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MillionNovel > Mycelium > Understanding

Understanding

    [Level 7 achieved]


    Choices for unlocking new mushrooms are:


    [Mana Collecting Mushroom] A mushroom that collects ambient mana and stores it. Can be accessed by Mafu at will.


    [Blade Mushroom] A mushroom that has a hidden blade contained within. Can stab, swing, and shoot the blade at enemies.


    [Sugardrop Mushroom] This was the same one I could unlock earlier; it drops high sugar content syrup on the ground. Not that I found it useful at a... wait. Ants eat sugar, right? But it sounded to me that these ants might mainly hunt for meat. I would need to ask Taressa.


    I tried linking to Taressa with my telepathic link. It was quite hard since I had not seen the queen herself. I was not sure where in the nest she was located.


    "Your fumbling attempts at telepathy are annoying my children," Taressa still spoke with quite the arrogance. I guess that is befitting of royalty.


    "Sorry, I was wondering what your children and you consume for food."


    "Most things. We hunt any creature we are not allied with, and we forage for plant matter when no prey is found."


    It seems I might have been dinner if I did not accept their deal.


    "Do you consume sugar?"


    "Yes. Sugar is one of our best nutrients. Our numbers are low right now because we have had issues with sustenance recently."


    Alright. If I choose the sugardrop mushroom, I can feed the ants. If I feed the ants, they can then forage only for me so that I get materials and exp faster. I do not know what the requirements for the sugardrop mushroom are, though. I assume it costs mana to spawn sugar, as the stationary mushrooms seemed to come with a cost so far. The mushroom summons did not, weirdly enough.


    I chose the sugardrop mushroom and looked into it. This was the first mushroom that had a "setting" to it. I could choose what mana to put into it with no upper limit. The minimum was 1 mana per hour when active.


    "Taressa, I have unlocked a mushroom that produces sugar. Is it okay if I place it next to your nest so that your children can get sugar from it?"


    "Yes. What would you want for us to do for this?". She was quick to realize that this was not free.


    "Forage for scraps of wood, seeds, and other decomposable materials for me. I will make a storage mushroom next to the sugar mushroom where you can deposit what you forage."


    "Very well"


    I spawned the two mushrooms as close as I could to the nest. My mycelium had not quite gotten there yet. There was about one meter left until my mycelium would grow around their nest. I started the sugardrop mushroom on 1 mana per hour to see what the baseline is. When I inspected the mushroom, it showed me that it would produce 4 drops per hour for 1 mana. I increased it to 5 mana, which would still let me regenerate a small amount of mana passively. It now produces 60 drops of mana per hour. So it seems the more mana per hour I put in it, the better the cost efficiency is for me.


    "It will release a drop once per minute. Make sure to collect it, as I do not know how long these drops will last on the ground."


    Taressa did not answer, but a line of ants quickly formed towards the mushroom. As soon as the drop landed, multiple ants harvested each drop and carried it away, and the other ants moved into position. It was kind of meditative to watch the ants perform this harvesting work in almost mechanical fashion.


    Now I just needed to wait a little bit to get my [crafting] research unlocked so I could progress with my construction. Assuming I could craft lumberjack axes with it.


    ---


    Three days later.


    [Crafting] unlocked. Designate new research?


    Crafting had unlocked three new options for research. Firstly [blacksmithing] and [alchemy]. Blacksmithing was fairly self-explanatory, but I was a little bit interested in how much was covered in it. Could I have them make gears and levers and then build a factory? Or was it just the normal weapon and armor that were offered in the blacksmith? Since the worker promotion I would unlock was [Fungal Blacksmith], it did not tell me much about it.


    Alchemy said it was required to make medicines, potions, and other magical salves and liquids. The worker promotion was [Fungal Alchemist], which yet again did not tell me much.


    It was the third option I needed. [Forestry]. It unlocked the [forestry hut] and the [fungal forester]. Since it was not called a lumberjack, I assumed that the forester would both plant and harvest wood. This was even better than a lumberjack. I chose to start research on forestry, and it would take 7 days to finish. It seems researching increases in time required quite a bit after the starting research.


    I was also about to level up again. The goblins had been very useful, and the two smaller ones were already almost entirely gone. The brute would take another 4 days to decompose.


    [Level 8 achieved]


    The choices for new skills are:


    [Seize Hostilities] Command all entities to seize hostilities. Make all entities unable to take or deal damage within your territory for 5 minutes.


    [Fungal Shroud] Makes a subordinate or your central mushroom disappear from sight for three minutes. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    [Shieldwall] Manifests a fungal shield to protect you or a subordinate from harm. Can be broken by taking too much damage.


    Alright, so seizing hostilities is very useful. But it is also not so useful. If I had it when the goblins came, it would be useful in my delay tactic to get my units out. I could use this skill in the same manner to relocate my warriors to where the enemy was in the same manner. But it seemed only useful in niche conditions.


    Fungal Shroud is amazing. It could save me, but I could also make my soldier or the ants invisible, which meant I could use it in combat to confuse enemies. I could also use it for sneak attacks.


    Shieldwall is also useful in most situations, but in comparison to the others, it seemed too average.


    I chose fungal shroud.


    Next on my agenda was to build another quarter for fungal workers. I needed more workers to promote to foresters, and I would not mind another forager. The ants were by now giving me a steady supply of different materials. None of them had found seeds yet, which I was confused about. We were in a verdant, green, deep forest after all. Seeds of different plants should be easy to come by here, right?


    I built it next to the other quarters. Three new cute workers came scuttling out to greet my central firecap. I made one of them a forager, and he started out by making himself the same tools as Freddy had made. I quickly decided his name would be Frank. It kind of disrupts the whole name ending in "y" trend I had going on. But I am fine with that since it is not like I am very good with naming anyway.


    I ordered the other two workers to recharge, as I planned to make one of them a forester and the other a crafter. Next on the plans is to make a crafting lodge. I placed it fairly close to my first storage. My builder needed 4 hours to make the crafting lodge. And 4 hours later, there it was. A beautiful lodge that was made of both a timber frame and a mushroom. The entire mushroom was different shades of brown. It was a square mushroom, but the timber frame stuck out of it a little bit, which gave it a cozy rustic look to it.


    I assigned Frank to go foraging in a different direction than Freddy. I then got one of my new workers and promoted him to a [Fungal Crafter]. He ran into the lodge, and as soon as the door closed, I got a notification.


    [Crafting tab] unlocked. I could manage my crafters work here. I could even set a minimum quality that I wanted my crafted items to be. For now, I set it to make [Fungal Forestry Axe] at no minimum quality. Now all that was left was to wait for my research to complete and the brute to be decomposed.


    ---


    4 days later, and the brute is finally gone. I had misjudged how much exp I needed to get to level 9. I was not far off level 9, but the exponential increase in experience was heavier than I assumed. I had been spawning firecaps around my entire territory for the last few days. At this point, I had a whole 63 firecaps. My territory is now covered somewhere around 16 meters in diameter. I was not quite sure whether I overdid it, but it gave me peace of mind. I now had full coverage of multiple firecaps being able to firespike any intruder.


    I had also started burning leaves and other decomposables under my central firecap to gain more ashes. I had enough mana at this point, as my stats had increased a fair bit. The regeneration stat was also my highest stat at 23. Maybe I should have picked the [Mushroom Elementalist] given the mana regeneration rate I had. Well, it''s too late now.


    ---


    [Forestry] unlocked. Designate new research?


    I chose [Size I] as my next research and started construction of the forestry hut. It would take 3 days for the research and 8 hours for my forestry hut. With Bobby''s recharge in mind, that would be two days for the construction. Ah, more waiting.


    Almost at the same time that the forestry hut completed construction, I got to level 9.


    [Level 9 achieved]


    Choose a territory effect. The choices are:


    [Territory Experience Increase] Experience earned in the territory is increased.


    [Territory Healing Increase] Natural healing and healing magic are more effective in your territory.


    [Territory Speed Increase] Movement and reaction speed are increased in your territory.


    Oh, that is interesting. I do not think the healing increase is that valuable right now, so I will not be picking that. But both the speed and experience increase are both massively useful. The experience increase is obviously the best for me right now. But I do not yet know if there is a limit to my level. Or my subordinates level. If there is a limit, then the experience increase will eventually be wasted on us. On the other hand, the speed increase is both useful now for my workers and the ants. And as my territory grows, it will be even more useful.


    I will choose the speed increase. It seems useful both for now and for later, so it really does not have many downsides.


    A little while later, the forestry hut finished. I immediately made my last worker a forester. My crafter had made three forestry axes, and one of them was of good quality. The other 2 were trash, so I had already burned them for ashes. My forester had grabbed the forestry axe and was now waiting for orders.


    I could feel the mental connection as usual with my workers. This time it wanted me to assign an area. I assigned a 2x2-meter square at the edges of my territory away from the ants. The forester ran off happily and started planting small saplings. I do not know where the saplings came from, and I was no longer asking questions about the system shenanigans.


    A day later, the size research finished. I suddenly felt slightly lightheaded as I could feel myself grow. I grew to be almost as big as my warriors. I was now maybe 80 centimeters tall, and my stalk was a lot thicker. As I looked around my territory, I realized that it was not just me, but all my mushrooms had grown as well. The firecaps all around my territory now looked ridiculous. I had built them too close to each other, and some mushroom caps were now touching.


    Everything was now looking very disorderly, and I felt slightly annoyed. Well, at least my toughness and thus survivability have gone up.


    As I was inspecting my mushrooms, I saw all the ants of Taressa''s nest come swarming out. Thousands upon thousands kept running out and spreading out all over my mycelium and further out. I was confused, so I tried to ask Taressa what was happening but got no response.


    Then, as I watched, all the ants started growing. They grew to be about the size of a smaller size teddy bear. The biggest one was now visible, and I assumed it was Taressa. She was the size of a stationary computer. She walked up to my central fireplace, and I had to force myself to not scream.


    "I was given a choice of accepting the growth as your subordinate," she spoke.


    "Oh, I was not aware that was offered to my subordinates."


    I briefly wondered how I was going to feed these ants now. They had increased from 50,000 to about 65,000 since starting to eat the sugar my mushrooms produced.


    "So how are you going to get food now?" I asked her.


    "We will have to sacrifice."


    I really hoped I was not the sacrifice she spoke of. But as I thought that, the ants started attacking each other. Actually no, they had paired up, and there was one ant killing another that just laid down. This murder spree went on for about an hour. When the forest grew silent again, Taressa once again spoke.


    "My children are now down to 5,000. We ask for your permission to dig deep under your territory for our new nest."


    "Ah, okay, that will be fine as long as you do not hurt my mycelium.


    "We will make sure to do so."


    As Taressa was leaving, I thought of something quite important.


    "Taressa, I will probably be able to increase your size again later. You might want to build a nest much bigger than what you need right now."


    "Understood. How much bigger?"


    "I do not know. It might be the same increase in size, but it may be possible that it happens multiple times."


    "We will make sure to build a large nest then. We can always refuse the increase should we not want it."


    "Okay, good luck with the nestbuilding then."


    I now had an army of psychic ants that ate living prey living underneath me. It made me feel both safe and in danger at the same time. I sighed. There was already an option for [Size II].


    Am I going to be the size of a mountain at the end of this research tree?
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