Multi-Dimensional Merchant System

Climbing the towering fungus building turned out to be easier than Oliver had expected, thanks in part to how much he had increased his attributes already... And the fact that, despite how resilient as the giant mushrooms were, it was actually quite easy to carve out simple handholds- the tough flesh of the stalk parted cleanly under the edge of his sharp knife.

Thankfully, he had tossed a headlamp in the system warehouse for situations where he needed a light while keeping both hands free.

Moving carefully the higher he went, Oliver made his way to the lowest platform. Only a few feet wide, with a small alcove carved out behind it, he found the platform surprisingly sturdy as he tested it repeatedly before slowly settling his full weight on it... and found... something... tucked away in the alcove.

Pulling the baseball bat from the system warehouse as he crept forward, it only took a moment of poking and prodding, carefully shifting the lump around, before he realized what it was: a simple blanket that had grown moldy over time, as it had been left in a bundled up heap.

“Vadrin... There use to be people living here. Make sure everyone stays alert in case any are still around.”

“Did you find something friend Silk?”

Just as he was about to respond, he felt something different under the prodding tip of his bat as it impacted something small but solid. Taking hold of the corner of the blanket, he cautiously spread it out, bat at the ready... But his caution was unneeded as, after being jostled free, a pale gray object the size of his fist sat before him.

Which, he immediately realized, was a carved figurine in the likeness of one of the squirrels he had recently dealt with.

Gingerly he picked up the figurine and, turning it over in his hands, he took in the incredible amount of detail. It was a near perfect representation, right down to the scales and the big adorable eyes. The only real difference was in the claws, as the one's on the figuring were blunted rather than sharp. He wasn't sure what it was made of exactly, but it looked like stone of some sort.

Though he had no idea how it was free of mold after being wrapped up in the nasty blanket... Of course, he wasn't an expert on mold anyway, so he really didn't know what it would grow on...

“I'm checking an empty building right now... And I found a blanket and a carved figurine. It looks like one of the squirrels I brought you, just smaller. Maybe hand made, though I'm not an really an expert on that sort of thing... It kinda reminds me of a child's toy or something. No idea what it is made from.”

“I'm going to keep looking.”

Oliver made his way higher up the building, checking each platform and alcove as he went, and carefully collected an assortment of items that were left behind.

He ignored the moldy blankets, other than to make sure they hid nothing else of interest... But, even so, there were several items for him to ponder over. Scraps of leather, a few of which looked to have once been belts or some sort of pouch for carrying things... Shards of clay that may have once been pottery, perhaps for cooking or storing things?

A pair of dice, carve out of the same material the figuring was...

Something that looked like a wax candle...

An opaque glass jar, carefully tucked away in an alcove...

Finding a handsaw and a knife made of some metal he couldn't identify caught Oliver's interest immediately. He had been to enough of the medieval reenactments and watched people hand forge tools to recognize them on sight.

“I think we're looking at a pre-industrial civilization, Vadrin. I found some hand forged tools, and everything else looks hand made... Some clay and glass, as well...”

Oliver paused, having found something else to important to ignore.

Near where he had found the knife, he spotted a shelf tucked away with a decent size block of the gray stone... But, behind the block of stone, were more of the carved figurines. Almost a dozen of them, in fact.

But all of them were of different animals.

There were some similarities among the animals, namely the fact that all of them seemed to have scales of some sort...

Though that made sense for the ones that looked like a snake or a lizard...

It was the others that he focused on.

Particularly the ones that looked kind of like a buffalo, a bear, and a large cat.

He had no frame of reference for them, other than the carvings themselves being done slightly larger than the rest, but still the creatures looked fierce. Heavily muscled, with large scales covering most of their bodies... The buffalo had massive horns and clawed feet instead of hooves... And the cat had a jagged, pointed mane …

“...And, if these figurines are anything to go by, they are a lot more animals than what we've seen so far. So definitely make sure everyone is careful.”

Oliver felt the hair on the back of his neck rise as he moved on to the next building...

And the one after that...

Building after building, some as short as only two or three stories tall, others perhaps seven or eight... Every one of them empty, save for the remnants left behind by whoever had occupied them. He found more of the metal tools, discarded scraps of what may have been clothing and other articles he had no clue about...

But no people... And no bodies.

Bypassing the collapsed buildings- though he paused to collect the dropped tools and metal he had seen glinting from above- Oliver continued his search... Until he saw what had to have been the biggest mushroom building of any he had seen.

It was huge, easily as wide as Polina's house, and twice the height of any of the other buildings around. The cap sitting high above nearly blotting out the sky... He had no idea how they hadn't picked it out easily from above.

Though, he supposed, a huge mushroom among other giant mushrooms didn't really stand out all that much...

And, for whatever reason, this building had one of its windows just a few feet above the ground.

Carefully approaching the opening, Oliver swept his light around the interior... and froze. While the open interior continued all the way up, just as the others had, this building had something new. Something he hadn't seen in any of the others.

Stairs. Going down. Underground.

Which, despite him only knowing a little about construction and architecture, didn't make a lot of sense. Given the wetlands surrounding the place, a basement would be horribly impractical even with modern construction. It would inevitably be damp, and prone to flooding...

Of course, he was quick to remind himself that he was on an alien planet, looking at alien architecture. For all he knew, they had some solution to the problem... That, and considering he had magic, it wasn't impossible for the people that had lived here to also have had it...

Oliver quickly swept his light above once more as he considered where to check first, above or below? The last thing he wanted was to have something surprise him from above, but whatever was underground was a complete unknown... Of course, he was also hesitant to try and climb a hundred feet up with no safety gear. Improved attributes were great, but he doubted they would save him from falling to death.

With no movement, or any other indication of something still being present in the building above, curiosity won out. He hurried over to the stairs leading down and, shining his light on them, he saw they spiraled clockwise roughly the full width of the building. Unable to see beyond the curve of the stairs, he eased his way down one step at a time.

Laser pistol in hand, Oliver cautiously placed one foot after the other, always careful to test that the next step would support his weight. The path circled the building what felt like twice, though he wasn't certain of that guess, when it finally opened up into a massive hall, extending hundreds of feet into the distance... Far enough that he could barely make out the far wall under the illumination of the small headlamp.

And, in the center of the hall, stood an unmoving figure.

And surrounding the figure... the floor of the hall was practically carpeted by bones of all different sizes and shapes, so deep he couldn't see the actual floor beneath them...