Rewind: A Grimdark LitRPG Series (Pyresouls Apocalypse, Book 1) by James Callum (reading tree .txt) 📕

to the tree by the time Hal realized he had stopped walking to marvel at the tower of fungus.

Weakened from hunger and the constant marching, Hal did his best to catch up but it was a poor attempt even with his extra point in STR. Now that the burst of adrenaline from the Level Up had worn off, he was more sluggish than ever.

By the time he reached the tree of a million fungi, the Huntress was hard at work examining the colorful things. Mushrooms had never been his favorite but he was so hungry he would have eaten almost anything placed in front of him.

The Huntress stopped him at a pace or two from the tree and grabbed his shoulder.

Hal looked questioningly at her. It was obvious she was trying to find a way to tell him something without using words. Finally, she nodded and held up a finger.

Releasing her grip on his shoulder, she pointed at him then mimed covering her eyes with one hand. Her free hand reached out toward the tree and she pretended to take something from it. Without looking at it or removing her hand from her eyes, she mimed shoving it into her mouth and eating.

“I got it,” Hal said with a nod. “You want me to shut my eyes and pick a mushroom at random and eat it without looking.”

The Huntress smiled encouragingly, the first smile he’d ever seen on her typically dour features. She took the canteen from him and stepped aside.

Normally, Hal would have been skeptical. Or even feared that this was some horrendously elaborate prank but he knew it didn’t hold any merit. If the woman wanted to poison or kill him, she had more direct methods.

And besides, Hal had let his whole life pass him by as he weighed the pros and cons of every situation in his life. He was tired of over-analyzing and coming up with plans for events that would never occur.

He wanted to live.

I don’t want to be the same person. Not here. If magic can exist, then that means I don’t need to be the same version of me that I’ve always been.

Hal took the remaining steps to the tree and reached out with his free hand, eyes squeezed shut. Blindly, he grabbed a spongy top and ripped off a chunk.

Without daring to open his eyes, afraid he’d chicken out at the last second, he took a bite.

His teeth crunched through the skin and into the dry spongey material below. It tasted about as bad as he expected. Like old gym socks or really expensive cheese.

He never could tell the difference.

Forcing down every bite, Hal ate the mushroom.

Hal opened his eyes to the worst acid trip in his life. Colors swirled and melted together then reformed entirely new never-seen-before hues. The Huntress stood before him but her eyes were swimming around her face and her mouth rippled and undulated like noodles in a bowl of soup.

The deep pit in his stomach was gone. Though he felt more than a little queasy, he also was strangely sated. As if he had eaten a large four-course meal.

The Huntress reached out and steadied him before he realized he was about to fall.

Everything spun and twisted around as the hallucination took hold.

I just ate a mushroom, what did I expect? He tried to talk but his words came out slurred and strange. The Huntress replied to him but he continued not understanding a single word.

As she laid him down onto the grass, another window appeared.

You eat the [Allspeak Fungus].

Language Unlocked: Common.

You are Poisoned!

You are Paralyzed!

Oh, good.

Darkness closed in around him and he heard the Huntress’s soft, lamenting voice, “…órë.” Her eyes found his, the only bright things in the darkness around. “Hlar mes’ifa? Can you hear me? What is wrong?”

Hal tried to answer but found he no longer had control over his tongue. The last thing he remembered was the Huntress bending down to lift him into her arms as the darkness finally closed in around him.

If you liked what you saw, you can get Beastborne: Mark of the Founder HERE, available on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited. At over a thousand pages long, it can help tide you over until the next Pyresouls book comes out!