"What? The little princess got infected with spore virus? Holy shit! There's a second half to this rescue mission?"
When news reached the front lines that Princess Bridget had been infected with Reaper Spores, the players, who were clearing out the plant undead with all kinds of explosives and fire, erupted into an uproar.
Although they came from different cities and had lived different lives, they were outstanding players raised in modern society, and they not only had principles—they held them to a high standard.
They despised the kind of vicious attacks that targeted children, so the news filled them with righteous anger. But soon, even worse news arrived. After Mother Marian examined them, she discovered that many of the Adventurers' Guild fleet's crew members had also been infected by invisible spores over the past two days. Clearly, this island of death was far more dangerous than the players had imagined.
As for why the players hadn't been infected—
Obviously, they didn't even have physical bodies of flesh and blood. They were entirely formed from psionic projections, so they were immune to fungal infections like Reaper Spores, which targeted flesh and blood.
Old Sir Ferdinand was beside himself with worry.
He had to take responsibility for the safety of his crew. So when Mother Marian proposed going to the ruins of the Old Church's holy site to find the original spore plant, the old explorer was the first to volunteer to join the team.
But figuring out how to cross the island's dangerous terrain and reach the ruins in the hills at its center was a major problem.
During the eight years the island had been isolated, the out-of-control spores had infected and taken control of nearly every corpse on the island. Back when the Old Church was at its