For a few weeks, all that we had been doing was building up our stockpile of materials, adding new military buildings, and hunting animals to stock up before the size upgrade. And spreading the mycelium, of course.
But I had been thinking about the mind-breaking issue of expanding my domain. When I died, I could still think. Half my soul was kept in the mycelium heart, and half in my central firecap.
So, if I could research either one, I might unlock some research related to expanding my mental capabilities. The issue is, if another archer or any other threat were to arrive before I had reattached the mycelium heart, I would die. For real this time.
When I leveled up to level 10, where the system deemed me to be an adult, the limit of my territory increased. I assumed this was because of a stat increase, but I was honestly just guessing.
I had spent most of these last few weeks trying to decide whether or not to examine the heart before or after the invasion.
No, I had to do it before. We were not strong enough to fight on two fronts yet. If I sent the ants to invade, and some humans attacked my territory, my mushroom warriors might lose. At least, if it was the Templars.
After Toqlan told me about how the villages deal with threats, that is probably what the humans who escaped did. They must have called for a Templar to deal with me or the ants. Either way, as soon as they arrived in my territory, they would see I was a "challenger" and attack me.
With my decision done, I ordered my fungal workers to dig up my mycelium heart. It took them a few days to get to it, as they were careful with only removing the actual heart and not hurting the rest of the mycelium.
I planned to try to just reconnect it to the same spot and see if it would attach after examining it. When the workers started ripping out the actual heart, it felt as if someone was fumbling around in my stomach, removing organs and intestines.
It took the workers an hour or two to get the heart to the fungal pool. I felt excruciating pain for most of it.
When I collected myself and started examining the heart, it immediately gave me way too much information. It was as complex as a computer, but I did not know any of the parts of it. It was as if I was looking at the technology of an alien spacefaring empire''s starship.
But I had been a researcher in my past life. I knew how to apply basic scientific theory. I knew how to study things that I did not understand. It was almost a cozy feeling, going back to what I had been doing for most of my life.
I spent a few days, then a few weeks, until two months or so had passed by. I did not realize the time it had taken; my sense of time was distorted as I did not feel tired or have the need to sleep. It felt like a few days, at most. But I finally understood how the heart worked, and in fact what my mycelium was in general.
[Mycelium Manipulation unlocked] This skill allows you to move and grow your mycelium at will.
It was a skill to use the strands of my mycelium like tentacles. I tried it, and multiple strands of mycelium shot out of the ground and entangled a tree nearby. I might be immobile, but now I at least had hands. Well, no, not actually hands. But I could grip stuff.
[Mycelium Mind unlocked] This skill allows you to create minds throughout your mycelium, helping you govern your territory.
This was basically cloning myself. I did not have a skill description, but I had spent two months studying this subject. And I knew how it could be used. I understood this skill implicitly, more than any other skill I had.
It took a lot of mana to make a mind, and there was a high maintenance cost for it. But I could manage it, with how my territory had grown during these two months. I created one, not too far away, and protected it with a firecap.
I was very surprised when a firecap the size of a full-grown adult human grew. Oh, the size upgrade had finished, and I had been too focused on my research project. Wow, I do need extra minds. I took a look throughout my territory. It was now at least two kilometers long and maybe a hundred or so meters across.
The mycelium ants had stopped the expansion just before the treeline of the forest. I could now see open fields of brown and green, a plant that looked a bit similar to wheat, if it was not for the color of it.
The ants were now almost the size of an average dog. Their skittering sound that was ever present as they were smaller was now a low thumping sound. I expanded my mental link and felt that there were a lot fewer ants. Then I connected to Taressa.
"I have been focusing too much on my research, how is the state of the territory?" I was careful about saying sorry or using any weak language around Taressa. With her personality, I felt like she would respect me less if I did say sorry.
"Everything is proceeding as expected. There are too many materials to store in the mushrooms, but your research seemed important, so we did not disturb it. We assembled a stockpile with the assistance of the beast-kin, a little bit outside the territory."
"How many ants remain with the new upgrade?"
"2500, we did not want to reduce below that number, as we are expecting to invade the two-legs soon enough."
Alright, that is actually a good number. With 5000 small dogs, we''d have issues with food. But with 2500, we could cope with it. I started spawning my vitashrooms, meatshrooms, and sugardrop mushrooms throughout an area that I designated in my mind as the food-producing area.
The beast-kin had upgraded their huts as well. With more quality wood, now that the ants delved deeper into the forest, they had made primitive planks and tools. They had used some sort of black rock, and I briefly thought it was obsidian, for knives and hammers.
It was not obsidian, but a material called Nitram. It was basically a rock, but as it was infused with magic naturally, it transformed to a harder and just all-around better material than rock.
Their huts were now more shack-like. They had a small slanted roof and leaves hanging from fiber thread as a curtain in front of the door.
I turned my attention back to the new Mind I had created. It seemed to be waking up, and I tried linking to it with my mind.
A series of choices appeared before me. I could choose the personality, the interests, and to some degree even the skill inclination of the mind. It can gain skills? This is more overpowered than I thought it would be.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
As I needed someone to do the more menial parts of territory management, I made it to have a practical and loyal personality. I inclined it to have skills related to food and materials production. And an interest in agriculture and horticulture.
I made it loyal, but I had the option for it to get bad personality traits if I wanted it to. That surprised me; why would I make a disloyal or abrasive mind? I decided to think about that later and turned my attention to the new mind fully awakening.
"Greetings. What is my name?" A voice spoke to me, and it was my voice. Only, it was slightly darker, and it spoke in a different manner. It felt like the country bumpkin version of me. I had indeed imagined a farming, forestry type from out in a village somewhere when I created it. Weird.
"Ehrm, your name is... Demeter." I am bad at naming, so I just chose a random agricultural god from Earth. I did not even know if Demeter was male or female, but it worked either way in my mind, so be it.
"Understood. What should I focus my attention on?"
"You are to manage the food and materials production of our facilities and make sure that there is enough for a small surplus of food at all times. Preferably a surplus of materials as well, but I give you the right to build any facilities relating to food or materials production as you deem it necessary."
"Understood. We need more foresters." Demeter''s voice was matter-of-fact, straight to the point. It was a no-bullshit type of personality, which I guess falls under the "practical" category I had chosen.
"Create them as needed; I have designated an area for food production, but you can designate one for materials as well."
"Yes, I see there are separate areas already." I felt it as Demeter tapped into my mind and saw what vague plans I had for now. He saw the beast-kin area, the forester, and the ants area.
This skill just becomes better and better. If he could see my thoughts, there would not be misunderstandings, and I could leave food and materials to him comfortably. I felt him "wander off" and saw a faint outline of a wisp. It was almost invisible, but there was a ball of air that was a different color. A slight difference, but it was there.
It was Demeter''s version of my "drone vision." So he was bound by the same rules as me; he could only be in one area at any time. It would have been extremely overpowered if he could see everything all the time. But for some reason I expected the minds to be able to. Well, no matter; I had an assistant and was already eager to add another.
But I needed more territory, more area to decompose more materials. And that would have to wait for a bit longer. Now we were almost ready to invade. I started the construction of the now massive barracks and archery ranges.
And also, the fungal wizard tower. It required more mana than the other military buildings, so I only made two of them to start. It took a couple of days for them to appear, through the effort of my fungal builders. They were tall, almost reaching the branches of the melian trees nearby.
They were a mix of mushroom and stone. The stalk of the mushroom was light grey, and the stones were a bit darker and had a brick pattern to them. The cap was bluish gray and very pointy. Like a wizard''s hat.
I could spawn [Fungal Wizard] or [Fungal Fire Wizard]. I spawned five of each. They were as tall as a human, with a slim body, arms, and legs. The wizards had blue hats, and the fire wizards had my firecaps shifting red color on their caps. They all had staffs; the wizards had a blue stone at the end of them, contained by the bending wood of the staff. The fire wizard''s staff had a small flame engulfed within the twisting branches at the end of it.
They wore robes; the wizards, of course, were blue, with darker and lighter parts in different patterns. The fire wizard''s robe was the shifting red color, without any patterns.
I ordered them to use a few spells towards an area that had no trees and no real vegetation that they could burn. The wizards fired an orb that spun very fast as it flew through the air. It was blue, and as it reached its target, it triggered a small explosion and a shockwave.
A fire wizard stepped up and raised his staff above him. A small red circle formed above him, and out of it came a stream of fire that continued to burn the target area for a few seconds. It charred the dirt, and I could see the air ripple because of the heat long after the spell had ended.
After that, they did not use any other spell. So I mentally asked them if they had any other spell, and they replied with a "no, not yet."
Okay, so these wizards can level up as well. I decided that three of each of the wizards would be in the invasion force, and the other two would hunt for goblins and animals in the forest. I had not forgotten that the goblins existed and really wanted to find their camp. We could farm them for experience, both for me and my units.
But we had another issue with the invasion. I would not be able to see it. I could not spread my mycelium that far, not in the time we wanted to at least. So I tried telling my invasion force that they would have to manage it themselves. But that was not possible, according to the system.
They could not move outside of the mycelium without a commander. Well, shit. I looked through the research tree and could not find any option to gain me access to a commander. I checked the requirements to rank up my central firecap, and it required something called "flame crystals."
So I asked Toqlan what those were, and he told me that they used to mine flame crystals near volcanoes in their homeworld. He knew of no nearby volcano.
Hmm. I took a look through my skills to see if the issue could be solved. I ended up with a skill I had completely forgotten. [Grant Vassalage].
"Toqlan, do you want to be a lord of this territory?" I asked, not quite sure what it meant myself. But seeing as I am the territory itself, I assumed I could hand over control to others this way. This would probably also have solved my expansion issues, and I scolded myself internally for being so forgetful.
"I don''t know what that includes, if I am to be honest. But if you need me to, I accept." Great, this undying loyalty thing with beast-kin to their god was kind of making everything easier.
I tried assigning Toqlan as a vassal of my territory and giving him the land where the beast-kin currently resided. But no. The system required me to name a king. I could not have a vassal to the territory; they had to be vassals under a king or any other form of suzerain.
"Toqlan, I might need you to be the king of the territory." I said. I felt like Toqlan was more of a teacher, but he was the only adult around. Well, if you did not count Taressa. But I still did not want to give more power than necessary over me to Taressa.
"I do not think you wish to be king; you seem... too peaceful to be one. But there is no one else, and it may be the only way for the warriors to invade the village and free the rest of the beast-kin." I briefly explained the issue I had with the system.
"Oh... Okay, I do not wish to be king indeed. But I will do it until you find someone else." Toqlan said, his tone quite defeated and nervous.
I assigned Toqlan to be the king of the territory. Not just the beast-kin, but all of my territory, as that was the only option. And then I felt my mind twist, and it was as if I was looking in an infinite loop at my central firecap and Toqlan at the same time.
I quickly closed my eyes. Well, not really my eyes; I had none. But I cut off my vision, and the confusion stopped to some extent. I could still see myself.
I am looking through Toqlan''s eyes at myself. And he was looking through mine, at himself. I told him what happened, and as he closed his eyes, my vision cut off completely. I could feel his thoughts. Not clear thoughts, not as if I thought them myself, but the general gist of them.
I could feel his emotions. His surprise, his confusion, and his nervousness that he was not up to the task. I instinctively tried to "soothe" his worries about being king, and it worked. I do not know how, but I took some part of that worry from him.
"Okay, Toqlan, this clearly is not what I imagined it to be. It seems we are connected now somehow. However, I can not really undo it, not without looking into it more." I tried forcing the mental connection to cut off, and it did slightly, but not entirely.
[Royal Command unlocked] This skill allows the king of the Fungal Fief to command any creature belonging to, or subordinate to the Fungal Fief to perform any task or duty.
[Royal Blood unlocked] The king gains stats, scaling with how many creatures belong to or are subordinate to the Fungal Fief. New passive skills will unlock the more inhabitants belong to the Fungal Fief.
As Toqlan grew stronger in a matter of seconds, I felt the connection becoming more controlled. I could sort out what was my mind and what was his. I looked through the system, and it seemed the only way to remove a king, or any of my inhabitants, was to exile them.
"Okay, Toqlan, we will press forward with this invasion plan. You will need to take command of the mushroom warriors and show them to the village."
"Understood, just... let me get acquainted with these new skills and the shared vision for a few days." He sounded exhausted.
I guess we can wait a few days.
But just a few.