got ready and jumped as well.

  He landed right next to her, smiling from the exhilaration of the jump. They were moving so fast with the super jumps. What else awaited them? Man, he would love to play some basketball right now. He wasn’t tall; he was one of the shorter ones in the group, with Erin being next in line, about an inch taller. Michelle was even slightly taller as well, which embarrassed him even more. That didn’t matter at this moment. Head in the game, Pepe. He was having fun, and he was with the girl he was crushing on.

  Just as before, the group arrived one by one, each making room for the next to land, then waving the next one over. Pepe grabbed his cousin to stabilize him as he landed; they didn’t need anyone falling. Next came Erin, followed by Bobby, then last, their fearless leader.

  The next platform was also a red mushroom, but he noticed that it was at a slight angle and much higher than the first two platforms. How were they going to get up to that one? “Looks a little high. There must be a way to get to it, though. We can try throwing Manuel up to it?” Pepe joked.

  “Oh, muy chistoso, primo. How about I throw you down to the bottom?” Manuel retorted.

  “All right, enough, you two,” Josh said. He looked at the high platform, then over to the one on the other side. There was no way to jump high enough to reach the higher one directly; they would need to jump over to the one on the other side first, then jump to the higher one from there.

  Pepe started jumping up and down—a regular jump, not the skill—and he noticed some elasticity to the mushroom they were on. He continued to jump a little higher each time, a smile spreading across his face. He thought he had it. “Muchachos, I think these things are like trampolines. We just have to get a little extra jump when we come down; we use that to jump over there, and then over to the other one right after.” Neat trick. They would need to time it just right; it was a double super jump from one end to the other.

  “Sounds good, sort of like what we do for some cheerleading stunts, where two people throw the other person really high, and the rest of the squad catches them. I think we got this,” Erin said. Pepe looked at his friends and stopped at his cousin’s facial expression. Manuel didn’t look like he liked the idea.

  “I don’t know,” Manuel mumbled. But Pepe wasn’t having it. They had been through a lot, and they were daredevils, the two cousins.

  Stopping his jumps, he walked over to his cousin and put his hands on his shoulders. “You’ll be fine. Just take your time, all right? You don’t have to go first; just watch us.” The others nodded and offered their support: “Yes,” “We got you,” and “You got this.”

  Michelle smiled at Manuel. “I’ll stay with you, all right? You got this, big guy.” Pepe appreciated her thoughtfulness. Yup, he was crushing hard; she was perfect in his eyes. The girl had it all: beauty, brains, and thoughtfulness. His mom would love her. Why was he thinking about this right now? It was time to move.

  “See you all on the other side,” he said. He started his jumping once more. Once he thought he had the timing down—he was about four feet up—as he came down, he leaned forward slightly, pointing his body in the right direction. His feet touched the mushroom, compressing it as far as it would go. On the way up, he activated the skill: “[Jump].” He went hurtling toward the other side. It was tricky; he had to twist a little in midair—not an easy feat. His feet touched the soft top, the springiness giving way.

  He activated the skill once again, then he was hurtling across to the other platform. He landed, bending at the knees to absorb the impact, then he was standing again. He took a deep breath; he hadn’t even breathed on the way up. He yelled down that he was fine and for the next person to come up. He saw Erin come next. Just like him, Erin twisted his body a little; his feet hit, then he was hurtling over to Pepe. He grabbed onto Pepe as he landed.

  Then it was Bobby’s turn. His attempt was a bit more awkward but ended up working just fine, followed by Josh’s, which was a little better than Bobby’s. Josh was a talented athlete back home; this was just something else he could master, which made Pepe a tad jealous.

  Pepe knew it was his cousin’s turn next. He saw Manuel jump across and saw that he didn’t twist correctly. One foot made contact, activating his jump, and he was hurtling across at a bad angle. His cousin’s eyes were wide; he knew he had messed up. He made it, but only his top half hit the platform.

  The wind was knocked out of him, his arms waving for a handhold, and he started slipping. Pepe jumped forward and grabbed his cousin’s left hand. At the same time, Erin also jumped and grabbed his right hand. They both pulled him up, his face red from hitting the ledge on landing.

  “Manuel, are you all right?” Michelle yelled from below.

  “He’s fine, Michelle. He’s just a little winded. You can come up,” Pepe replied. He looked down and saw her flying through the air. She even did a tuck in midair, curled into a ball, twisted, straightened out, her feet hitting the other platform, then she was hurtling back toward them.

  They all moved out of her way. She landed perfectly, looked at the boys, and smiled. “Man, that was so much fun. I’m liking this place.”

  Pepe looked at her in amazement. He really wanted to see her in one of her cheerleading competitions. If she was this good here, she was probably amazing in a competition. He grinned at her—no, he beamed at her. “That was amazing.” The other boys were just as amazed at her performance, nodding in agreement.

  Pepe saw her go over to his cousin and talk to him in a low whisper, Manuel nodding. Pep talks and reassurance, he guessed.

  Their jumping continued all the way to the top, with either Pepe or Michelle usually in the lead. Manuel was still the odd man out for most of the harder jumps. Not that he was the only one; Bobby had a few close calls as well. But they had made it past this first obstacle.

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  Pepe saw more cave ahead, the walls still covered in green moss that glowed, as well as the various smaller mushrooms. They went forward to an opening that led into a larger chamber with a large drop to the bottom. There were more platforms they had to use to descend. From this height, Pepe could make out only vague details of whatever was moving on the large floor below.

  The way down was quite a bit easier; there wasn’t much need to activate the jump mechanic, only needing to use [Jump] when the gap between one platform and the next was too far. Both Pepe and Michelle were having the time of their lives, and Erin was enjoying it somewhat, but not as much as the other two. Pepe looked over at his cousin and saw that he wasn’t enjoying this at all. Poor primo, he thought.

  Pepe was the first to arrive at the bottom. He was feeling a little hungry; he had been expending a lot of energy with all the jumping. Even though the uniform helped, he was still burning calories and needed to replenish them. Michelle landed next to him, followed by Erin, Josh, Bobby, and finally, his cousin.

  Pepe reached into his pack and grabbed something that resembled trail mix. It had dried berries, nuts, and some other things he couldn’t identify. When they had asked Maria about everything, she had indicated that they could consume it without issue. If she said they could eat it, then Pepe was fine with that. It was actually pretty good; he especially liked one of the red berries in the mix. He saw that his friends had had the same idea, as they too were munching on their trail mix.

  Pepe saw them first, as he was the first to finish his mix. The things they had seen from the top came into view from a small cave they hadn’t really paid attention to. They were walking mushrooms. Of course they were mushrooms; it was the theme of this place, after all. They had four little legs and feet that carried them. Four of them had come out of the small cave.

  “Guys, we have company,” Pepe said, pointing at the creatures. His friends turned to look. The creatures were about as tall as a large dog—roughly two feet tall. He saw one with a red cap, one blue, and two green ones. The creatures weren’t attacking them; they didn’t even seem to have eyes, ears, or noses to smell them. They simply walked around for a bit, following some kind of circuit, then walked back into their little cave.

  This same thing repeated a few minutes later. Pepe didn’t think the creatures looked very imposing. This was going to be an easy fight—or a slaughter, and not theirs, he presumed.

  “All right, let’s do this. Let’s see what these things can do,” Josh said. Pepe and the rest nodded in agreement and took out their weapons, ready for the fight. They looked funny with the big gloves, but they were able to hold their weapons just fine.

  Pepe saw his cousin ready for the fight. As the tank, he would be the one to initiate combat each time. The group of mushroom creatures came out, and Pepe heard his cousin use his Taunt skill on one of them. At first, the creatures did nothing. A second later, they turned in unison and started sprinting. While they didn’t move extremely fast, they covered the distance quickly.

  The creatures jumped in what could only be described as a headbutt maneuver at Manuel. He blocked them, but they continued to jump at him with the same move. The blue one looked like the leader; he was in the center, with the red one on his right, one green one on the left, and the other green to the right of the red. Pepe went for the left green one, slashing right, then left. The creature’s green skin parted, but nothing happened. Seconds later, the wound closed, and it continued to attack.

  Pepe heard Erin activate some of his skills behind him: “[Aim][Bullseye].” Pepe’s GUI activated on its own and showed a mark on top of the green one he was fighting. Shortly after, an arrow came flying at the mushroom creature. He repositioned himself slightly to give Erin a better shot and saw his arrow land. The arrow was stuck in the creature’s cap, but it didn’t slow it down at all; it continued to headbutt Manuel along with its companions.

  So, what the heck were they supposed to do against these things? His attacks weren’t doing much to slow them down, much less damage them. At this rate, his cousin would start getting hurt or lose control, and the things would start going after him or one of his friends.

  He saw a fireball heading toward the green one on the left; it was coming from Josh. It did a little better than his slashes; the creature was momentarily on fire, but then the flames went out. The burn marks were only superficial. Pepe saw that the color returned to its normal green, and then it was back to normal. They had some form of regeneration skill. Was there a way to stop them from regenerating?

  Pepe was beside himself. Everything he tried was ineffective. It didn’t matter what skill he used; nothing worked. He saw that Michelle was having the same issue. Multiple arrows stuck out of the creatures, but, just like his dagger work, they did very little to no damage. Or if they did do damage, the regeneration effect just healed them right back to full health.

  Michelle yelled out to the group, “Not working, guys. Going to try something.” With that, she stopped her attacks, jumped high, and came down on top of the green one on the left. It stopped moving, its cap smashed down. “All right, everyone, concentrate on that one!” she yelled.

  Pepe, being on the other side, could do little to reach the squashed mushroom. Erin moved into Pepe’s peripheral vision; he saw him on the left and then saw him start shooting the indicated target. Unable to do anything on his own, Pepe went with the next best thing: preparing his side for the same maneuver. He stopped his wild swinging with his daggers, as it was doing nothing, and prepared to jump.

  He made sure that he wouldn’t interfere with his other friends, then activated [Jump]. Up into the air he went, twisting a little to allow him to land atop the mushroom he was next to. Down he came, the thing being a little spongy as he landed both feet on top. He bounced back a little with the give and then he was next to it once more.

  With daggers out, he again tried to damage the creature. He noticed that the attacks were no longer regenerating, which meant they could hurt these things now. At least we’ve figured it out, he hoped.

  Josh called a halt to the attack on the green one on the left. “It’s down. Move to Pepe’s!”

  Pepe moved to the side of the creature facing him at an angle in front and continued to damage it. He saw Michelle move over by him and start attacking as well, followed by a fireball from Josh and arrows from Erin. Soon it was down. They received a notification.

  Josh called out to Manuel, “Move them up so we can reposition.” Manuel, without a word, started to back up, and the creatures moved with him.

  Pepe saw Red stop while Blue continued his headbutt maneuver against the tank. Red started to do something: it shrunk in on itself, then popped up. A cloud of red mist, or gas, went into the air. Pepe jumped back, not knowing what the effects would be, and saw his friends move back as well. Red started to attack Manuel once it was finished with whatever the skill did.

  The cloud, sufficiently large, reached the two green creatures. To his horror, the creatures started to regenerate once again. While he saw the notification, there was too much chaos to process it. They shook themselves and then moved once again. This time, they didn’t move toward Manuel; instead, they turned—one toward Bobby, the other toward Josh. Crap, his friends were in trouble. They needed to do something fast.

  Pepe heard his cousin use his [Taunt] skill, and the one going for Bobby stopped in its tracks and rushed back at Manuel. The other green creature reached Josh and launched itself at him. Pepe heard his friend cry out after the impact and saw him toppling backward. Was he all right? How hurt was he?

  Both he and Michelle rushed over to help. Michelle, being closer, performed [Jump] without stopping. Up into the air she went. She landed on the green creature, and, as before, it smashed down. They started wailing on it, and once more, the notification came through that it was down.

  Pepe heard their healer perform [Heal] and [Revitalize] and saw the notification that Josh’s health was back up. He reached down, grabbed Josh’s hand, and lifted him up. Josh nodded. “Take out Red!”

  “Got it!” Pepe replied, then used [Jump]. He and Michelle turned to see Erin landing on Red. They all moved and began attacking Red, not wanting a repeat of its skill. Soon they saw the notification that the creature was down. Josh called for a move over to the remaining green creature. They turned and saw that, like Red, it had stopped and was in the process of shrinking, preparing for some unknown skill. Before it could complete its move, they saw Bobby in the air, then landing atop the green creature. As soon as he landed, he moved back, ready to support the party.

  Pepe could only nod at this action. He had no clue what the green creature could do, but if it was anything like Red’s skill, he didn’t want to deal with it resurrecting the two downed creatures or summoning others, or whatever else it might do. This was not the time to wonder or imagine bad things; it was time for action. He switched over to attacking the green creature. Soon, the notification came in that it was down for the count.

  Blue was the last one standing. They needed to take him down; Pepe didn’t want to find out what kind of skill either Green or Blue possessed. He didn’t want to “jump” the gun (pun intended); he could activate the jump skill at the same time as someone else and end up colliding with them. He waited for Josh to give the word before doing anything.

  The call came. “Pepe, jump on him!” He didn’t even nod. [Jump], and he was in the air. He saw the boot make contact. This time it was different; it didn’t actually smash the creature down and stop it; it just kept going. What the heck? Before he came back down to the ground next to the creature, Michelle jumped, landed on the creature, and, to everyone’s relief, it smashed down and stopped.

  Pepe started in with his dagger work, and Michelle followed suit. Then came the arrows from Erin and a fireball from Josh. No notification came. They continued attacking. Pepe found it hard to simply wail on Blue; he had to coordinate with his friends. He saw his cousin slash, then Michelle slash. They couldn’t all attack at the same time; the creature wasn’t huge, after all.

  Still no notification. Blue started to move again; he saw it regenerate some of the cuts. Not again! They needed to take it down again. “Michelle, again!” he called. He activated [Jump], came down, his boot made contact, he moved out of the way, and Michelle’s boot made contact.

  Yet again, he started inflicting dagger damage, his friends following suit. He was extremely frustrated with Blue. Will you go down already! Finally, the notification came. He kept attacking, not paying much attention to the notification itself.

  “Pepe, it’s down. You can stop!” He heard Michelle yell at him. It took him a few seconds to process her words. He stopped and breathed a sigh of relief.

  Pepe was glad they were done. He had reached Level 4 and hoped he would be able to gain another level or two during the run. The fight wasn’t fun at all, but they had figured out the formula, so the following fights would be easier. They could beat this; the mechanics weren’t bad. If and when they faced other creatures, they would need to figure out what to do. He was just glad this first one was over.