Hive Knight: A Dark Fantasy LitRPG (Trinity of the Hive Book 1) by Grayson Sinclair (poetry books to read TXT) 📗

relish repeating ever again. There were torches sporadically placed to make sure we could see a vague outline of the cave and not much else.

As I walked further and further into the cave, the distance between the torches grew. As the pale orange light from the torches faded, I expected to be plunged into darkness. I wasn’t, which surprised me. A faint blue glow came from the large cavern ahead of me. As I got closer, the lights grew brighter to where every detail of the rocky cave was outlined by the glow.

I knew what I was looking at, but what I was seeing made no sense. The medium-sized cave that had previously held our growing supply of mushrooms was still comprised of the small fungus. With a tiny difference, half of them were glowing. A soft blue light emitted from each of the mushroom caps, along with a rather pleasant aroma that made me lightheaded.

“I would cover your mouth and nose and try not to breathe in too deeply, if it pleases you,” Markos spoke from somewhere in the cave.

Footsteps shuffled over the rocks just above me, and I found Markos with a large black cloth wrapped tightly around the lower half of his face.

He tossed me one, and I misjudged the feather-light material and wasn’t able to grab the fabric on my first attempt but managed to snag it before it floated to the ground and got soaked in the water. I hastily tied the cloth around my head and cinched it tight. Almost immediately, the dizzying haze faded, and I could breathe better even with the damn cloth around my mouth and nose.

“What the hell is going on, Mark?” I asked him in a muffled breath, the cloth making speech infinitely more difficult.

He looked at me, and even with his entire face covered, I could imagine the way his face lit up as he spoke. “The fates have been kind enough to grant us a revelation.” His voice held the slight tinge of a fanatic.

“Would the fates be kind enough to let me in on this revelation?” I asked him with barely suppressed exasperation.

Markos looked at me and sobered slightly from the internal reverie that went on in his head. A slight relaxation of his shoulders and the way he carried himself told me he had regained some of his facilities.

“Ah, right…of course, Duran,” he said softly. He gestured to the surrounding mushrooms. “I was tinkering with the chemistry of our already-potent Gloom mushrooms. Most of the additions failed or created a somewhat toxic substance, but I played with some glow vine since, as it produces a mild hallucinogen as a defense system, I thought it would be neat to meld the two. After fiddling around with my Botany and Alchemy skills, I was able to combine them both.

“Behold!” He spoke with a flourish of his arms. “The Gloam, the same effects as Gloom mushrooms with an added, addictive hallucinatory effect.”

I stopped and just stared at our newest creation. This would be an excellent source of additional income for us, and I just knew Miguel would be dying to get his grubby hands all over these.

“We will need to run a few tests on them,” I told Markos. “To be on the safe side. I don’t want to start selling these only to find out they kill people or make them go insane.”

The last thing we needed was even more heat brought down on our heads. The Alliance already had it out for us; we wouldn’t survive if the Merchants Guild joined the fray.

He nodded his head at me, probably understanding the need for safety better than I did. Markos being a healer first, burgeoning drug kingpin second.

“I agree with you. As you have experienced, this new strain of Gloom mushroom emits a rather dangerous spore that affects the mind. A nice side effect for a drug user, however, not so great for a drug maker. We will need to be careful not to breathe it in while cultivating them,” Markos warned me.

His demonstration complete, Markos and I walked out of the narcotic-filled portion of the cave and back into the walkway that led outside. As soon as we got far enough away that we could no longer be affected by the mushrooms, Markos took off the makeshift gas mask, which told me I could as well. I was relieved at the cool air filling my lungs, and I shifted my gaze to where I looked at both Markos and the illuminated path so I wouldn’t fall and bust my face.

“This new project is solid. After you give the green light, I’ll get a message to Miguel to send a few men over to help package up the first shipment,” I told him.

My mind currently worked on the best way to profit from our new resource. I saw stacks of gold in the guild's future. This new venture on top of the other deal I’d worked out with the suave crime lord would ensure a rather lucrative stream of income for us. It would mean we could take fewer contracts and maybe start working to pay off our bounties. A pleasant daydream. I made my way out of the cave and back towards the castle. The damp, spore-filled cave had left me in pressing need of a nice long bath.

But it would have to wait because as soon as I stepped out of the cave, Wilson’s contact card lit up in my interface.

I clicked accept, and Wilson’s light breathing filled my ear.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Guild meeting. Thirty minutes,” he said abruptly and hung up.

Great, just what I needed. Fuck it, let’s get this over with.

I went back up through the castle, only stopping to get a mug of ale, and I made it to the meeting in record time, which I shouldn’t