Chapter 110: Silently Sampling Sumptuous Succulent Shrooms
After his third time telling Larry the story of Hamster Huey, Milo got away by promising to tell it again at the next meal. Larry was in a better mood, still singing the song from the story. The map showed the caverns that made up Limburger Hollow, and showed all the exits. The route he needed looked to be through a cave past something called The Tower of Strife. He could circle around through the market place and maybe do a little shopping.
He was just about to step off the porch of the mess hall when a figure in black clothing swung into view and attacked him. They had been on the roof, holding onto the edge with claws and tail, as they swung at him, upside-down, they yelled "Surprise!".
Milo didn't think much of the plan. They'd have been better to drop to the ground, or drop and catch themselves with their tail. Instead, they had held onto the roof, and swung down in an arc like a pendulum. Milo knew from experience how much longer that would take, starting from a resting position. His acrobatics all over his section had led him to experiment with the best ways of moving through the tunnels and drops. Swinging like that was useful to change your vector of movement, not to gain momentum. Did they not teach Shadow-Walkers any math?
Milo had plenty of time to react. He brought up his left hand, and blocked with the hardened bone that appeared on his forearm. The small knife that was used when playing 'Surprise' snapped. Milo grabbed the assassin by the front of his tunic and used the momentum and direction of their swing to toss him to Larry.
"Quick Larry! Gooie is trying to go Kablooie! Throw him far away from us before he explodes!!
Larry stood up and yelled loudly, holding the poor rat-kin in one hand and winding up for a throw. "NO Kablooie for you! Larry saves Hamster Town!"
Milo watched as Larry threw the hapless assassin far and high. As he hit the ground a hundred feet away a huge cloud of dust went up in the air and Larry yelled: "Kablooie for Gooie!" Then he grabbed Milo, who was forced to do the Happy Hamster Hop with him as everyone in the mess hall came out to watch. Milo started to explain, and then turned to the excited and happy Cheese Fiend: "Larry, can you tell everyone about how you saved Hamster Town?"
Larry stopped bouncing, and looked unsure of things. "Larry tells the story?"
Milo nodded to him, and Bleusnout sat down on the porch. The Cheese-Master smiled encouragingly at Larry: "I would love to have Larry tell the story."
Milo snuck away to do his mushroom hunting as Larry began to tell for the first time what would become an ever-evolving story of how Larry saved Hamster Town.
‘One day, Larry was sitting with his best friend, Hamster Huey. Hamster Huey told Larry a story. Larry saw a sneaky guy trying to surprise Hamster Huey. It was Gooier Kablooie! Larry grabbed Kablooie and yelled at him....’
Finding the Tower of Strife was easy. It was a stone tower going to the roof of the cavern, and showed the signs of many repairs. It was darkened by fire, and some of its stones were actually melted. Milo wondered what occurred inside. Even as he watched, several blue-robed ratkin barreled out the front door just seconds before thunder and lightning shook the tower. A green cloud formed high in the air, which then exploded as more lightning went off. The displaced students decided it was time for dinner and ran to the mess hall, hoping things would calm down soon.
Milo went around the tower, choosing to ignore it for now as everyone else in the market was doing. The open-air flea market was familiar to Milo. It looked like the market in Shadowport, or the swap-meet in the hab. Tables and blankets were covered in goods. Here it was foodstuffs, cloth, weapons, and jewelry. In the hab it was broken machinery, video games, and canned food.
Milo agreed. It was a small amount of work to repay this teacher for his knowledge. And it was efficient. Between the two lists he could pick the caverns clean of spotted mushrooms. But the old man had a warning for him. He pointed to a small cavern near the end of the cave complex Milo was heading to. "This way is dangerous. It's usually guarded by the spiders. Sadly, the small cave beyond has the rarest varieties of mushrooms growing there: Golden Puffballs and Red Spotted Eye-Rot. One tasty and one deadly. It would take quite a bit of stealth and daring to get in and out of that cave without a fight. So be careful."
With that warning, he waved Milo on his way, and leaned back to take a nap.
Skill Summary:
Sense Danger has improved from Rank 5 to Rank 6
Spine of Volax-Repat has improved from Rank 5 to Rank 6
Combat Block has improved to Rank 3
Acrobatics has improved to Rank 6
Mycology has improved to Rank 3
Dodge has improved to Rank 6
Climbing has improved to rank 6
You have gained the skill: Mastery of Self at Rank 0 this is a WIS based skill.
AGI has improved by +1 to 13
DEX has improved by +1 to 16
