《Mycelium》


 The cycle ends

    Year 2038


    I had always had a fascination with how the world works. When the rest of the brats on the playground ran around playing tag, or hide and seek, I''d been around the corner studying the ants society, and wondering what purpose they served. Why did ants build their nests the way they did, and was the world any better for it?


    Yeah, I was a weirdo. That kid that noone really wanted to hang around. Looking back at my life I would probably have done things a little bit different had I the choice.


    I am 31 years old, and I have no family or friends. Not any good friends atleast, I got some acquiantances from work that I hang out with at bars and other public events. But that''s fine with me. I work at a research institute that researches sustainability. That sounds boring I know, but what it means is that we try to fix issues like carbon emissions... I lost you again didn''t I?


    I am the weird mushroom researcher here. Not the funny kind of mushrooms unfortunately, but the normal kind. This is why I am standing in an office next to a hazardous waste dump right now, wondering where I went wrong in life. For the last 8 years, ever since I graduated university I''ve been trying to find a mushroom species that can consume hazardous waste materials.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "So you want to go ahead with the next test this week?" the manager of the waste dump asked me. He was a heavy set man, with a bushy, black beard and a big smile.


    "Yeah might aswell, it''s probably not gonna work but you never know" I said, in a defeatist tone.


    The manager chuckled a bit, I had been depositing my various mushroom species in this wastedump for nearly 3 years, and so far nothing had worked. The manager gets paid anyways, so he had gotten used to my sighs and bleak outlook on the project.


    "You got the new gas masks in yet?" I asked.


    "Nope, you''ll have to do with the good old squeaky ones as usual" the manager chuckled again.


    Great, it''s not like I am about to walk through hazardous waste or anything, why would I need a good gas mask and protective gear. I quickly went in to the room where the protective gear was stored and picked out the best one, with the least squeaky gas mask.


    I brought my box containing my mushroom with me, and opened the door to the wastedump. The door made a sucking noise, like a refrigerator door. I hooked the mushroom box onto my belt, and started the long climb down the ladder into the basin.


    The fifth rung of the ladder however, had fallen off. And now so did I.


    "Fuck." was all I got to scream before everything went black."


    ..."Allocating soul entity to Mardarun. Allocation successful. Good luck."...

 Sporeling

    I felt a cold sensation run along my entire body, from my head it crawled down like water, but somehow it felt just wrong.


    I opened my eyes and looked around, but there was nothing. I was in an empty room, and for some reason I couldn''t decide what color the walls were. Was the room bright or dark? As I breathed it didn''t feel as if I was inhaling any air, as if I wasn''t breathing at all. I could feel myself starting to panic. Why am I here? I fell down a ladder, atleast 15 meters. Am I in a coma? A sudden rush went through my head, as if a bomb had gone off nearby and I was hit by the shockwave.


    "Ah, a new one" an indifferent voice spoke.


    A figure walked past me, but when I tried looking at it, it seemed as if it disappeared. Only in my peripheral vision did it seem to exist.


    "Not a good one this time, probably a low 30" the voice talked close to me, almost in a whisper.


    "low 30?" I asked.


    "You don''t need to be concerned with that"


    "Where am I?"


    "In between, one could say. Or after, or before. It doesn''t really matter to you either way"


    The room now seemed lighter, and the walls where a light gray color. From the absolute nothingness in the middle of the room an orb was floating, it was also lightgray, but not quite the same color. The figure was also slightly more visible, the outline of it. It looked like a slim, white mannequin, with no face, nose or other features. The figure reached into the orb and pulled out a metal card, twice the width and length of a normal poker card. The card was black, but as the figure held it a golden symbol appeared on the card.


    "A mushroom, unfortunate for you." the figure said, still in an indifferent, monotone voice.


    "A mushroom? Why would a mushroom be unfortunate to me? What does that card mean?" I spoke, increasingly I was feeling more dread as this whole spectacle unfolded.


    The figure ignored me, and clapped his hands together, but it did not make a sound. The orb vanished, also without a sound. It was as if I blinked and it disappeared. In its stead a spinning wheel appeared, like one of those you see at a carnival where they spin it to decide what prize you''d get.


    "You may now spin the wheel" the figure said, still indifferent with no real emotion behind it.


    "what does the wheel do?" I asked.


    "You are not allowed that information"


    "Then I am not gonna spin it" I replied. I wouldn''t play this game if I didn''t get some information.


    "Hm. Then you will automatically get a 25"


    I looked closer at the wheel, and saw that there were tiny numbers on each section. It seemed like atleast 70-100 sections at first glance. I stepped closer to the wheel and the figure remained silent and unmoving. I inspected the wheel, for atleast a few minutes, but time was hard to tell. I found numbers ranging from 1-100, and it seemed there were exactly 100 sections. I remembered the figures first words to me, that I looked like a low 30, and that that wasn''t a "good one". If I didn''t spin I''d automatically get a 25. And unfortunately for me, the black and gold card was a mushroom. What the fuck does any of this mean?. At the very least, I''d have to assume a high number on the wheel is better. A 25 is therefore quite horrible.


    "So you won''t tell me why I am here, where this is, or why I have to spin the wheel?" I asked. I had managed to swallow a bit of the panic from earlier. I was trying to get my thoughts together, to think rationally about all of this.


    "Correct" was all the figure gave me.


    Ah fuck it. I have to spin it for anything to happen anyway, this is probably just a dream I am having while laying comatose in a hospital bed somewhere. I grabbed the wheel and gave it a good spin. The wheel also did not make a sound, and spun weirdly well for how much power I put into it. It spun for atleast a minute, and finally landed on 76.


    "That''s fortunate for you" the figure was still indifferent. "If only you didn''t get a mushroom"


    I felt as if I was going insane, what mushroom?


    The figure clapped his hands, without a sound again. The wheel disappeared and four black cards appeared on a table. The cards looked like poker cards, but they were either face down, or it was like that earlier black card and had nothing on it, until the figure made the gold symbol appear on it.


    "You may look at all of the cards, and pick whenever you choose. However, if you choose a card that is faced down on the table, you will get an upgraded version of that card"


    I was done questioning this figure, and went ahead to the table and looked on the cards. Thinking rationally, I''d have to look at atleast one card to make any informed decision. I turned the card on the far left first. It depicted a mountain, almost entirely covered in snow. I suddenly felt really cold, and as if a harsh wind blew at me. That doesn''t really make any sense. Two cards might make it clearer, so I immediately turned the card on the far right. It showed a dark cave, with glowing moss and I got the feeling of being really far down somehow, and the air smelled damp.


    Thinking about all the clues so far, I had played a few games before I took flight from that ladder. Board games, card games, computer games. This struck me as a starting setup for a strategy game. My starting resource node would be mushrooms, the number might mean starting population or starting wealth. I wasnt quite sure about that, but then this would maybe be my starting location. This figure seemed to like games, even if they all seemed to be simple games of chance. Assuming it is the setup for a game, I knew I wanted neither the cold mountain or the deep and dark cave. Then according to that logic, I turned the third card.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    A desert, with only dunes as far as I could see. I got the feeling that I was in the middle of nowhere, and the air was dry and the heat was unbearable. Shit. If this was a starting location for a game, any game really, none of these locations were good. In that case should I look at the final card, or simply pick it while it is face down. Was there a worse location I could pick? At this point I felt quite tired of these games, so I decided.


    "I''ll pick the card that is face down"


    "I see" the figure deftly picked the card up, and showed it to me. It was a deep forest, with massive trees. I could feel the refreshing air and the smell of herbs and vegetation. The temperature felt a little cold, as the trees blocked out most of the sun. I felt good about my choice, that was the card I would''ve picked even if all the cards were revealed.


    "Which element do you choose?" the figure asked me.


    "Element? Like earth, wind, water or fire? Or element on the periodic table?"


    "The first example would do"


    Hm. Is this like starting magic? I had no idea. In a forest earth magic would probably be the best. But this was a choice where I really didn''t have a clue what it eluded to. It might not even be magic. It could be resistance? In that case I''d want fire if I start the game in a forest. And I guess I wouldn''t be mad if I had fire magic either.


    "I choose fire" I said, a little bit uncertainly.


    "Okay"


    The figure clapped his hands, and the table disappeared. The figure walked into the middle of the room, stopped, and turned to me. And it spoke.


    "Beginning the reincarnation of soul entity. Starting species of soul entity: Mushroom. Potential: 76. Starting area: Deepwoods, on a dragonvein. Element: Fire. Starting transmission of soul entity to the crossworld of Mardarun"


    "Reincarnation?" I blurted out.


    Suddenly the room twisted in on itself, and I felt that same crawling, cold feeling I had felt earlier. My head felt like it was gonna explode, and then... nothing.


    It was dark. I could not see anything. I could hear sounds, but they were muffled as if I heard them through a wall. I tried breathing, but I couldn''t. I panicked. I tried to scream but no sound emerged from my throat. It felt like I had no throat, no mouth or in fact no face at all. I must''ve spent atleast 15 minutes in this state of total and utter panic, but I finally calmed down a bit as I realised I was alive. I decided to try to figure out what was happening. I had feeling, although it felt weird somehow. I was quite sure I had no face, and I tried touching where my face would have been. I did not have arms or legs either. I tried feeling for anything, any sense I could still use. I somehow was quite sure which direction was up. I couldn''t explain how. I pushed myself further, exploring deeper what senses I could use.


    In my head a "window" popped up.


    It had information that I knew was of me. It read that I was a mushroom. I felt my heart drop, and then morbidly thought that I probably didn''t have a heart to "drop" anymore. The system came with different stats, all of the values were at 1 or less, except "Regeneration" which was at 2. As I inspected this system window, I found a tab that said mushrooms. As I opened it, a voice spoke to me. A gentle, female voice that sounded a little bit like artificial intelligence.


    "Do you wish to choose your central mushroom?"


    "Huh, ehrm, what is a central mushroom?" I was a little bit surprised, the voice seemed to come from inside my head.


    "The central mushroom is half of the core of your being, if it dies, only half of your soul will remain until it is either regrown or your core in the mycelium is destroyed, in which case you die."


    The mycelium is the "roots" of the mushroom. It is what allows mushrooms to grow and does a whole lot of things.


    "Am I currently just the mycelium?" I asked the voice.


    "Yes." It answered.


    "What mushrooms can I grow, then?"


    "Current choices are as follows. Firecap for a cost of 30 mana. Small puffcap: 2 mana."


    I was waiting for more, but as the voice remained silent I understood that was all I''d get. I looked at the system window, and my max mana was at 39. Well, go big or go home I guess. The firecap seemed like the smartest choice for something that would protect my soul, rather than "small puffcap".


    "I''ll choose firecap then"


    "Acknowledged" the voice spoke.


    And I felt as if I was stretching after sitting in chair all day. Slowly I started regaining vision, it was all very blurry at first, but gradually it became clearer. I saw a small clearing when I looked around, and somehow that I could look all around me. I tried looking at the mushroom that I had just grown, and my perspective swapped to look at myself. It was a weird feeling, it was as if I was not moving, but I could move "where I watched from". As if I was a flying drone with a camera moving around the forest clearing.


    My mushroom was a normal shaped mushroom. A wide cap, and quite thick white stem. Underneath the cap there was a multitude of small holes, atleast a hundred. They were of a dark red color, almost like blood, but the flesh underneath the cap was white. The top of the cap however, was colored in what seemed to be a very reflective material. It was very light red in some places, and then there was a gradient to darker red colors, and it seemed it constantly changed these gradients in a sort of rhythm, or pattern. I once again looked out on the forest clearing, and saw that I could only see 10 meters or so, until a black wall seemed to block any vision.


    I tried using my "drone" to push through the black wall, but it felt as if it just gently repelled me. As if gravity pushed me back. Thinking about it, the mushroom was what gave me vision. Maybe it only gives 10 meters of vision? I asked the female voice in my head.


    "Is the mushroom vision limited"


    The voice answered yes, but did not elaborate.


    "Are you sentient, or are you a part of this system?" I asked the voice.


    "I am the systems voice, given to those entities who start their life without all their previous senses"


    "Oh, okay. What should I focus on doing right now?"


    "I cannot answer any question that you cannot find yourself in your system window."


    Ah, damn. I read a few reincarnation stories back on earth, I thought I had an overpowered advisor from the get-go.


    I decided to read through the system a little bit more, and found out a few things. I could "decompose" biological matter that was above my mycelium. Doing so would earn me mana, and experience. I guess that''s a mushrooms duty, so fine. I was worried I had to kill monsters for experience, like som mushroom hero kind of deal. This makes it easier. It seems I can also level up my mushrooms independently. The central firecaps requirements is ashes. It doesn''t tell me how much ashes it needs, but it does have a progress bar that is at 0%.


    I decided to shelve that problem for later, and looked around my small area of mycelium. It was approximately 5 meters in diameter.The area seemed unusually clean for a forest. There was really just a dirt patch where I spawned, conspicuously also 5 meters in diameter. I assume it''s because I reincarnated here that it became like that.


    Nothing is ever easy is it. Well, if my second life is going to be as a mushroom, I am gonna make the best of it!

 Decomposition

    Alright.


    I finally got it, after waiting for an entire day. A leaf. I am overjoyed, as the monotony of being a mushroom with nothing to do is extremely boring.


    Without further ado, I thought "decomposition" but nothing happened. In a slight panic I went into the system window and tried to find out if I missed anything when reading through the skill.


    It read: Focus on the object you wish to decompose, and activate the skill.


    Alright, focusing on the leaf. I tried to only see the leaf, nothing else. The leaf suddenly got a slight glow to it, and an information window popped up. Melian leaf. Huh, that''s the name of the tree I guess? Alright, focus again.


    "Decompose!"


    The system let me know that decomposition had begun, and I felt like a wizard that just cast his first spell. Speaking of, there is magic in this world right? There are skills, so I hope there are mages and druids and all of that aswell. Otherwise I am gonna complain to mister figure-guy. Oh right, where was I?


    Decomposition time: 2 minutes. Mana value: 2. Exp value: 1.


    Yeah that''s not great. I need 14 exp to get to level 2. And I regenerate around two mana per hour with my regeneration skill at 2,6. Well, it is just a leaf. I don''t know what I expected. Back to the life of boredom I guess. Yesterday I read through the skills more carefully (although I forgot about the focus part of decomposition). It seems the firecap is more interesting than just a beautiful red mushroom. It has two skills that I can activate. The first one is "firespike". It shoots out a spike made up of fire, from anywhere on my cap, within a range of 3 meters. It costs 5 mana, so it isn''t cheap for me right now. The other skill is called "furnace" and I don''t quite think I get how to use it yet. It activates the blood red pores underneath my cap, and emits a high temperature downwards. It costs 2 mana per hour. If something gets under my cap, and it is a threat to me, I think I am already screwed at that point. So it probably isn''t meant to be an offensive skill.


    All of a sudden I felt as if someone hit me in the head. Everything went black for a half second. I got a notification that I had taken 20% of my health in damage. I had 80% health left on my firecap. I looked around hurriedly, trying to find what was attacking me. And the only thing I could see was.. an acorn?


    Did I just get attacked by an acorn? No that is just ridiculous. It probably just fell down from one of the trees nearby, I was about 4 meters away from the nearest Melian tree. I looked at that tree, and realised something just moved on it. It was quick, and had already reached the ground when I realised what it was. A green squirrel with three brown stripes on along its entire back. It had claws that seemed far too long for a squirrel on its front paws. They were atleast 5 centimeters, and thicker than I thought squirrel claws back on earth was. The squirrel itself also seemed bigger than what I was used to.


    I now saw an issue. The squirrel wanted the acorn. The acorn was very close to me. That squirrels claws was a death sentence to me if it decided to take a swipe. The squirrel had hopped closer, and was inspecting me. I wondered if my firespike would be enough to scare it away. It was all I could do, and I had to use it before the squirrel got to the acorn. If it got that close, I doubted I would have time to react if it slashed at me.


    I focused on the squirrel, and a window popped up. Green Nutrat, level 4. There was no more information. I waited, for a tense 30 seconds while the nutrat slowly moved closer, careful and aware of me. As it got closer, I realised it was no longer going for the acorn. It had locked on to me. As it entered within two meters of my firecap, I pulled the trigger.


    "Firespike!"


    It sizzled as it flew out of me, with a slight orange trail. It was maybe 5 cm long, and looked like melted iron that you saw in movies. Vividly orange, it was wedge-shaped, with a sharp edge in the front and a blunt end in the back. I had tried aiming it at the nutrats face, but it reacted quick. Not quick enough though, as it hit its left front leg, where it connected to its body. It staggered.


    I didn''t wait for it to recover.


    "Firespike!"


    This time it hit it beneath the throat, in the upper chest. The first firespike had set the nutrat on fire, and the second spike made it collapse. The second firespike was then driven into the body of the nutrat as it leaned on it while it collapsed. I waited for a few seconds as I saw it die, and then got the notifications.


    [You have slain Green Nutrat, 28 experience awarded]


    [Congratulations, you''ve reached level 2]


    [You have unlocked the skill: Mycelium Expansion]


    I did it? I did it!!! I do get experience from killing enemies! That nutrat was worth the fear I felt just moments ago. I took a few moments to calm myself. The fire on the nutrat was already dying out, so I assumed it was a product of the mana in the projectile, and that it didnt actually ignite the nutrat. It suddenly occured to me. Not just leaves, but bodies are biological matter, I can decompose biological matter. I once again focused on the nutrat, and used my skill.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    Decomposition time: 6 hours. Mana value: 112. Exp Value: 56


    Oh, so it gives me double its value in experience when I decompose it? That is outright amazing. The mana is amazing aswell, but I will need to use mana during the six hours so I don''t lose out on any of it. I had a look at my new stats, and they all increased by atleast 1, regeneration increased by 3, so it is now on 5,6. Regeneration seemed to be regeneration of resources according to the system. Not only mana, but currently that was the only regenerative resource I had. I assumed that I could get another somehow, but that felt like a later thing to figure out.


    Next level was only 21 exp away, so I''d get that in the next 2-3 hours. I then had a look at the new skill, [Mycelium Expansion]. It allowed me to use mana to grow my mycelium faster. Faster? Ah, the growth stat makes my mycelium grow naturally. The skill consumed 1 mana per hour, and increased the growth rate between 25-150%. Why the widely different percentages? Maybe it is based on how tough an area I am trying to grow in. The skill didn''t specify, but I went with that assumption.


    Oh, the acorn! I had forgotten about that since the battle, and now I focused on it and decomposed it.


    Decomposition time: 40 minutes. Mana value 20. Exp value: 20.


    Why is it worth the same experience as the mana value? Why is the acorn different than both the leaf and the nutrat? Hm, I have no idea. From what I can see there is really no way to figure it out. I decided that it wasn''t that important to figure out right now, and simply counted myself lucky. I then tried out my new skill.


    "Mycelium Expansion!"


    I felt a little bit silly exclaiming the name of my skill in my head loudly everytime. If I had a mouth I would''ve screamed it, is how it felt. It still made me feel like a wizard, and since I didn''t actually speak out loud it didn''t embarass me in front of anyone. Not that anyone was around here anyway. Next on my list of what to do is check out the small puffcap. I grew it at the edge of my mycelium, as I assumed that it''d give me extra vision. I was right, but it only increased it by about two meters. I guess for a measly two mana that was actually perfoming better than the firecap in terms of vision. It was a small mushroom, with a brown roundish cap, that seemed uneven. It had small black spots on its cap, and it had a white stalk that was almost as big as its cap.


    It only had one skill, and it wasn''t an activatable one. It released a cloud of spores when stepped on, or when enemies were near. The spores caused irritation to eyes or other sensitive areas, and itching on skin. It wasn''t a great skill, but again for two mana I wasn''t expecting much.


    Now, all I had to do was wait for experience, use my mana and wait for the next level up.


    ---


    [Level 3 achieved] Huh, no congratulations this time? Stingy.


    [Storage Mushroom] Unlocked.


    Choices for the next skill are:


    [Resource Extraction] Uses the mycelium to extract different elements and metals from the ground.


    [Directed Mycelium Expansion] Skill upgrade. Allows for the focused expansion of Mycelium in a specific direction.


    Oh nice, I get choices now. Would have been nice if Figure-man gave me a choice to not be a mushroom. Although, if I am going to be honest, I am quite enjoying my mushroom life. Hm, I assume I might be able to do something with the resources I extract on a later level. Directed Mycelium Expansion seems more immediately useful. But I don''t have a direction I really want to grow right now.


    I am going to pick Resource Extraction, as I would beat myself up if I ended up lacking some resource next level. I could always just wait for my mycelium to grow naturally anyway. I also built a storage mushroom at the edge of my mycelium, in the other direction from my small puffcap. The storage mushroom gave me no vision. It''s a mushroom bigger than my firecap, with a big, wide cap. The cap is brown, and so is the stalk. On the stalk there is a hole, where I assume resouces go in or out? I can''t really check. I also activated resource extraction, and it seems to cost no mana.


    A few hours later I''ve made another firecap, two and a half meters from my central firecap. I want to be able to cover the firecaps within the firespike range of each other. I don''t quite like the idea of my central firecap dying, and that acorn ambush took of a fifth of my health. It is almost fully recovered, but as I have a low healing stat (only 2,8) it is slow to recover. The acorn didn''t even leave a bruise or mark or anything on my cap. I need to find solutions for my incredibly weak body, I have also found out about the Mycelium Core that can save half my soul. It is located right under my central firecap. Great. So if someone does an area of effect attack I am just dead. Hopefully I get a skill to move it, or a skill to atleast improve my toughness soon.


    The resource extraction got me a few grams of iron and some other assorted elements. If I focus on the storage mushroom it tells me it is 0,4% full. Atleast it is working, now let''s hope that the next level unlocks something that uses resources.


    [Level 4 achieved]


    [Trading] Unlocked.


    Choices for unlockable mushrooms:


    [Sugardrop Mushroom] A mushroom that periodically releases drops of high sugar content syrup beneath its cap.


    [Fungal Worker Quarters] A mushroom that spawns, and maintains fungal workers.


    What?


    First, why would I want Sugardrop Mushroom? If all it does is drop syrup on the ground, it is only good for baiting things that enjoy sugar to it. And I don''t particularly want a bear to come over and stomp on me. Now, fungal workers? That seems amazing. Is it actually gonna be little mushroom men walking around and getting stuff for me?


    I couldn''t hold myself back, even though it cost nearly all my remaining mana, so without really thinking it through I picked the fungal workers. I then immediately spawned it closeby to the storage mushroom, assuming that the workers might need the resources for something. I was not disappointed. The mushrooms was like a little house, it even had a brick colored cap that looked like a roof, and the entire mushroom was rectangular. On the front of it, on the long side of the rectangle, it had a little door, and a window next to it. The stalk that made up the walls of the house where white.


    Out came three creatures that can only be described as adorable. They had small yellow caps that looked like engineer hats, and their stalk was a chubby version of a human build. The legs were chubby, the arms were chubby. They didn''t have any visible elbows or knees, the stalk resembled a starfish with only four appendages. I got a system pop up when all three of them reported in at the central firecap.


    [Decide the roles for the fungal workers]


    I could choose builder, researcher, or forager.


    This world is the best.

 The Mushroom Men

    I thought about it. Atleast for an hour I debated with myself whether to go for one of each of the fungal workers. I can see how a forager is useful immediately. They could probably forage resources outside of my mycelium and bring it back for me to decompose. I assume the builders.. build? But what do they build? I might need the researcher to get blueprints for what to build. And the researcher sounds necessary, but do I need a prerequisite building for it to work in? Like a lab, or just a research desk somewhere.


    The big upside with the fungal workers that I could see right now, is that they did not cost any upkeep in mana, or any other resource. However they could only work for 4 hours, before needing to root themselves in their quarters for recharge. Oh well, 4 hours are much better than not being able to get any decomposable materials at all.


    I decided that I atleast need a forager. So I chose to make one of them a forager. A  red sporecloud instantly emerged from me, covering the forager from my vision in a swirling red mist. It took about a minute for the sporecloud to dissipate. The fungal worker was now significantly larger, about twice the size and length of the others. It was about 10 cm tall, and the body (or stalk really) was maybe 3cm wide. The biggest change though, was that it now had a wider, red cap reminiscent of my own firecap. It''s stalk now was a darker shade, a light gray.


    [Fungal Worker] Has been promoted to [Fungal Forager (Fire Element)]. Oh, it gains my element when I upgrade it. That seems neat, however looking at its information it did not seem to have any skills other than [Forage]. It was level one, and I could only see the experience bar in percentage form. Of course it was at 0% currently.


    It bowed to me, and then went on its way towards a nearby tree, outside of my mycelium range. It picked up some sticks and other materials. I assumed it was already working on getting me items for decomposition, so after watching it for a while I went back to the other two fungal workers, dutifully waiting nearby my central firecap. Seeing the foragers movement speed, and how agile it seemed even with it''s appearance as a cute mushroom, I decided one was enough for now. Next was the choice whether I''d go for a builder or a researcher. I was a bit reluctant to choose researcher first. It seemed to me that a researcher would be something I''d need later, and a builder might be able to build walls, or move my mycelium core. So with that thought in mind I chose builder for the next promotion.


    Yet again, the red sporecloud emerged, and enveloped the fungal worker. And a minute later I got the notification.


    [Fungal Worker] has been promoted to [Fungal Builder (Fire Element)].


    The builder was shorter, maybe by 2cm compared to the forager. However, it had longer arms, and a stockier build. The stalk, or what would be its spine, seemed stronger somehow. It had the same coloration as the forager.


    Unlocked [Defensive Wood Plating], [Fungal Watchtower] and [Farmhouse] blueprints.


    Oh. Defensive wood plating was an addon I could build and attach to my mushrooms for increased toughness. That seemed very useful, and I briefly wondered if the system had heard my thoughts about the stupid placement of my cores, and my wish for toughness. I smiled a little bit in my mind, not that wood plating would do a whole lot if anything bigger than that Green Nutrat came visiting. It cost me quite a bit of wood for reinforcing just one mushroom though.


    Fungal watchtower was also extremely useful. It cost me mana, and more wood than the plating, and also fiber. I assumed fiber would be collected from plants? There was some shrubs and other vegetation nearby, so I''d have to wait and see what my forager brought back. The watchtower increased my vision by 30 meters. 30! Thats triple my firecaps, and according to the system, all these buildings were upgradable.


    The farmhouse was interesting, but the information on it was also quite a bit confusing. It cost less wood than the others, an only wood, but no mana or fiber. However it required a seed of a known plant. So I couldn''t build it even if my forager brought back wood for it. Also I did not know what it meant with "known plant". Did I have to focus and inspect it for its information? Or was it the researchers job to research it before I could get it?


    The builder had already walked off while I was deep in thought. But the forager was on its way back, and I was utterly shocked at what I saw. The forager had already woven a basked with straps, that it had equipped as a sort of backpack with an open top. In its hand it had a small, sharpened stick, that looked like a farmers sickle. It stopped in front of me, and it said nothing, it couldn''t speak. But I knew it was awaiting orders, it was as if my mind was absolutely certain that was what it wanted. So I spoke in my mind.


    "Go out and find me wood, fibers, and decomposable materials. And if you find a seed, immediately come back and show me. Otherwise continue foraging until you have to recharge."


    The forager bowed and swiftly went to work. I saw it pick up and bundle a leaf together, and place it in his basket before scurrying of behind a tree for more materials.


    I looked at the last worker. With the builder I had gotten three building blueprints unlocked, so now I was more willing to risk making this worker into a researcher. But I briefly wondered if it was better to make another forager. With mana, I could make another fungal workers quarters in a day or two. But if the researcher had any ways to improve my defenses, or gave me any offensive abilities I''d want that as soon as possible. It was after all not long after I almost got killed by an acorn. All the stories I read about heroes and demon kings, they strangely never mention the hardest challenge of all, the acorn and its summoned beast.


    Jokes aside, I thought about the choice for a few more minutes and eventually decided.


    [Fungal Worker] has been promoted to [Fungal Researcher (Fire Element)].


    The researcher came out of my sporecloud. It looked as if it had a labcoat, but it was its coloration on the stalk that was pure white, and in the middle there was a darker stripe that made it look like a coat. Its cap was tall, but not wide, and a deep red color darker than my own firecap. It was the same size as the normal worker, if not for the cap which made it almost as tall as the forager. It was slim, and had small arms and legs.


    Unlocked [Research Lab], [Research Tree] and [Tool Crafting].


    Alright, good. I got the research lab that I wanted. However, it had the requirement of it being built underground, into my mycelium. It cost mana to build, and also a slight bit of wood. It  was the cheapest in cost of wood, but by far the most expensive in mana. I was going to have to wait quite a bit for the mana to regenerate before I could build the lab. The researcher sent me the mental signal for orders, but I had none to give, really. According to the system, the researcher could only be used for research, and would not be able to do even menial labor if I commanded it to.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "Go to the quarters and recharge until I call for you"


    The slim mushroom jogged on its tiny legs over to the workers quarters. It bobbed quite a bit as it had a little hop in every step. Cute. The builder had now come back, and similarly to the forager it had made simple tools made of wood. It had a stick that looked like a crude shovel, and a stick with a blunt end that I assumed would be used as a hammer. It awaited my orders. So I commanded it to dig out an area for the research lab near to my central firecap. It started digging almost immediately, and it had quite the speed and strength. After watching it for about 15 minutes I figured it take approximately 5-7 hours for it to get it done. So two of its four hour workdays. That wasn''t so bad, I would not have the mana for the research lab tomorrow anyway.


    The forager came back, and went over to the storage mushroom. It deposited materials into the mushroom, put the basket on its back and went back out to forage. It had put the leaf and some other compostable material into the storage mushroom, so now I had to try to figure out how to use the storage.


    In the games I used to play there was often an "inventory" so I tried focusing as hard as possible on that thought. Nothing happened. I tried chanting "Withdraw" and "Open Storage" in my mind. I read the storage mushrooms system information, I even inspected the storage mushroom. It gave me no clue to how I should use it. It took me a good few hours to figure out how it worked, and the forager had come back five times during that period.


    I had to imagine the inside of the mushroom itself. I had to look at that hole in the stalk, and imagine a warehouse, and suddenly in my mind I saw massive shelves, with item information on each shelf. I thought of "decomposable" materials and it was like it input the information straight into my mind. I could not see the materials, but I knew how many of which item I had. I thought of withdrawing all the decomposable materials, and they disappeared from the warehouse in a flash.


    I exited the warehouse in my mind, and I was suddenly back in the world. Outside of it, in a neat pile was all of the materials I just withdrew. I used my skill to decompose all of them. They gave me quite a bit of mana and experience, but none of them were worth as much as even the acorn. All together though, I estimated it was about three times of my natural mana regeneration, so it  was a welcome boost. Especially if a nutrat showed up again, I''d have enough mana to fire off a few firespikes.


    ---


    So, its been a couple days of foraging and decomposing. Ive built a few more firecaps, as I thought with my stable recovery of mana I should have the defense ready before I started using my materials to build the different structures. I''d hate to lose any of my expensive structures, as wood was not easy to come by even though we were in a forest. I was also worried about Freddy, Bobby and Ricky. Yes I named my mushroom men. Freddy the forager, Bobby the builder and Ricky the researcher. Easy to remember. The plan for today is to build the research lab, as Ricky hasn''t had anything to do since I promoted him.


    However, I was waiting until level five before I built it, as I was now a few experience away, and currently decomposing an assortment of leaves that Freddy brought back.


    [Level 5 achieved]


    Unlocked [Class Change]


    Please choose the class out of the options offered. The options are:


    [Mushroom Warrior] Allows for the movement of your central mushroom, can summon an upgradable weapon and armor, and increases toughness and strength significantly.


    [Mushroom Elementalist] Allows for the movement of your central mushroom, can cast elemental spells, and summon a small, lesser elemental of the elements you have acquired. Casting of non-attribute magic and arcane magic is also possible.


    [Mushroom Territory] Empowers your central mushroom, giving it more stats the larger your mycelium network is. Entities who are not summoned by the mushroom, who live on the territory and acknowledges the mushrooms claim to the territory can be empowered by the mushroom. Entities who are not summoned by the mushroom, who live on the territory also grant a bonus of stats for the central mushroom, and the mycelium network if they acknowledges the mushrooms ownership.


    Alright, hold up. I can move? I can actually be a mushroom hero, running about killing dragons? I am extremely tempted to choose the elementalist. Casting spells, like an actual for real wizard this time, would be awesome. The warrior is also good, but I do not have faith that even with the toughness increase, I would not get murdered by a random animal of the forest. My toughness right now is pathetic, so a significant increase, even if it is four times of what I am now would not amount to much.


    But then, after actually thinking about it, I am not very good in fights. I''ve never once won a fistfight when I was human, I have a tendency to freeze up and just not do anything. My fight or flight response is basically only "stand still and get punched". The acorn and the nutrat almost threw me in a full panic. Had the nutrat approached me without the acorn hitting me first, I might have not collected my thoughts enough to attack with a firespike in time. So being a mushroom warrior or elementalist could be a fatal mistake.


    The mushroom territory, if I am going to be honest, seems to allow me to have others fight for me. And even though I am quite annoyed about not being able to move, it is not the worst feeling in the world. I can feel other things now, that I could not as a human. My network underground feels the earth breathe, and my "drone" vision is amazing, even though it is currently limited by my vision range. My mind is not the same as when I was human, it differs slightly. I feel happy when I see an insect of some kind skittering on the trees nearby, the growth and health of the nearby plants gives me a sense of peace. These things can be "felt" by me, in a way I could not as a human. So being immobile is not that horrible.


    I thought about this choice for nearly the entire day. My mushroom men had long since gone to recharge in their quarters when I came to the decision. I chose [Mushroom Territory].


    You have chosen [Mushroom Territory]. Please name yourself, and your territory.


    Shit. I am not very good at names, and I don''t want to use my old name, that''d be weird for a mushroom. What would you name a sentient, magical fungus? Hmmm.


    This decision took about an hour, until I finally gave up and chose to combine "magical" and "fungus" into Mafu. Yup, I am Mafu the magical fungus. And since I now rule over a territory, I shall name it the Fungal Fief!


    Acknowledged. Entity [Mafu] has become the territory lord of the [Fungal Fief]. Name of the territory can be changed at any point, for a cost of mana. The name of entity [Mafu] is now set for the rest of your lifetime.


    Unlocked [Warriors Barracks], [Archery Range], [Mana Collector] blueprints.


    Unlocked [Designate Subordinate], [Telepathic Link], [Grant Vassalage], and [Grant Territory].


    "Stats increased. Mycelium network now provides vision directly above it. A notification will be given if entities not registered to your fungal fief enter your territory".


    My mind felt as if it suddenly expanded extensively. I got something like a headache, and there was a shrill sound ringing in my ears as I felt the mycelium network more clearly. I could feel every strand throughout my entire network. I could feel that there was an ant passing on the edges of my network, and my hearing got alot better. I could suddenly hear the wind rustling through the leaves of the trees above me, and the low hum of a flying insect somewhere over on the other side of my storage mushroom.


    As I calmed down, and my senses settled in, I felt so happy. It was as if I did not know I was thirsty and got to drink water for the first time in a week. I did not know that my senses could improve this much, if I had eyes I would have been crying. I took some time exploring my territory through my other senses other than vision for a good while, it was as if I closed my eyes and melded with the world. As I was about to "open my eyes" again, I heard it.


    It was a bad sound, and I immediately swapped my vision over to it.


    "Entity Goblin Scout has enter your territory" the system announced. I already saw it, and I felt fear unlike anything before. Not even the nutrat scared me this much.


    My territory might rise and fall in the same hour.

 Green Terror

    The Goblin Scout was a truly ugly creature. It had the typical green skin you''d expect from a goblin. It was not like those cute, fantasy-themed goblins you would see in some stories. It was half a normal man in height, with thin arms and legs. Its stomach and torso were bulky, and all over its body it had thick black hairs. Its nose was long and crooked with a pointy tip. Its ears were pointy as well, and hair came out like the end of a brush out of both the nose and the ears. It wielded a stone dagger and wore some sort of animal hide to obscure its lower body, thankfully. When I focused on it, it revealed it to be a Level 8 goblin, with the skills [Quick Movement] and [Enhanced Senses].


    It reacted as it entered my territory, as if it sensed something different about this ground specifically. It looked directly towards my central firecap and made a grunting noise. No, it was somewhere between a grunt and a growl. Its mouth was filled with cracked, blackened, sharp fangs that I suspected were once white.


    It started moving closer but was cautious. It knew that something was different here. Maybe it sensed my mana? Or it just hadn''t seen any mushrooms with my particular color before. I ordered my workers to hide and prepared for combat. One particularity about my mushrooms is that they take near to no time to grow. In a few seconds, I could grow any of my mushrooms as long as I had the mana for them.


    I assumed the goblin did not have human intelligence; it was the only way I could win this fight. If it was that intelligent, I would die. This was a fact in my mind. I focused on a spot maybe two meters ahead of the goblin and spawned three small puffcaps in a cluster. The goblin stopped in its tracks as the mushrooms grew to their full size in a couple of seconds.


    The goblin laughed an ugly, crude laugh. It sounded like something was stuck in its throat. My hope was that it would move to the side, towards two firecaps closeby. It would be even better if it went close enough to the puffcaps that their skill [Irritating Sporecloud] would activate. If it was of low intelligence, it might. It looked at the mushrooms in a defiant manner, lifted its right foot, and stomped on them. I did not expect it would be that stupid.


    The sporecloud released out of all three puffcaps at the same time, covering the goblin''s entire body with the irritant. The goblin screamed, a shrieking sound that made me want to cover my ears. If I had ears. It stumbled forward to the right while clawing at its face, tears and snot streaming from its eyes and nose. It moved away from the two firecaps I had planned to lure it to, but into range of one other firecap. I didn''t wait for another opportunity.


    [Firespike]


    [Firespike]


    [Firespike]


    [Firespike]


    [Firespike]


    Five firespikes, one after the other, flew at the goblin; three of them hit the animal''s hide and just barely pierced the skin. They were rendered ineffective. The other two, though, hit the goblin in the right arm and its right shoulder. The black and greasy hair sizzled as they burned. The spikes were stuck in its body but had only gone halfway in. It wasn''t enough, and the goblin now stumbled backwards outside of my attack range again. It fell down on its ass and sat there, making different disgusting noises. The spikes had almost dissipated already.


    It sat there outside of my range and waited for its eyesight to return to normal. It took a few minutes and then it stood up. I prepared myself for another round of spikes. One firecap could only release 5 spikes before it had to recover for an hour or so. My central firewall had no such restriction, but the normal ones did. I prayed that the goblin would move towards another firecap. The goblin growled and then turned around and left. I waited, minute after minute, until at least 30 minutes had gone by.


    I finally relaxed as I assumed it was gone. I collected my thoughts and checked on my workers. Bobby and Ricky were hiding in their quarters, and a quick mental ping told me that Freddy was somewhere outside of my mycelium. He was hiding in some kind of brush. I called Freddy back and told Bobby and Ricky to come out.


    Alright, we desperately need defenses. That goblin could come back with backup. My [Resource Extractor] had managed to get a fair bit of different elements, but iron was what it got most of. That was good now, as both the warrior barracks and the archery range cost iron. I could only choose one though. It was not much of a choice really; I already had my firespikes for range, and what I needed were warriors that I could sadly sacrifice to lure the enemy into certain areas. I had the wood, iron, and mana for the barracks, and so I ordered their construction.


    Bobby went to work at the designated location for the barracks, and I ordered Freddy to go find more wood. No more decomposables or fiber. We had quite a lot of fiber already, and we needed wood to start constructing defenses. The reason wood was hard to come by was because Freddy could only pick up loose pieces of wood off of the ground. We had no lumberjack axe or lumberjack worker, and I doubt I would have the mana to make them even if I had unlocked them right now. What was good about Freddy, though, was that even if he picked woodchips and slightly rotten wood, it would still count as normal wood when deposited into the storage mushroom. I don''t know how that worked, but the system seemed to at least have some leniency with our little fungal fief.


    The construction would take three hours for the warrior barracks. I was nearly out of wood and hoped Freddy would find a great deal of it somewhere. I had about 40 mana left and could fire 8 firespikes before being completely dry. That was far too few if the goblin brought friends and came back. Five of them might not have killed it even if they all hit its body directly. If I aimed them at the eyes, they might kill. But then it was much more likely that they would miss completely, leaving me in a much more precarious situation.


    I started looking into upgrading my firewalls again. More firepower would make me feel much more safe. If I could pierce that animal''s hide with my firespikes, I was sure I could kill the goblins. The requirement to upgrade the firecap is ashes. I have thought about it over the past few days, and my second ability is probably made for that. The furnace would emit high temperatures downward through my pores beneath my cap. I hoped they would be enough to set some materials on fire, thus giving me ashes. I withdrew half of the fiber I had in my storage mushroom and tasked Bobby to come over and place it under my mushroom. I then ordered him to continue construction.


    I was a little bit reprehensive about wasting half of my fiber, but Freddy was good at gathering fiber more than any other material. He used his sickle to extract fiber out of some of the vegetation that was around the nearby forest. I suspected the system assisted in making it actual fiber, as I doubted we had cotton or flax nearby. I had only really seen leafy plants without anything that made them stand out from my vision. Freddy did travel outside my area of vision regularly, so he might have found some special plants somewhere. Unfortunately, Freddy could not speak, and I could not see what they had seen through our mental connection.


    I shrugged my head mentally. It was time to try to upgrade my mushroom, and if I waited, I would not live long enough to regret it. I activated my furnace, and it roared alive as if a small jet engine were placed under my cap. It quickly burned the fiber into ashes but strangely left the ground untouched. I had expected some sort of fire to start when using this skill, but it seemed it was similar to my spikes. The fire and the heat of the abilities seemed to be made up of mana and thus did not set things aflame that I did not intend to set aflame.


    I got a prompt from the system.


    Do you wish to use the ashes to upgrade a firecap?Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    I mentally agreed to the question and was then asked which firecap I would like to upgrade. That surprised me, as I for some reason assumed that I would have to use the firecap I wanted to upgrade to burn the materials. Not that it matters; I chose to upgrade my central firecap.


    Upgrade process: 62%.


    Shit. I used all of the ashes, and it is at 62%. I had more fiber, but it was a few days worth of foraging, and I did not want to part with all of it. But I had to. I quickly ordered Bobby to place more fiber under my mushroom and burned it again. 95%. I repeated this process a few more times to make sure I did not burn more fiber than I needed to.


    Central Firecap has ranked up! Current rank: 2.


    All firecaps on your mycelium have gained toughness, and their abilities are now enhanced to rank 2.


    [Fire Mana] resource has been unlocked and can now be stored in the central firecap and any other rank 2 firecap.


    Choose an aura for your central firecap. The options available are:


    [Growth Aura] An aura that helps your mycelium expand and makes any plants nearby grow faster and bigger.


    [Flame Weapons] An aura that uses fire mana to empower weapons of your subordinates and summons with flame damage. In the case fire mana is insufficient, the aura will deactivate for an hour.


    [Heated Ground] An aura that makes the ground temperature rise throughout your mycelium. It is useful for some plants and fungi to survive the different seasons.


    I would love to have both the growth aura and the heated ground. Unfortunately, I cannot choose what I want this time, as I am still thinking the goblins will be back. So I chose the flame weapons without any further thought. Both the firespike and the furnace gained a 50% increase in power, and their cost remained the same. I now only needed to wait until Bobby finished the barracks and I would be ready to face the goblins again.


    But I had miscalculated. Bobby had been active for too long, and with 23 minutes left on the construction time, he went to his quarters to recharge. It was me trying to minimize the fiber consumption that made him go overtime. I feel about as stupid as a goblin right now.


    ---


    Bobby should finish recharging his energy in half an hour. So in 53 minutes, the barracks would be complete. I was tense. I was quietly praying the goblins weren''t on the way. Maybe the goblin who ran was so ashamed to lose to a mushroom that he didn''t mention it to his friends?


    Bobby exited the workers quarters, and I immediately ordered him to continue constructing the barracks. I counted the minutes as I was watching out for any goblins nearby. With 9 minutes left on the construction, they arrived. The first goblin I saw was the one from yesterday. As his left shoulder was burned and injured, he carried a dagger in his right hand. Behind him, two other goblins appeared. One of them was bigger than the other two, and the inspection informed me it was a [Goblin Brute]. Other than his size, he looked very similar to the other two. The other new goblin was a [Goblin Thief] and also wielded a dagger. The thief also had a pouch tied to a rope he used as a belt to keep his animal hide in place.


    I swore internally. 9 minutes. I had to hold them for 9 minutes the best I could and just hope that the warriors from the barracks were strong enough to push them away. I had regenerated a bit of mana since yesterday, so I spawned more small puffcaps randomly scattered in front of the goblins, 12 of them. The injured goblin reacted and said some crude words that I did not understand to his friends. Their language had growls and snarling sounds mixed into what sounded like a primitive caveman language. The goblin pointed towards the puffcaps, and his meaning was clear. The thief opened the pouch and removed many small round pebbles from it. He started throwing them at the puffcaps. He only hit one out of two throws, but he had many pebbles. The puffcaps exploded in spore clouds one by one.


    I was running out of puffcaps, and if I wanted to conserve my mana for firespikes, I could not spawn much more than I already had. I wanted at least 15 firespikes, and I have enough mana for 18 currently. I had not retasked Freddy to find decomposables. I had been too focused on the construction of the barracks and the rank-up for my firecap. Once Bobby went to recharge, so did Freddy, as I had them on the same schedule. I assumed the barracks would be done and that I then would need wood for more defenses, but I should have gotten more mana instead. It was now too late to order Freddy to do anything. He had to hide in his quarters with Ricky.


    The last puffcap released its spores, and the thief had more pebbles ready. I looked at the brute and realized that firespikes might not be enough to kill him. His skin seemed tougher, and there was an air about him that told me he could take 20 spikes and still keep on going. Maybe I can trick them again? I only have puffcaps and firecaps for my defense, though. But hang on, they don''t know that.


    I spawned a storage mushroom with its entrance facing towards the goblins. It was the largest mushroom I could spawn, but it took most of my mana. I still had the firemana, but I needed the warriors to use my flame weapon aura. The goblin scout and brute looked confused about the large mushroom they now faced. Unfortunately, the thief did not. I suddenly realized that when I inspected the brute and the thief, all I got was their class. I could not even see their level. Shit. The thief might have a skill to detect if my mushroom is a trap.


    1 minute until Bobby finishes the barracks. Without anything else to do, I connected my mind to my new storage mushroom and started to withdraw everything that was in there. Iron, wood, and fiber all came gushing out of it. I disconnected my mind from the storage mushroom, and now even the thief looked confused. Good, 40 seconds to go. The thief threw a pebble at the hole in the mushroom, and I quickly thought "deposit," and the pebble disappeared. The thief said something in their language. It sounded like a surprised statement.


    20 seconds. The thief stood up straight and pushed the brute to walk forwards towards the storage.


    10 second. The brute took out a club from behind his back and smashed the storage.


    5 seconds. The brute laughed disgustingly as nothing happened, and the two other goblins started walking towards the brute.


    Complete. Choose which warriors to spawn. The choices are:


    [Fungal Spearman] A spearwielding warrior with medium armor. Good at fighting at midrange and has average agility.


    [Fungal Soldier] Wielding both a sword and a shield, this warrior comes equipped with heavy iron armor. Slow but good at defense.


    [Fungal Axeman] A warrior wielding a two-handed great axe. Comes with medium armor but has low agility due to the heavy axe. It makes up for it with its heavy attack power.


    You can choose up to five warriors.


    "Two spearmen, one soldier, and two axemen," I blurted out in panic. The goblins had just started approaching my central firecap. They were about 4 meters away.


    The warriors came sprinting out of the barracks. They were larger than me, which I had assumed when I saw the size of the barracks. They were about 50 cm tall and were built more humanlikely than the other mushrooms. The main difference was their stalk body, which was still perfectly cylindrical and larger proportionately compared to humans. They had almost human arms and legs, and their caps were not much bigger than their stalk. The soldier wore a full plate set of armor, which stunned me. I did not even spend a kilogram of iron on the upgrade, yet the soldier alone must have had multiple kilograms of iron in his armor, not to mention his sword and shield.


    The system seems quite generous with resources. The soldier raised his shield and started walking at the goblins. The brute did not wait and swung his club in a wide swing. The soldier angled his shield, and the club deflected upwards, making the brute lose his balance. The axemen came up on either side of the soldier, and each swung their axes horizontally at the brutes legs. They both got halfway through each leg, and the brute screamed in pain. Black blood spurted out of his legs, and the soldier used his shield to push him back until the brute stumbled and fell on his back. Meanwhile, the spearmen had been keeping the daggerwielders occupied. The spearman facing the thief seemed evenly matched, but the spearman facing the scout was winning. As I watched the fight, it only took a couple of seconds until the scout was stabbed through his throat. He gurgled a bit and then fell to his knees. The thief had started panicking and took the rest of his pebbles and chucked them at the spearman.


    As the spearman easily dodged the pebbles, the thief had already turned to run. He got about two meters until a spear came flying, impaling him through the back and out through the stomach. The spear stuck in the ground, and the thief slowly died, gurgling just like the scout. One of the axemen walked over to the brute, who was still alive but unable to get up, and decapitated him. The five warriors wiped their weapons off and walked to my central firecap.


    All of them kneeled in front of it, and I could feel a link forming in my mind. This was probably the [telepathic link] I had gotten when I got my class. I allowed the link to form and was greeted by the soldier''s voice.


    "Hail sire, we have dispatched the intruders. What are your orders?" The soldier had a deep voice. He sounded like a man in his 40s. Although I was a little bit weirded out by his use of the word "sire" I decided to let it pass for now.


    "Lay the corpses at the central mushroom, and then patrol the border of the territory." I spoke with a little bit of uncertainty. After all, I was not expecting the warriors to be able to speak.


    "Understood, sire, as you command." The warriors all stood up, bowed slightly, and started doing what I told them.


    It only now set in that I had lived, and I finally relaxed.


    Maybe tomorrow I can actually relax for once.

 A multitude of friends

    [Level 6 achieved]


    As soon as I calmed down after the biggest battle in my mushroom life, I looked at the notifications. Nice. Goblins seem to give quite a bit of experience. I was not far from level 7. But first things first, I had to start decomposing these goblins.


    It would take about five days to decompose the two smaller goblins and nine days for the brute. In total, I assumed I would be well over level 9 by the time I had fully decomposed them. The goblins gave double their exp value in mana, like the leaf and the squirrel. I still did not know why the acorn had given me equal parts mana and exp.


    The barracks mushroom was immense when I took a more careful look at it. It was a tall and wide mushroom. At least 70 cm tall and 2 meters wide, maybe. It had a light gray rectangular stalk that served as the walls of the barracks. It had a cap that was dark gray and looked to be entirely flat on top. The cap was maybe 5 cm tall and looked like the battlements you would see on top of a castle wall.


    I had a look at the rest of the notifications. I could choose a new skill, and my choices were:


    [Directed Mycelium Expansion] Which was a previous choice I had skipped. Maybe it is like a basic skill, and I''d keep being offered it as long as I did not pick it?


    The other skill was [Enhanced Senses], which was the skill the goblin scout had. It was a simple skill that allowed me to sense danger, mana, or strong emotions of living things.


    I was not keen on picking directed mycelium growth even now. I still had no specific place I needed to reach. If I had found a resource of some sort I wanted, I would for sure want the skill. But as it was, my mycelium had doubled in size since I started. I had stupidly not shut off the [Mycelium Expansion] skill all this time. I could have saved mana for the battle earlier if I had just shut off my mana-draining skills. But I guess at this point it no longer matters.


    Enhanced senses just appeared as the better choice here. If I could sense danger more easily, I would be safer. So I picked it. It was as if a filter had been placed over my eyes as the skill activated and showed me the faint streams of mana that emanated in the environment. I decided that I wanted a little bit more vision range, so I planted small puffcaps at a 2 meter interval around the edge of my mycelium. The plants outside my area also emitted mana, but it was in a sporadic and irregular pattern. The trees, however, seemed to emit a small bit of mana along their entire trunk. I tried shutting off the mana part of the enhanced senses skill. It took me a while, but I managed to keep the skill active while shutting off the mana vision. It was simply too distracting to see mana at all times.


    I had sent out Freddy earlier to forage and sent Bobby back to recharge. I did not quite have the wood to construct anything at the moment, and I wanted Freddy and Bobby on different schedules. My warriors did not need to recharge if they were not hurt. However, if they were hurt, it cost both mana and time to heal them, depending on the injury. However, the warriors did need breaks every now and then, or else their loyalty would start to decrease. There was no stat that I could see on them for loyalty, so I assumed it was just the same as back on earth. I could not work my warriors like in a sweatshop. That was fine with me, so I made a schedule so there would always be three warriors on patrol and two taking a break.


    The most urgent thing I had to do now was to get the research lab up. Poor Ricky hadn''t done anything since his promotion. Although I did not think he felt sad or, in fact, any emotions at all, I still needed the lab. Compared to the warriors, the workers seemed like autonomous drones. I could not connect to them with my telepathic link. Instead, they just knew what I wanted, and I knew where they were at all times.


    ---


    Two days later, I have gotten the wood together for the research lab. The research lab was the cheapest in wood, but it took Freddy longer and longer to get wood. I assumed he had emptied the immediate area of what usable wood there was. I had also planted 8 new firecaps throughout my area. The goblins were giving me too much mana, so if I did not spend it, it would just overflow.


    Bobby had already dug out the underground area for the lab days ago, so I simply ordered him to build the lab there as well. It only took 1 hour. As soon as it was done, I ordered Bobby to go to sleep (also known as recharging) and sent out Ricky to the lab for the first time. The underground lab was simple. It had a wooden frame to hold up the roof and a wooden plank floor. There was a research desk and nothing else down there.


    Instead of paper, there were small cutouts of leaves and a sharpened stick that Ricky could use to carve the leaf to take notes. That seemed way too primitive for any sort of research, but I assumed the system was going to be fine with it. As soon as Ricky stepped down into the underground lab, I got access to the [Research Tree]. It was not an actual physical tree but a massive branching path type research menu. I had three choices for my first research.


    [Size I] Increases the size and therefore the toughness of all stationary mushrooms.


    [Crafting] Unlocks the crafting lodge and the ability to promote [Fungal Workers] into [Fungal Crafters].Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    [Symbiosis] Unlocks the ability to create symbiotic relationships with other plants through my mycelium.


    I wanted them all. The benefits of [Size I] were apparent. I needed to continually increase my toughness or I might die.


    [Crafting] would allow me to get more wood, which I sorely needed. I remembered I had unlocked [Tool Crafting] earlier, and looking at it made it seem as if I could only use that with a crafting lodge.


    And [symbiosis] might be the most vague choice. But on earth, mushrooms that had a symbiotic nature often exchanged different things with trees to get access to carbohydrates that they themselves couldn''t produce without photosynthesis. In other words, I would probably be able to trade my random elements in storage for sugar with any of the trees around her. I don''t know if I need sugar, though.


    Speaking of trade, didn''t I unlock the [Trading] skill earlier? I went through my skill list and read up on what that skill did. It enables offering trade contracts, which, if agreed to by both parties, can''t be broken without a heavy punishment befalling the one who breaks them.


    Who would I trade with in this deep forest? The goblins? Those bastards are not interested in trade, and I would not trade with them even if I were starving.


    As for my choice of research, I decided to start with [crafting] as I needed more wood. It would take three days and would require me to consume quite a bit of mana. Fortunately, I had a surplus of mana in the form of ugly stinky goblins, so it was a perfect time to rush through some research.


    "An intruder has entered your territory.".


    What? Is it the goblins?! I quickly swapped my vision to where my warriors were patrolling. The warriors were still patrolling in a disciplined, albeit slightly monotonous, way. I tried sensing where the intrusion occurred and found it instantly. It was an ant. It had walked up to one of my newly grown puffcaps.


    Out of mostly curiosity, I tried to use [Telepathic Link] on the ant. It connected. It was as if I suddenly were surrounded by thousands upon thousands of voices all trying to speak to me at the same time. I tried breaking the link but could not, and the voices just kept increasing in intensity and number. After a while, I don''t know how long, the voices quieted down and a deep female voice spoke to me. It was a dignified voice full of authority.


    "And pray, tell who might you be to invade my children''s minds." It spoke in a slightly accusatory manner.


    "Ehrm, sorry, I was simply attempting to speak to this ant over here, and I was suddenly overcome with a lot of voices."


    "Who are you?"


    "I am a mushroom... territory. I am named Mafu. Who are you?"


    "I am the queen of the hive, Taressa." The queen sounded extremely proud of herself.


    "Oh, hello, nice to meet you, Queen Taressa." I was quite uncertain where this conversation was going, but other than my warriors, this was the first time I''ve spoken with someone with words since I came to this world. It felt awkward somehow.


    "Do you lay claim to the land where you came upon my child?" Taressa spoke.


    "Yes. My mycelium does spread there, so therefore it kind of automatically claims the land."


    "I see. Can you choose to withdraw your mycelium?"


    I was quite sure this was not going the way I wanted, and I was not really up to fight an entire colony of ants.


    "No, it just spreads by itself. Did you want that piece of land?"


    "It is close to our nest. It makes my children agitated. For generations, we have held our ground against all manners of enemies. Ants, beetles, even that infernal rodent."


    Infernal rodent? Does she mean the green nutrat? Hang on; we might be able to be friends here.


    "With rodent, are you referring to the green one with the brown stripes?"


    "Yes, it sometimes swipes our nest or throws acorns at us for fun. We have bitten it, but it yet lives."


    I KNEW IT! That bastard did it on purpose! 20%! Just for fun. JUST FOR FUN?!


    I tried calming myself a bit before speaking to the Queen again.


    "In that case, you might be happy to know that I have killed that rodent and consumed its corpse." That sounded much more brutal than I meant for it to sound. Hopefully it does not scare them away.


    "Truly? Can I verify?"


    "Verify? Yeah, okay, but how?" I asked


    I felt a pressure on my mind as my memories since coming to this world started showing inside my head. The memories of my battle with the nutrat played, followed by the goblins and my warriors. Then, as quick as the pressure started, it faded away.


    "Impressive, you have fought enemies much stronger than the infernal rodent." She sounds much more friendly now.


    "Thank you."


    "I have a proposition for you, Mafu."


    "What kind of proposition?"


    "We will obey you, and you may spread your mycelium as you please throughout what has been my territory for generations. We shall pay taxes on leaves and other materials. In turn, you and your warriors will protect us from enemies much larger than us."


    "Only enemies much larger than you?" I asked. I was a little bit perplexed, as this deal seemed far too lopsided in my favor.


    "Yes, for the beetles and the other ants, my children will fight alone. This is how it must be for them to grow strong."


    Ah, she wants them to level up. That makes sense. I still needed to ask a few more questions.


    "When you say larger enemies, do you have any specific enemies in mind?"


    "There are two I know of that roam these woods. One is a snouted animal that consumes my children by the thousands every time it wanders close. The other one is a large winged creature that leaves its newborn chicks to feast upon my children."


    So an anteater and a bird of some sort. That seems doable. To be honest, if I get the archery range up, it should not be hard. The warriors were much stronger than I assumed they would be. Therefore, the archer types are probably also on or above a goblin level.


    "That is an acceptable deal for me." I said.


    "Then we will be your subordinates from now on."


    I immediately got a system notification.


    Due to having subordinated the colony of "Mind-invading Ants," new research options have been unlocked.


    Mind-invading ants seemed like a proper name for them. According to the system, they invade the minds of larger prey and overwhelm it to the point where the mind collapses, and then they feast on the creature''s body while it still lives. That is kind of brutal as well; maybe they liked my comment about the rodent corpse after all.


    I felt a sudden surge in my mycelium and my mushrooms as the territory effect of having 50,000 or so new subordinates started affecting my stats. One of the weirder feelings was that I could sense where the ants were now if I focused enough. And they were everywhere except my mycelium. They had me completely surrounded.


    If I had attacked any ants during any of these days, I would have probably been eaten alive while having my mind collapse.


    Scary thoughts.

 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?

 Coming of age

    All hours, all day and night, I felt and heard the digging and scratching of the ants beneath me. This had been going on for about a week now. If I had required sleep, I would be more than just a little annoyed at this point, but as a mushroom I never slept. I had not realized that I had never slept until now, which was strange. How did I convert from human into mushroom so easily?


    Was this the system molding me to handle being a mushroom? I had never really specifically liked being a human but had never thought of what it would be like to be a mushroom. Even though I researched them, the thought of being a mushroom never quite occurred to me.


    During this week I had spawned a few more sugardrop mushrooms, as the ants were now larger they needed exponentially more food. I spent most of my excess mana on the sugardrops now, and it was still not enough to feed all the ants. The ants themselves though, were now a true threat to any lower-tier creature in the forest. Their hunting party regularly brought back boar-looking creatures. The ants ate the organs and meat but left the furs and bones on my mycelium. The bones were worth a little bit of mana, but the furs were not. The plant matter and wood that the ants brought back were also bigger, which helped my storage fill up.


    I spent a few hours trying to figure out the logic behind decomposition. An acorn was so far the most effective "drop" I''d ever gotten. Of course the goblins were worth the most, but for its size, the acorn was the best. After a few hours of trying to inspect the bones and furs, I finally reactivated the mana vision part of my [enhanced senses].


    I had been an idiot. I could clearly see that the bones had mana, but the furs looked empty. So the more mana something contained, the more valuable it was for decomposition? There might be more factors that played in, but I had no way of knowing right now.


    -


    The second piece of evidence I found that would point to me being an idiot was that I had not looked at the research tab enough. I do not know when, but I had unlocked research for the ants. It was in a different tab than the "general" research. And in the ants tab, I found three options for the first tier research.


    [Soldier Ants] Allows the psychic ants to create a soldier caste. These ants are larger, tougher, and have stronger psychic attacks.


    [Mycelium Ants] Allows the psychic ants to birth ants that can help spread mycelium. The spit of these ants grows mycelium as long as it is connected to your mycelium. These ants lose all psychic capabilities other than telepathy and grow larger but weaker to physical attacks.


    [Ant Upgrade] Upgrades the psychic ants in general. More speed, more strength, and stronger psychic capabilities.


    These were all useful, but I could not bring myself to simply choose for the ants. I also had to bring up another issue with Taressa. At this point the ants would probably win against the enemies that I was supposed to protect them from according to our contract. So where do I stand with these ants now?


    I focused my mind and quickly found Taressa deep in the ants nest. I had improved my telepathy already, I usually practiced it when I had a little bit of downtime.


    "I need to ask about our contract." I was a little bit nervous still when speaking to Taressa. She was my subordinate but could clearly destroy all of me if she wished.


    "What about the contract?"


    "You are strong enough to fight against your previous enemies, so my part of the contract is no longer necessary."


    "That is true."


    I waited for what felt like an eternity, but it was probably a minute or two.


    "We gain more by being subordinate to you than to fight you. We have no issue with taking orders from you, as long as we are not ordered to die pointlessly."


    "I value you and your childrens contribution, I swear that I will not order you to die pointlessly."


    "Then that is fine. We swear our allegiance to you again."


    "With that matter handled, I have unlocked research options to improve you and your children."


    "Oh? What kind of improvements?"


    I went through the options with Taressa and explained that when the research was done, it would likely unlock other upgrades that were along the same line as the one researched. This is where Taressa surprised me with her choice.


    "You must choose [Mycelium Ants]."


    "Why? Do you not prefer to grow stronger?"


    "This territory is not big enough for growth. My children have already grown stronger, but we cannot increase in numbers with a small patch of the forest under our rule. Strength is good, but numbers guarantee survival."


    It was the choice I wanted, of course. The more I could grow, the more I would gain. Just the fallen leaves of a greater territory would improve my mana and exp gain, albeit minutely. I did not question the choices further and went ahead and started the research.


    [1000 psychic ant corpses required for research.] Fuck. I did not check the requirements.


    "Taressa, the research requires 1000 corpses of your children."


    "Must they be fresh?"


    "I don''t know, it does not say."


    "Then we will bring some of those that were culled earlier."


    The entrance to the ant nest was slightly outside my mycelium, towards where their previous nest had been. Out of the entrance came a thousand ants, each carrying a slightly decomposed ant corpse. They had brought all of them down to their nest for food after the culling. I had not dared ask about some for decomposition, as I thought it might be insensitive.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    The ants placed the corpses in piles around me. When they were done, I activated the research, and it worked. The ant corpses were absorbed quickly into the ground, or rather into my mycelium. It took only a minute for all thousand corpses to disappear as if they were never there.


    [Research initiated, time to completion: 8 days]


    Alright, 8 days is not horrible. The problem would now be further research. From my calculations there should be about 60,000 corpses minus the ones the ants had already eaten. Most of them would rot away in a couple of weeks, even though the nest underground should be quite cold. So what would we do months from now when we wanted to improve the ants?


    "If the requirement for the improvements of your children is their corpses, what do we do when the corpses from the culling are gone?" I decided to ask Taressa directly.


    "If it is for improvement, it is not a pointless death. Any of my children would willingly die for the nest. More children will be born."


    That was quite cold. Then again, I am using my own morals of the value of life, and the ants had thought differently from the start. For a human, not only does it take 9 months to give birth to one child, but the child must also be taken care of for a long time before it becomes an adult. Had we as humans spawned by the thousands and grown into adults pretty much instantly, would we also be so flippant about death?


    "Understood. I will place the choice of the improvements on you. Anything regarding the future of ants, I will counsel with you first."


    "Appreciated."


    -


    While waiting for the ant research to complete, I tried overseeing progress on the territory in general. The forestry was working well as small trees looking like pine trees were growing at an astonishing pace. The trunk of the trees looked like a mix between fungus and wood, with a brown-grayish color. No tree had been felled yet, so I left inspections on the forestry for later.


    The territory speed increase worked well, right now it seemed like the ants and my fungal workers moved about 10% faster. It was hard to tell, and the skill did not give me that information.


    I had started to realize something lately. My thoughts seemed fractured, and my focus was bad. In the beginning of me being a mushroom, I had not felt different from when I was a human, mentally. But I forgot things now, like the ant research that I must have unlocked earlier. My theory is that it has to do with the growth of my mycelium, that the bigger it is, the more it strains my mind.


    That thought was worrying, but it would not stop me from using the ants to grow even more. I felt this impulse, this need to grow and expand. I was quite sure this impulse was also not coming from me entirely, but rather what a mushroom would do. Would I eventually disappear into the mushroom as my thoughts became more sluggish?


    [Research completed, designate new research?]


    This time I did not think it over, I chose the ant upgrade. I had already talked it over with Taressa. I only needed to say what number of corpses I needed. It turned out to be 3000 corpses, and they were piled up around me before I knew it.


    It took a couple of days, but the mycelium ants eventually were ready. I ordered them to spread mycelium evenly in every direction, unless they were blocked by something, in which case they were to report to me. The mycelium ants were about three times larger, with what looked like an oval capsule on their back. In the capsule swirled some sort of gray and white liquid.


    Watching the mycelium ants work on the border, they sprayed their spit like a spray can from Earth. It even gave out a sound that I recognized as liquid under pressure. The mycelium grew in almost instantly as the liquid connected to the existing patch. This rate of growth was at least a hundred times faster than my normal growth rate.


    As the days went on, I felt it, the sluggish feeling of my thoughts being slowed. Mycelium growth was the reason for my weakening thoughts, but I could still not stop myself from growing. When I tried thinking about it, I felt like a robot trying to violate its prime directive. I could not go against my coding, and my coding as a mushroom was to grow.


    -


    It had been a week since the mycelium ants started their work. I had stopped checking up on my territory, my skills, and research. I was entirely focused on trying to resist my will to grow.


    [Level 10 achieved. Congratulations, you are now an adult!]


    Choices of unique skills are:


    [Fungal Pool] Allows the creation of fungal pools, where objects and creatures can be submerged to be augmented or researched. Unlocks the option to infuse objects or creatures with mana, elemental affinities, and ?????????


    [Master of insects] Increases all stats of insects under your influence. Allows for granting skills to your insect subordinates and physical augmentations of insect subordinates. Allows for the creation of new insects.


    [Psychic Mushroom Territory] Increases psychic attack power of you and your subordinates. Unlocks several psychic skills and allows the production of different poisons and hallucinogenics.


    Instantly my mind cleared up, I felt as if I had become more intelligent as my thoughts no longer felt slow. I could focus. I ordered the mycelium ants to halt their work, as I needed to investigate the relationship between growth and my mind more before feeling confident in expanding.


    [As you have reached adulthood, skills and new mushrooms will no longer be offered as you level up. New skills and mushrooms will have to be acquired through feats of strength or by attaining knowledge.]


    Alright, so this is the last choice of skills. Was I playing the tutorial all this time? I did feel like the system was quite generous with unlocking skills all this time. Now, these unique skills require a bit of thought. Unique skills in games I played back on earth meant that I would be the only one in this world with that skill. They were also far more powerful than a normal skill.


    Straight off the bat, I did not want the [Psychic Mushroom Territory]. That would mean I put all my eggs in one basket. If an enemy that could resist psychic attacks and poisons showed up, me and the ants would automatically lose.


    So the choice is between [Master of Insects] and [Fungal Pool]. The creation of new insects is quite interesting, depending on how much freedom I would have in the creation of them. It also would be quite useful for me to focus on upgrading my ants and other possible insects. But the research tree already gave me the ability to upgrade the ants, and the research had not been removed now that I was an adult. And going all in on insects also seemed like putting all my eggs in one basket.


    [Fungal Pool] seemed like the generalist type of skill. The question marks at the end were probably because I lacked knowledge. I always passively grew my mycelium and could not shut it off. That means that it is an exponential growth. As I grow larger, my growth rate would increase even if I did not level up. Therefore I will find more creatures other than insects. In that case the [Fungal Pool] seemed better, as I could probably also use it on the ants.


    I spent a few more minutes thinking it through and then chose [Fungal Pool].


    I was about to put it next to me, by my central firecap. But if it is a pool, it meant that it would be open for anything to drop into it. So, rethinking it, I should put it underground. I asked the ants to dig out an entrance and chamber next to me, as the ants were much faster at digging than my mushroom workers. It took them less than an hour.


    I used the skill, and a pool spawned in the middle of the underground chamber. It was about two meters in diameter, perfectly circular. The walls of the pool were made of mushroom flesh and pure white in color. Inside of the pool, a black liquid swirled, it moved by itself in an irregular pattern. It was as if the liquid was alive.


    I ordered one of my spearmen to the underground chamber. He obediently submerged himself in the pool.


    My mind exploded with information, it was as if a thousand people spoke and gave me information at the same time. I endured it, and after a few minutes the voices quieted down. I looked at the system window in front of my vision, and all the information on the spearman was there. Not just the stats, but everything. Age, coloration of different parts of the body, movement speed depending on terrain, events he had been through. It was as if I saw everything that constituted what he was.


    I decided this was enough. I ordered him out of the pool. I needed to start with something simpler than the spearman to understand this skill.


    "We have intruders close to our borders." Taressa spoke.


    Fuck.

 The start of something wicked

    The only good encounter I have had so far is the first negotiation with Taressa, and that only ended well because of our mutually beneficial contract and situation. So I prepared for battle.


    My five mushroom warriors were notified of the direction and started marching toward the mycelium border. It was only 45 meters away, I had grown quite a bit due to the new ants, but my territory was not large. I started conversing telepathically with Taressa.


    "How many intruders?"


    "Four."


    "Goblins?"


    "No, but they walk on two legs."


    "Humans?" I was secretly quite interested in getting in contact with humans, but this felt far too early in my development.


    "Not quite."


    "What do you mean by that?"


    "They seem to have features that do not belong."


    Features? I was a little bit confused, but this was a conversation for later.


    "Can we win against them?"


    "My children alone can win."


    Alright, great. Then the plan is to find out who they are. I still wanted to be cautious, as I assumed Taressa could be wrong or simply too arrogant as a queen to recognize others strength.


    "See if you can capture them. I would appreciate it if you could talk them into surrendering and bringing them within range of my firecaps at the border. I wish to speak to them."


    "Understood. We can do that."


    I detected a bit of disappointment in Taressas voice. She seemed to not like humans a lot. Well, it does not matter, as long as she followed the orders I gave. The ants right now are more important to me than humans, but we can''t kill everyone who enters our forest, that would not only be cruel but also counterproductive.


    The intruders immediately surrendered to the ants, but since they were outside of the borders of my mycelium, I could not see the battle if there was one. Soon four figures appeared out of the shadows of the trees and were escorted by ants all around them. They looked scared, frail, and the oldest one looked as if he was about to collapse.


    But that was not the first thing I noticed. The features Taressa spoke of were animal features. Two of them, a boy and a girl who both looked to be somewhere around ten years old, had cat ears sticking out on top of the back of their heads. The girl had long, all-black hair that reached her waist, and the ears were black as well. On her hands there were black claws coming out of the tip of each finger, but also normal, human fingernails. The boy also had black hair that reached his shoulders, but there were streaks of blonde hair and blonde fur on his ears. Both of them had intense lime-green eyes, and the pupil was that of a cat instead of a human. They were both slender, more than you''d expect kids to be, and were just about taller than my central firecap.


    Both the cat people looked around and reacted to every bit of noise that surrounded them. They did not particularly look scared, rather, they were looking for a way out.


    The oldest one among them was a short old man. He looked to be about 150 cm long, maybe? His white skin was covered with wrinkles, interspersed with some green patterns. His hair was brown, and he looked mostly human in general. But his mouth was open, and he only had eight teeth. Four in his upper jaw, four in his lower jaw. They were thicker than normal human teeth, and he was not missing any teeth. It looked like he had teeth for crushing, not for ripping meat. His eyes were gray, and it looked like he was staring in the direction of my central firecap. I took note to be careful with letting him close.


    Slightly hiding behind him was another girl, maybe 7 or 8 years old. Her hair was pure white and seemed to go in all directions. It was hard to tell how long it was. On the side of her head there were two horns growing. They bent backwards, curved around, and pointed forwards. It looked to be some sort of sheep person. She was shorter than my central firecap and a little bit chubbier than the cat people. Her eyes were blue, and she was mostly looking down or at the old man. She was clearly scared, and in my mind I noted her as the one to not be too mindful of if it came to combat.


    All of them wore some sort of burlap shirt and pants that were tearing in different places.


    "Bend the knee, you have entered our territory without permission and will now be judged" Taressa spoke.


    That was a bit harsh, I did not really want to start this off in such a hostile manner, but what is done is done.


    "Greetings, I am Mafu, and I rule this piece of forest." I spoke to the group. The younger ones looked around to see who was talking to them, but the older man calmly responded.


    "Greetings, Mafu, I am Toqlan."


    "Why have you come here, Toqlan?"


    "Me and these children are escaping. We are slaves, and due to some circumstances, we got a chance to escape our masters."


    Slaves, huh. I figured they were poor or thieves with that clothing.


    "Elaborate. Where did you flee from? Is anyone following you? What are your plans?"


    I talked a bit too much for a dignified ruler of a territory, but my curiosity had the better of me. I needed information outside of this little piece of land, I did not realize how much I missed feeling connected to a bigger world.


    "We fled from a frontier village that has no name, about three days on foot from here. Our master was killed in a disagreement, and his slavemaster''s ring fell off and was trampled by a horse not long after. We do not know if anyone is following, and we fled to this forest because the humans fear it."Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Hmm. More questions popped up in my head as he spoke. And he did not look healthy, so I decided to ask more specific questions.


    "Are you aware that you are outmatched in strength? My ants number over 5000, and the five fungal warriors could win against you on their own."


    "Yes, we are aware that we are at your mercy." Toqlan spoke in a resigned tone.


    "When did you last eat?"


    "We have not eaten in more than three days. We found a stream earlier this day and drank some water, but have found no food."


    I decided to offer them a contract, like I did with Taressa.


    "I will feed and protect you in exchange for information about the wider world. I may also have other orders for you, such as foraging and other tasks. Is this acceptable?"


    I felt a distinct angry emotion coming in from Taressas direction. I mentally waved it away.


    "Yes, but I do not understand. We were told we would be judged for our transgression."


    "That was the opinion of Queen Taressa, the ants are all her children, and they are the military arm of my territory to some extent. I do not really care about you entering my territory, as long as you do not harm the ants or my mushrooms."


    "Understood, we will make sure not to do so."


    "Also, know that if you do show any hostile intent, I will not stop Taressa from taking action. She is a psychic ant and can read your mind."


    Toqlan swallowed nervously and nodded in agreement. I spoke to Taressa.


    "Make them an area, and have some of your ants guard them and make sure they do not do anything bad."


    "Are you sure? It is easier to kill them. They may not be well fed, but they would still provide food and experience."


    "We need allies and information. If we feed and protect them, they will tell us what we need to know. That information is worth far more than the experience and food we would gain from killing them. I also do not wish to attack those that do not attack us."


    "Understood. I will try to see it your way."


    She sounded less hostile but not entirely convinced that they deserved to live. I had to work on changing Taressas values in the future. I would rather not let loose a massive murderous ant colony on the world. Well, now onto the next issue, feeding the former slaves. I spawned a sugardrop mushroom next to their new campsite and had them place leaves under it. I set the mushroom to spawn 20 drops an hour and informed them of it. It would help them survive, but it was not enough.


    I wondered if my sugardrop mushrooms were edible, not just the sugardrop part but the entire thing. I spawned a sugardrop mushroom next to me and had one of my axemen chop it down and drag it into my fungal pool. If I needed information, I believed the pool would give it to me.


    The pressure of putting the sugardrop mushroom into the pool was not the same as the spearman. It still overwhelmed me for a second or so, but then it subsided. I looked through all the information on it, and it seemed that the flesh of the mushroom was not poisonous but also did not contain any real nutrition. I looked at the small containers containing sugardrops in them and analyzed the sugardrops themselves. They were pure carbohydrates, sugar in other words. Hm.


    I started spawning mushrooms and having my warriors pull them down into the pool. This went on the entire day. I was fairly focused on the nutritional value of the mushrooms.


    [Fungal Pool option unlocked: Nutritional Alteration]


    Oh, a new menu was available in the pool. I was currently analyzing a storage mushroom. In the new menu I could use a slider on different components of nutrition. I could increase carbohydrates, protein, fat, and different vitamins. I could change pretty much everything it contained. I started by maxing out all the sliders and chose the option to save the blueprint.


    [Maximal Mushroom unlocked]


    Oh, so that is how I get new mushrooms. I took a look at the new mushroom and facepalmed. Well, I have neither a face nor a palm, but if I had them I would. The new mushroom cost over a hundred times my maximum mana. I made a superfood that could feed dozens, so of course the cost would be ridiculous.


    I went back to the pool and started making a mushroom that would give protein and fat. I did not max out the sliders and tried to be conservative. I wanted a meat replacement in mushroom form basically. After I saved the blueprint, it was called [Meatshroom] and had a cost that was manageable. I also made a [Vitashroom] that contained some basic vitamins.


    I spawned the two mushrooms next to the campsite.


    "Toqlan, these mushrooms will sustain you. Do not remove them from the ground; you can cut the tops off and grill them. That way they will stay fresh for the days to come.


    "Okay, thank you. Where should we build a fire?"


    Oh right, a fire. If there were people following them, a fire would be bad. A firecap would be better. So I had them gather some stones, and when they had assembled a fireplace, I put a firecap in there.


    "I will light the firecap three times a day for your meals. I will contact you beforehand.


    "Okay."


    I let the four of them eat, and they looked happy with the food. They ate more than I expected, but then again I had never starved for three days. After they had rested a bit after the food, I contacted them again.


    "Was the food acceptable?"


    "Yes, thank you for your kindness. We had almost given up on surviving. This demon forest was our last bet, but it turned out to be a blessed forest.


    "As I said before, your payment for food and protection is information. But first we should have some introductions. Name, race, and age of all your companions to start with."


    "Understood."


    Toqlan pointed to the catlike girl and asked her to introduce herself in her mind.


    "I am Kira, a cat-kin, and this is my little brother Akro. I am 10 years old, he is 9." She pointed at the boy, who in my eyes had seemed the older one.


    "I am Ula, a sheep-kin, and I''m 7."


    "I am Toqlan, a honu-kin, and I am 302 years old."


    That last one caught me off guard. 302?!


    "You are 302 years old?" I asked, my tone was quite surprised.


    "Yes, honu-kin, or what the humans call tortoises, are long-lived animals. My ancestors signed the pact with the Honu, and we attained longevity and perfect memory in exchange for strength and agility."


    "The pact?"


    "We come from a world that is quite different from this one. We too were humans once. Our goddess was the all-encompassing Omnia. She loved every living being in our world and allowed us to sign a pact with each other. The pact would share our strengths and reduced the weaknesses incurred. The humans in our pact gained near immortality and perfect memory, and the Honu gained adaptability and intelligence."


    Interesting. That was quite out of left field, but I guess I am now aware that there are real gods. I used to be an atheist, as most other scientists. But what interested me more was the otherworldly origin.


    "You are all from another world?"


    "Yes, of course. The humans of this world invaded our world and captured us. They then destroyed our world and captured our goddess. They enslaved all the ones of us with value and killed the rest."


    "How long ago did this happen?"


    "154 years, 6 months, and 2 days ago."


    Alright, so the humans of this world are invaders of another world. That did not make me happy. I can overlook quite a few things, as my emotions and desires did not seem to be the same as when I was human. But slavery and destroying worlds? That was not something I wanted in my territory, and I would expand. Eventually I will have to deal with this. At this point I decided to trust these slaves fully.


    "I need to introduce myself fully. Toqlan, please follow the ant I am about to send to you."


    Toqlan followed the ant I asked Taressa to send. Taressa also decided to come to my central firecap, as she did not trust the slaves. As he arrived at my central firecap, his gaze only fell on my main mushroom.


    "I am Mafu, owner of the mushroom territory called the Fungal Fief. I am level 10, and I have been in this world for some two months. I was originally a human from another world. I died in an accident and was reincarnated here. My world was not connected to any other worlds, and it did not have magic. My goals are to expand and to gain levels. I do not condone slavery and aim to coexist with those I deem worthy. This is a show of trust to you, as I deem you both valuable and worthy."


    Toqlan fell to his knees, and I saw tears form in his eyes. Why? I didn''t do anything worthy of tears?


    "Omnia has granted us a challenger!"


    Challenger?

 Rage of the Fungi

    "What is a challenger?" I asked Toqlan, who still knelt before me in tears.


    It took him a good few moments to collect himself, and after wiping his tears and snot from his face, he started his explanation.


    "Firstly, I have the skills [Analyze] and [Discerning Eye], which make me able to see most of others statuses and skills. If they do not have a high-level skill to counter it, at least. His voice was a bit hoarse from the previous outburst of tears. "A challenger is a creature, most often humanoid, summoned by a defeated god to challenge the god that defeated them."


    "Alright, but how does that make me this challenger? I was summoned, yes, but I am a mushroom. If a defeated god summoned me, shouldn''t they have given me... more?"


    "On our world I spent a good few years teaching the younglings, and it is where I got my [Discerning Eye]. It allows me to see the potential of a person. Some people with great potential never become anything, and some without any potential become great rulers and warriors. But, in general, potential decides how fast you gain experience, how easy it is to acquire skills, and your stat growth." Toqlan had gone into a full-on lesson, with an appropriate teacher voice void of any of the earlier emotion.


    "I met two summoned beings in my life, before you. They had a potential of 51 and 54. Other than those two, I have never seen anyone above 30. 30 is what I saw in great adventurers and warriors, some of them hunted dragons in our world. The one with 54 potential was unfathomably stronger than the one with 51. They were both high level and both used swords. But at that level, the stat growth and skill accumulation had created a massive gap in between them."


    "You are the highest I''ve ever seen, at a 76." Toqlan''s eyes shone with some emotion I could not quite place. Was it greed? Or hope? It was hard reading his expressions, as his tortoise-like skin made him slightly different from a human in his facial movements.


    I remembered the faceless man saying that a 76 was fortunate for me, if only I wasn''t a mushroom. So that referred to a hidden stat called potential. It kind of makes sense, I had leveled to 10 with a few goblins and some scraps of leaves and other decomposable materials.


    "So, me having 76 potential makes me a challenger automatically? It is not possible to have it without having been summoned by a defeated goddess."


    "Well, I assume it is technically possible without a god, but that is not the case for you. You have a title. [Chosen of Omnia]."


    I looked through my system menus, trying to find titles anywhere. I couldn''t. There was a possibility that Toqlan was lying, but to me it seemed he had no reason to. One can''t be too cautious, though.


    "Toqlan, do you agree to having your mind read?"


    "Yes." The answer was instant, without hesitation.


    Taressa had been by my side during our conversation, and she did not wait for me to give the order. Toqlan''s eyes closed, and he seemed to be in pain as Taressa tore through his memories. I should try to get mindreading abilities myself, as Taressa seemed too hostile towards humanoids that she might break anyone too weak to take the psychic attack. I waited for half an hour or so, and when Toqlan''s eyes opened, I asked Taressa.


    "Was there anything suspicious, and is what he was telling us the truth?"


    "No, he is what he claims to be. He has been telling the truth." Taressa''s voice was still arrogant, but through our mindlink I could tell she had softened her stance of hostility against the beastkin somewhat.


    "Okay. So that is a whole lot of knowledge to handle. I guess what I am wondering now, Toqlan, is what to do with it? What do you plan to do, and what do you want of me?"


    "If it is alright with you, I would wish to stay here. The kids are safer here as well, if you''d allow them to stay. I have knowledge that can help you, and I can use my analyzing skills to your benefit. I''ll be your subordinate."


    "Why are you so quick to decide?" I did want the beastkin to stay, as it would help me in my growth, and my mushroom programming was all about growth. But loyalty given this quick? It was suspicious even though his mind was read.


    "In our homeworld, Omnia was revered and worshipped by all. She gave us good harvests, safe childbirth, and access to the pact. There were no wars amongst the different tribes, as she declared it forbidden. There was always an abundance of food, and our tribes focused on arts and craftsmanship. It was a beautiful, green and blue paradise. We lost to the humans of this world. When a god loses control over their world, they are exiled, and their powers are almost all removed. The only thing exiled gods can do is summon challengers at different intervals." Toqlan slipped right back into using his teacher voice. Then he changed to a tone that sounded almost ashamed.


    "As Omnia gave us everything, all that we can do to bring her back is to support her challenger. You are right, we met not long ago."This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    He inhaled a big breath and continued in a more decisive tone. "However, that title means more to me than anything. If you asked me to take a knife to my throat, I would, simply because you are the one that my goddess chose. No matter what you do in this world, those who are faithful to Doloran will attack you."


    "Doloran? Is that the god of this world?"


    "Yes, to his followers, you will have a darkness about you. The higher their level, the more pronounced it will be to them."


    "So all humans of this world will hate me?" I did not want that. I was planning to integrate with human society as I spread, but if all of humanity hates me, that would be hard.


    "Not all, just those that fully believe in their gods virtues and rules. However, there are many amongst the humans who are faithfuls."


    Well, shit. My mind was racing at this point, trying to evaluate my plans going forward. I told Toqlan I would talk to him more later, and he went back to the others at the makeshift camp. What could I do if all the believers of a world religion were to hunt me? Also, it is a religion of a god that invades and destroys other worlds. I couldn''t even run away since I am a mushroom.


    Was this Omnia really sane? Maybe she lost her sanity while being exiled. Alright, back to being serious. If I will have enemies no matter what I do, I need to build defenses and an army. I need to grow and attain more resources and stronger units to play this RTS game. Preferably, I''d like to get more of the beastkin, as they seemed to have an unbreaking faith in their goddess, and therefore their loyalty to me would be unquestionable.


    First though, I needed to use my pool to research more things. In any RTS game, better technology is the way to win against more numbers. So, I asked Taressa to give me 10 ants that could dip in the pool.


    After I had studied the stats and skills of the first ant, I got a notification.


    [Psychic Ant analyzed]


    [Progress to new understanding 1/50]


    The ant was nothing special really, it was level 4 and only had the skill [Psychic Scream]. But after that notification, I asked Taressa for more ants, and a few hours later I unlocked this new understanding.


    [Psychic Ant understanding level 2 unlocked]


    [Creation of Psychic Ant unlocked in the Fungal Pool]


    Oh, I can create them now. Not that it is that useful, Taressa has purposefully kept her ant numbers in check to match our territory size. And it seemed it took quite a bit of mana and quite some time to just create one ant. I mentally shrugged, it was better than nothing, and I had increased my actual understanding of how the ants worked during my examinations. The [Psychic Scream] had two important components to it. It was at its most cost-effective when used by around 1000 ants toward one target. After that, the efficiency of adding more ants would just increase the effectiveness of the attack by a small amount. It also suffered a big debuff if used on a larger target than yourself, with decreasing efficiency the bigger the size difference.


    Now I could fix the size issue, but the numbers part would then suffer. If I made the ants the size of buses, I could not in any way maintain 1000 of them. So my next thought was that maybe I could give the ants a different method of attack. I liked the general approach in most of these choices anyway. It is best to be able to adapt to any situation.


    After dunking another ant into the fungal pool, I got the next milepost.


    [Psychic Ant understanding progress 51/500] Oof. This is going to take a while. If I just half-assed it and lightly examined each ant, the understanding would not go up. I had to make sure to check all parameters, stats, and skills.


    Before continuing my mad ant science, I asked Taressa to increase the patrols of ants around the borders. I assumed that if the humans are as bad as Toqlan paints them to be, they would never let go of four escaped slaves. If they sent anyone after them, we''d have to catch them and kill them as soon as possible. I asked my mushroom warriors to guard the makeshift camp.


    The first harvest from the forestry was done, and I took the [Fungal Timber] and placed it in my pool. It did not look like wood, it had a dark grey color, and it was elastic. It felt somewhat like rubber, and it stretched a tiny bit as the forester carried it into the pool.


    It was an amazing material, though. It had the aforementioned elastic properties but also had self-regeneration. It was as tough as normal wood and even better if you hit it with a blunt instrument, but it was slightly weaker to piercing instruments. I think this would make an amazing material for a shield, probably mixed with a solid frame of normal wood to protect better against arrows. As I was thinking about it, do the humans of this world use bows and arrows? Or are they already into gunpowder?


    I had a serious lack of understanding of the technology of this world, as I had just assumed it was medieval in nature since my mushroom warriors were equipped in medieval fashion. I added that question to my ever-growing list of questions. I''d have to talk to Toqlan later. For now I continued my advances in science, and next on my plate was the usage of the materials I had extracted from the soil.


    I had quite a lot of metals, although I could not tell what some of them were. I had copper, tin, and iron. Most of it was iron. I took out a bit of the materials that had question marks applied to them in the system and placed them in the pool.


    [Cordium metal identified] Alright, from the examinations, this metal is more frail than iron when smelted into an ingot but harder. It is extremely heat resistant. The uses of metals eluded me quite a bit, I was a mushroom scientist in my last life, not a blacksmith or metallurgist. My first guess of the usage of this metal would be to make heat shielding in a forge. But then how would you smelt it to begin with... Ahhhh screw this, metals can wait until I find a blacksmith or unlock the fungal blacksmiths.


    I then continued my ant examinations and kept doing it as the days went on. As I was on my 472nd ant, I heard a slight noise that jarred me out of my pool examination. I don''t know what it was about the sound, but it was a creak that did not quite fit with the forest I knew. I tried to locate where the sound came from, and I saw a shimmer in a tree, maybe 10 meters away from me.


    Then all I knew was pain. I swung my vision back towards my central firecap and saw that an arrow was lodged through the cap and stalk and pinned it to the ground. I looked back at the shimmer in the tree and saw a man wielding a bow. He notched another arrow and released it.


    I felt the explosion rip my mushroom out of the ground, and then my senses disappeared.


    [Time until regeneration of central firecap: 34 days and 12 hours]


    All I saw was darkness, and all I could do was think.


    I guess they do use bows in this world.


    Shit.

 A Queens Revenge

    Point of view of Queen Taressa


    I was surveying the ants patrolling the border, as no gap in the security of the territory could be forgiven. There was no real task that had to be done, other than making sure the colony was safe. Back in the days, I would not have gotten out of the nest often. But that was back when the colony was but a nest with a small perimeter. It was also safer for me to walk around outside now, being both bigger and stronger.


    The arrival of the mushroom king was surprising. I had never seen sentient plant life, never mind a mushroom that could shoot jets of fire able to kill goblins. That was not even the important part, to be honest. For the past few years, I had commanded many battles against differing enemies. The acid beetles that migrated through my territory in search of food one day were particularly nasty. Many of my children died that day.


    I was proud of my intelligence. In fact, I relied on it. The reason the colony yet lived was because of my planning. But when I read the mind of the mushroom, I saw not only the battles with the goblins but also strategies I could have never thought of. As the mushroom fought the goblins, the use of a normally useless storage mushroom delayed his death long enough for his warriors to appear. Her children, albeit they were strong and fierce, would never fight like that. I had only ever employed three tactics. Attack, retreat, and surround.


    The choice to pledge allegiance was the obvious one. The mushroom would benefit the colony. I was ready to give up all control and merely be a queen for spawning new ants to fight for the mushroom. But he did not require it. Why? Why not take control? With the knowledge he had, he could easily justify it.


    This thought had troubled me for some time. I looked for the answer in the interactions I had with him. Was it because he could not be bothered with it? Or did he consider commanding the ants a task too trivial for him?


    Nothing he talked about with me seemed to imply that was the case. In fact, he used my children to do many tasks and left the detailed command of the colony to me.


    It was not until the two-legs entered the camp that I understood why. He did not command the ants directly, because he was thinking of something much bigger. He was going to command the two-legs in the future.


    I had a low opinion of the two-legs. A few had passed by during the years before. Some simply traveled further in the forest, but some saw the colony and decided to kick it. One even lit a fire next to the nest. My children suffered simply because the two-legs had a fleeting whim. As their queen, I could do nothing.


    But now, I could do something. With size came power. With power came the right to rule. A right I had already given to the mushroom king. But I would do my part, as any queen would. I and my children would fight and die in the struggle for territory. We would crown the mushroom as the king of the two-legs.


    The old two-legs was different, not like anyone I had seen before. I ripped and tore through his memories and saw nothing but kindness. He did not know of the horror until the other two-legs invaded. He had lived with the nature in his world. He was no ruler of the land, but a caretaker. His people had made a pact with beings not far from me and upheld it for a millennia.


    I revised my opinion of these two-legs. The beast-kin was their name. They would do well as subordinates of the king. But they must be watched for now.


    I was always connected to the territory, a kind of psychic web of consciousness laid across it. That is why I felt something very wrong. A foreign entity had entered. It was quick and seemed to move effortlessly among the trees. I screamed at the ants to move in to protect the territory, and in the same moment I felt a pain emanating from the center. An arrow had impaled the king!


    I ran as fast as I could, but before I could do anything, a shockwave laid me low to the ground. I felt the king fade, only a whisper remained on the web. I felt rage, hate, sorrow, and spite. I screamed.


    "KILL THE INTRUDER!"


    I followed it with activating my psychic scream in the direction I felt the foreign entity. All of my power, all of my hate and anger. My children did the same, they were all connected to me. The forest seemed to hum in a discordant tone, the beast-kin cowered on the ground.


    Out of a tree another two-legs fell, he was already bleeding from his nose. I approached with my children. This two-legs did not deserve death. I still had the anger, and I felt my resentment hit my limit. I ordered my children.


    "Rip his clothes, tear his weapons away. He does not die today, or tomorrow. Keep him alive and feed on him. Keep him awake but unable to fight. Drag him down in the nest."


    My children did as I willed. The two-legs now crying in pain, realized he was unable to move or attack. He started screaming, which was quickly stopped by another psychic scream from my children. All that I heard as he was dragged down the nest was a muffled, panicked sound. Good. More of that.


    I ordered my other children to scour the forest for any other invaders.


    I still felt a slight ping on my psychic web. The king was not yet dead. I did not know how, but I had never seen a sentient mushroom, so his life-giving parts might be hidden somewhere else. I failed to protect him today, but I shall not fail again.


    ---


    Kira PoV. Slightly before entering the forest.


    Kira had never felt most of the worst parts of being a slave. She was female, and the humans seemed to treat boys and girls differently. She ate the same food and slept in the same barn as the other slaves. But she did not suffer the whip, nor did she have to train her body or get sent to the quarry.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    She was not happy however, and was always looking for a way out. But it was a futile effort, since the ring commanded her thoughts should she stray too far from what was acceptable. Old man Toqlan said it was a dark object. A curse given physical form. She did not care what it was, she still looked for ways to destroy it. Every time she had the thought of destroying it, she had a headache.


    Every morning, she would get training in how to speak. In the afternoon she would learn to tailor clothes or learn stories word for word. She would get training in the different ranks in society. Of course, slaves were at the bottom. Every last day of the month, they would all go to the church at night. The humans were there during the day and slaves during the night. They would all be forced on their knees, and the priests would say prayers to their murderous, cruel god. She hated it. She instinctively knew that this was not her god.


    Her life was not horrible. She was fed, although with gruel and leftovers. However, the reason she abhorred this life was her little brother. From when he was five, he had been required to train his body. They had tried training him in using different weaponry. But her brother did not have what it took, and he was whipped many times for failing his lessons.


    She knew that when they were older, he''d be sent to the quarry. Sent there to break rocks until he died. Whipped until he could no longer stand. She knew she was probably going to become a "pleasure slave" when she grew up. With what she was learning, nothing else really made sense. Farm slaves learnt to harvest and process virta, a brown and green plant farmed all around their village.


    She snuck out of the barn during the night on occasion but had to stay in the village. The ring would command her to go back if she strayed too far, and the slavemaster would know. The slavemaster was a fat, cruel man. He was around 30 years old and liked the whip. During some of these nightly escapades, she''d walk around the perimeter of the village to try and see a way out. She had even gotten a skill, [Acrobatics], one night. It made jumping, climbing, and sneaking much easier. Still, one night she had been caught by a woman, a baker down the street from the slavemasters villa. She was an old woman, maybe 50? She had long, sand blonde hair.


    She prepared herself for the woman to yell for help catching an escaped slave. The scream never came. She looked at the woman and was met with a concerned look. The woman reached into the basket that was slung on her arm and gave her a loaf of bread. She then whispered.


    "There is no way out, I wish there were. Share this bread with your fellows at the barn. I pray there comes a day you can follow your eyes wherever they may go." The woman seemed to wince in pain for a second, and then recovered.


    With that, the woman walked down a sidestreet and was gone. Kira was baffled. She had never had a human show kindness to her or any of the other slaves. She must have stood there, frozen in confusion for at least 10 seconds. Most humans just ignored slaves or looked at them with sadness in their eyes. She ripped off a small piece of the bread and ate it. Just in case she was caught on the way back. She had never tasted bread. Not this sort of bread, anyway. Sometimes they got some sort of hard bread that tasted like nothing. To be able to swallow it, you had to drink a lot of water.


    It was sweet, and it felt like it filled her entire stomach with just a bite. She looked at the loaf in amazement. The humans ate bread every day. She wanted it. She wanted to eat bread every day.


    When she returned to the barn, there was a quiet feast. Everyone took an equal piece of bread, except Toqlan. He only said that he had eaten it on their homeworld and that the ones who never had should eat it. Kira thought him insane. If he knew how amazing this bread was, how could he not want it?


    A few weeks later, they were walking down one of the sidestreets, on the way to their duties for the day. It was the slavemaster, her and her brother, Toqlan and Ula. The slavemaster was talking to one of his guards while they walked ahead of the slaves. Down the narrow streets, they could only walk two people, shoulder to shoulder.


    She heard a scream around the corner of the street, and soon a man flailing his arms in front of him came into vision. A horse came around the corner and turned to kick the man flailing his arms with its back feet. The man hit the wall and either fainted or died, she was not sure. The horse then started running down the narrow street towards them.


    The slavemaster ordered them to run back to the barn, and she and the others followed his command. She looked back as they ran, Toqlan lagging behind the others. The guard and the slavemaster tried to run at the same time and tripped each other in their panic. They both hit the ground hard, but the guard was the quicker one to recover. He put his hand on the back of the slavemaster as he pushed himself up and started sprinting. The slavemaster looked angry and betrayed, but that look was soon replaced by pain.


    The horse had caught up, one front hoof stepped on the back of the slavemaster''s head. It made a crunching sound. The other front hoof landed on his hand. The hand with the ring. She heard another crunching sound and the sound of warping metal hidden under it. She felt as if a weight lifted off of her. Her mind felt happy, more happy than she ever felt.


    Toqlan immediately screamed.


    "Run down the street further up on the right."


    They all did. And just as soon as Toqlan turned the corner, the horse rushed past. Toqlan checked that they weren''t injured and then said.


    "We are free of being slaves as of now. The ring is broken, and we must make our escape now before anyone figures that out."


    They all nodded. They had all thought of this day and all had an idea of how to escape. Toqlan led the way, and soon they were out of the village, walking amongst the virta fields. The long stalks of virta hid their figure if they crouched, and in this way they traveled for an hour or so, from one field to another.


    They had moved south from the village. They were taking a small break, and it all hit them. Tears came welling up, not only in Kira''s eyes but in all of their eyes. Toqlan once again spoke.


    "We are not entirely free yet. We must trick our pursuers. But for now we can rest for a few minutes."


    After that, they turned west. Toqlan, as he was a slave teacher, had seen maps of this continent. He knew that to the west there was a forest the humans called the frontier forest. It was deemed a dangerous forest because a portal to another world lay on the shores on the other side of the forest. A portal to land the humans could not conquer, filled with savages and beasts of great power.


    That would be their destination. They could not go through the portal, since none of them could fight, but if they could make it close to it, maybe the humans would not follow.


    It took them a few days to get there. It was rough, although the slave food was bad, it had at least kept them alive. Without the small amount of food they got, their stamina soon depleted. Toqlan looked the worst, and Kira thought it might be because he did not eat any bread a few weeks before. But maybe it is just because he is old.


    As they entered the perpetual shadow under the melian trees, she felt a buzz in her head. A tingling, uncomfortable sensation. She looked at the others and saw that they too felt something. The buzzing soon turned into a scream, and they all could not move.


    Then a voice spoke.


    "You have intruded on sovereign territory, two-legs. You will be taken to the king to be judged for your transgressions. Follow or die."


    They were surrounded by ants that were much bigger than what she''d seen in the village. They were the ones talking, she could sense it. Toqlan spoke with a quivering voice.


    "Yes, we surrender. Please, take us to be judged."


    She felt sad. Was this all the freedom they would get? A few days of starving only to be eaten by ants.


    Fuck this world.

 Awaken to slaughter

    I waited in the darkness. Only the timer of my resurrection told me of time. I could feel the vague sense of the earth underneath the forest.


    I spent these days of darkness by thinking. The archer who had slain my other half was most likely after the slaves. Had he tracked them all the way from the village? The slaves had said it took them about three days if I remember correctly.


    If the humans had the capability to track them that easily, they were more dangerous than I had given them credit for. I was fairly sure that the archer was dead. Thinking back to my final moments, Taressa was closing in as I died. I doubt the human archer would endure the psychic scream easily. The issue was, were there other humans nearby to support him?


    I felt anger. Perpetual, seething hatred. They should die. They should all die.


    Then I stopped myself. Why was I this angry? This was not the human me. I did not hate humans. I for sure would not give the slavers and faithfuls of their god a pass, but I could not attack all humans. Is there more to this mushroom part of me?


    I decided that I needed to plan. The plan of how to act going further, in relation to the humans. I needed to direct this anger.


    All humans involved in slavery, or faithful to their cruel god, would die. With mind-reading from Taressa, I could basically make sure that no innocent would die. What do I do to the others? I would have to take responsibility if I went about killing people of their society. Not to mention, the rulers should all die since they allowed slavery.


    I would have to create a nation. What the fuck do I know about creating nations?


    Also, I did not have any way of fighting the humans of that village, let alone the whole nation they must be a part of. More soldiers were needed. I need to become more aggressive. I need to spread my mycelium faster and further. I will have to throw caution to the wind and hope that the spread does not break my mind.


    Is there a way to solve the mind-altering effects of spreading? Can I delegate part of my mycelium to some sort of manager? Maybe there is such an option through the research tree. I could not access it now, but I put that on top of the list of tasks I had to do when I awakened.


    ---


    Some time later.


    I awakened slowly, with the central firecap growing over a few minutes. As soon as I was fully grown again, I was assaulted by an eager mental connection from Taressa.


    "You have come back. Good. Are you, and your memories intact?" There was a sense of relief in her voice. Less of the arrogant tone as well.


    "I am fine, I live both on the surface and below." I did want to keep my "mycelium heart" fairly hidden from Taressa, as she was a creature quite capable of truly murdering me. Not that I thought she would.


    "I could sense you, faintly."


    "The intruder, did he die?"


    "Yes, painfully, slowly." She said. I felt shivers down my metaphorical spine. On my top 10 list of ways not to die, psychic ants were probably number one.


    "Were there others?" I asked.


    "Yes, but they turned and ran as soon as we incapacitated the archer." She said. She seemed disappointed.


    "Did anything else happen while I was asleep?"


    "No, we kept gathering resources, and the beast-kin built themselves simple huts."


    Alright, good. Since it has been over a month, the humans probably gave up. It did not guarantee that they would not come back, but we aren''t actively under attack. Now, we have to kick these plans into gear.


    "Order the ants to start spreading mycelium, mainly in the direction the humans retreated towards. Spread some throughout the forest still."


    "Understood. What is the plan?"


    "We must build up strength. We will invade these humans, given time."


    Taressa did not answer in words, but instead I got a whirring, shrill sound from the mental link. I understood it as approval. Next on the plans is to start new research, the stat increase of the ants was done. I was also surprised to see that my mushroom warriors and workers had kept working while I was "dead." I started research on [Size II]. I informed Taressa, and she made her preparations.


    We now had materials to spare, and I took out quite a few of them and placed them under my central firecap. I was still rank 2, and it was time to rank up. I consumed the ashes of a lot of leaves, wood, and other decomposables.


    [Central Firecap ranked up!]


    [Heated Ground unlocked] This was one of the choices I had foregone in favor of [Flame Weapons] earlier. Nice, but not all that great for my plans of invasion.


    [All firecaps abilities upgraded to level 3, and their toughness is increased.]


    [Flame mana capacity increased.]


    [New units available in the barracks and archery range]


    [Fungal Wizard tower unlocked.]Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    Oh, fungal wizard sounds good. I immediately went through the new units available as well.


    The options were:


    [Fungal Greatswordsman (Fire element)]


    [Fungal Crossbowman (Fire element)]


    [Fungal Bastion (Fire element)]


    Now, those seemed useful. I started the next part of my plan. I spawned multiple new fungal workers quarters and assigned most of them as builders. I kept decomposing the leaves that had gathered up over the last month. I lost count of how many fungal workers I had now. I had long since given up on naming them.


    I ordered the construction of five new barracks and five new archery ranges. I lacked the materials to build any more and spoke to Taressa about sending the ants further out for materials for the constructions. She was excited, and I saw many ants quickly go to work on it.


    The construction did not take long, around half a day or so. I had been lazy and slow in the way I had handled it before my death. With the ants gathering, I could have grown multiple magnitudes faster. We could have had these barracks and archery ranges before my death. I scolded myself for a while.


    I spawned my new army out of the barracks. 10 [Fungal Archers] that did not gain my fire element and 15 [Fungal Crossbowmen] that did. From the barracks emerged 5 of each of the units available to me. Soldier, Axeman, Spearman, Greatswordsman, and Bastion.


    The Bastion was massive. It was about the size of a human, but wider. It had plate armor equipped and carried a greatshield as big as itself. It was a rectangular shield that curved inwards on its sides that looked too heavy to lift. It reminded me of the Roman legionary shield you often saw in games. Only bigger.


    The Greatswordsman was equally impressive. It was leaner and slightly shorter. But it carried a sword that was slightly taller than itself. It was a wide blade, with a big pommel at the end of the handle. It looked almost as heavy as the Bastion''s shield, but they wielded it as if it weighed nothing.


    "Is there another intruder?" Toqlan had walked closer, looking at what all the fuss was about. He looked scared, but I did not understand why.


    "No, this is simply our new military." I answered. I had not given much thought to the beast-kin since I awoke.


    "Oh, okay. What do you want us to focus on doing now? We have been idle since building our huts."


    Oh, right. What do I want them to do? They can''t gather as fast as the ants. I can''t make tools for their size, and they can''t fight.


    "What can you do?" I asked. I tried being diplomatic in my tone, as to not come off as looking down on them.


    "Akro can do heavy labor, maybe tree cutting? I have some knowledge about traps, so the rest of us can make traps for small animals if you allow it."


    Oh, that is actually an acceptable idea. Hmm. I do not want the trees cut right now. I like the forest being the way it is; we just harvest fallen logs and twigs and such right now.


    "You can all work on the traps, and I might need you for some questions about the village you came from. But also, why do you speak with a fearful tone?"


    "Oh, do you plan to do something in the village? And I am sorry for being fearful. The treatment of the human who attacked you... left some scars in my mind. It was hard to sleep, hearing him."


    I did not take Toqlan for someone squeamish, but I understand Taressa being scary. Wait, hearing him?


    "What do you mean, hearing him?"


    "Well, he did scream and cry for two days."


    Two days? I had imagined Taressa killing him in like, a couple of minutes. She kept him alive for two days?!


    "Taressa, did you torture the human for two days?" I asked, already knowing the answer.


    "Yes, he deserved more pain, but he was too weak to survive in the end."


    Oh my god. I have to deal with this. Even though I do not really have any forgiveness for the humans of this world, torturing someone for two days is far too extreme. Minutes is already scary enough.


    "Taressa, from now on, please kill our enemies within minutes. Or capture them, leaving them unharmed until I decide what to do with them."


    "Why?" She seemed upset and confused.


    "I have no forgiveness for them, but torture is not something I want in my territory.


    "...understood." She answered with a defiant tone.


    It is good that I am creating my own military. The queen of ants might be good to have by my side, but it is the nuclear option. I continued my talk with Toqlan and asked different questions about the village. I asked if he knew how many they had defending it and what force he thought I would need to invade it.


    "I do not know the strength of the village''s defenses, but it is not heavily fortified. There are mostly a few soldiers that did not quite make it among the larger cities standing armies. When a threat emerges nearby, the Templars are usually requested."


    "What are the Templars, and how strong are they?" I asked, but from the name alone, I would assume they are elite soldiers of the human god.


    "They are recruited from the top ranks of adventurers and city soldiers. I have only seen two of them, and they were level 30 and 42. They were requested to deal with a cave bear who had taken up residence in a nearby cave."


    "So they send people that fit the threat? How strong is a cave bear?"


    "I assume so, and I do not know; I have never seen or read about a cave bear."


    Shit, now this is an issue. If I invade, and then they send a strong Templar, they will just retake the village without me being able to do anything. I have to change my plans. Why do I want the village?


    I don''t.


    I want the beast-kin and to kill any slavers I run across. Then why would I fully invade the village? I could just use this forest and send a smaller force to sneak in and murder any slaver and free the slaves. I could be doing some Robin Hood-style hit-and-run strategies.


    "Toqlan, how many slaves are in the village, and how many humans?"


    "28 slaves, 242 humans. When we escaped, at least." I had forgotten about his perfect memory.


    "How many slavemasters?"


    "One."


    I did not expect there to only be one slavemaster. That made this a lot easier. If we snuck in and killed that slavemaster, we''d be able to increase our number by 28 beast-kin. We''d probably have to kill the guards and soldiers as well.


    "Do you think we can overwhelm them with the mushroom warriors and ants?"


    "Yes, the ants would probably be enough. It is a relatively small village, and it is located on the edge of the human empire."


    Empire? I was lost about this world still and decided that enough was enough. I had Toqlan give me a thorough lesson on what he knew of the humans. Apparently on this continent there is only one empire that ruled over what used to be a multitude of kingdoms. The Dol''kan empire. Apparently it is heresy for the humans to use the name of God in the naming of themselves or their cities. But they could use the first three letters of their god''s name.


    The Dol''kan was an empire focused around the human faith, of course. They had the whole package: a holy emperor, a caste of bishops that had the power of dukes, and templar armies. The emperor was named Arkan, had lived for centuries, and was the founding father of the empire.


    Apparently he was immortal, as the chosen of Doloran. A sort of champion of his god. Great, now we have to deal with an immortal, hero-type character as well. Not that it changed my intentions or plans.


    The humans gained power from their god, in the form of blessings, in their homeworld. When they invaded Toqlans homeworld, they also gained blessings, but not even close to what they had here. The closer to the portal of another world they are, the less their blessings apply.


    There was a portal to an unconquered world on the other side of the forest, which is why the beast-kin fled here to begin with. So we will have the defensive advantage. As long as the beasts and savages rumored to be on the other side did not rush through and attack us from behind.


    I now was a bit more knowledgeable about the situation. All that was left was preparation. After that, all that is left is to attack.


    I heard the whirring, shrill sound from Taressa again.

 Fungal Industries

    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.

 The Happy Templar

    PoV of a Templar Knight


    Astren - Town on the outer edge of the Dol''kan Empire.


    Jod was strolling in the town market, as he had a tendency to do whenever he was travelling. Most of the time, he found nothing of interest, but he liked the atmosphere. Especially here; he was born not far from here. He had lived in the capital since he was 11, but he recognized the farm produce he used to eat when he was young here. The capital had never truly been home.


    "Find anything valuable, Jovial Jod?" John, his superior on this mission, asked. A nickname he did not like but accepted.


    "Not yet, no." Jod answered.


    John was a Templar Knight as well, stronger than him since he was level 58. Jod was only 49, and it was common knowledge that the level up to 50 gave a significant power increase.


    In the Order, Jod was known as "the happy Templar" or "Jovial Jod." He had not come up with the nickname, but it suited his purpose, so he let it be. He was 35 years old this year, and he had only five years left of service.


    He was not sure what he would do after his service to the Order was over, other than return to find out if his mother was still alive. Most Templars stayed in the Order after their required service was over, but Jod could not imagine anything worse.


    Maybe he''d start up a farm in his birth village, like his father before him.


    "You ready to travel?" John asked.


    "Where to?" Jod asked; he was not informed of this mission, as John was the leader. The junior Templar was never informed; he was simply expected to follow.


    "A village a few days from here, I think it was called... ah shit, I''ve forgotten. It is close to the edge of the Frontier Forest."


    Jod reacted with a mixed feeling of joy and worry to that. He was born in such a village, and there were not many of them. He knew only of three such villages, and they were all quite close together. He kept his demeanor the same, Templar Knights were never assigned to their birthplace. It could not be his village they were going to.


    "There were some escaped slaves who went into the forest, and the slave hunters were apparently attacked with a massive mental attack as they entered." John continued.


    "Oh? The savages from the portal were mostly physical in their nature, if I remember correctly. Jod answered, feigning slight disinterest.


    "Yes, which is why we were sent to kill or capture whatever it is in there. One slave hunter apparently got killed by the mental attack alone."


    It was extremely unusual for mental attacks to kill. Most of them were meant for control or communication. Mental attacks that kill can exist, but the ones using them are usually high level. John had the class of [Breakwater Knight], which was a class entirely focused on enduring attacks for himself and others. It did not matter what kind of attack; his class had a skill to endure it.


    It made sense that John was sent to find out what this enemy was. Jod, however, was a [Moonlight Sentinel] and had no real defenses against mental attacks. He used dark and light elements in his attacks and was stronger at night, especially under a full moon.


    If there was a monster in the forest who used mental attacks, most of them would be resistant to the dark element and not weak to the light element. The full moon was also not shining any time soon. He was basically just an extra on this mission. At least John would use his defenses on him, so he''d not have to endure mental attacks.


    "All right, let''s mount up!" John said.


    ---


    PoV of Mafu.


    The preparations were complete. I had built all my military buildings, the ants were ready, and Toqlan had gotten acquainted with my warriors and how to use his new [King] class. He previously had [Teacher], but it was consumed by the King class, and it resulted in Toqlan being lower leveled than before. The King class made up for it in stats, even when it was only ants and three other beast-kin that lived in the territory.


    The plan was quite simple. We would attack during the night, with the ants infiltrating from all directions. Half of my military would go with Toqlan, and they would set up a defensive position just outside the village. The beast-kin would then be rescued by the ants and moved to the defensive position.


    If anything went wrong for the ants, the mushroom military would attack from their position and capture any human, combatant or not, until Taressa could read their minds. Taressa would hold her position outside the village, on the opposite side from the defensive position, to catch any messengers going toward the Empire.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    We did not want the Templar Order to find out what happened here. It would be good if we could just get the beast-kin out in the cover of night, but we''d have to infiltrate and kill the slavemaster. And people of affluence usually don''t generally die without repercussions.


    "Okay, move out!" I said.


    My military started to march out of the territory, the mushrooms in an ordered formation, and the ants from everywhere around the territory. Taressa, now the size of a small pony, emitted a happy emotion through the mental link. I had talked with her about not being too cruel with her mind-reading, but I was inwardly worried she might overdo it.


    They would arrive at the village in about three days.


    When the military had all left, it felt odd in the forest. The usual thumping and tapping sound of ants moving about being missing made me feel uneasy.


    The beast-kin children came by to talk to me every now and then. Ula was especially talkative when it was just me and her, and her thirst for knowledge was large. I usually talked with her about machinery, oddly enough. She easily understood the concept of power transfer between a water wheel and a grindstone, for example.


    She came up to my central firecap today with a miniature model of a water wheel connected to a grindstone.


    "Is this correct, Mafu?" She said, in a nervous voice. She was shy, but her thirst for knowledge had outweighed her fear of talking to me.


    I was astonished. "Yes, that looks perfect to me," I responded. I was not all that knowledgeable about waterwheels, but I had built a model for a school project when I was younger. Without the grindstone, though, and the fact that a child from this medieval world could build one showed true intelligence.


    "How did you build it?" I asked.


    "Akro made the components for me." She said, a little bit shamefully. She was not very handy. One could describe her as clumsy.


    "But you assembled the model, right?"


    "Yes, Akro didn''t understand why, though."


    "It is okay; some people are good with their hands, like Akro, and others are good with thinking, like you." I foresaw that I would rely on Ulas intelligence in the future. As long as she got a better sense of self-worth, she''d become an inventor.


    "Will old man Toqlan come back with the others... like us?" She got to the real question she wanted to ask. All the beast-kin children were worried about the other slaves back at the village. They all handled it differently.


    Ula mostly cried when she thought of two of the slave girls she was friends with. Kira, while not really being friends with the other slaves, had some sort of survivor''s guilt. She would become angry and leave the territory to go a little bit deeper in the forest. I don''t know what she did there, but I assumed she punched trees or something.


    Akro was the silent type. He would distract himself with work, carry materials, or build traps. He was a gentle person, and as such I suspected he did not want to bother others with the trauma he had been through.


    In some ways, I had become the therapist for these children. I did not mind it; frankly, I expected it. In my future plans of rescuing people from slavery, I would have to take responsibility and help them find a better life. Mentally and physically. I was just worried I might fall short. I did not have the skill set to help people with the kind of trauma they''ve gone through.


    "I hope so, Ula. He should be back with them in a week or so. Maybe more if they have to take breaks along the way."


    "Okay." She responded quietly. I saw that she was not happy with the answer. But if I gave her false hope, and Toqlan or the other slaves died during the rescue, it would be a lot worse. From my past life''s experience, it was best to not fully lie to children, especially about important matters.


    ---


    The days while waiting for the return of my people were spent examining different things in the Fungal Pool. I examined plants and different materials. I tried my hand at the metals as well but understood next to nothing about them, other than the name of the metal.


    Kira asked if she could go in the pool. I paused and realized that would probably be a smart idea. If I could upgrade the beast-kin in some way, like the ants, it would exponentially increase the strength of the territory.


    But then I paused. It was an invasion of privacy, and I was not sure if Kira or any of the children understood what the pool was.


    "It will tell me all the information about you, maybe even your thoughts. Are you okay with that?" I asked her.


    "I don''t mind. It made the ants stronger, right?" She responded.


    "Yes... but it was after a lot of ants were examined. I will learn things about you, but I might not be able to make you stronger."


    "It''s okay. Maybe I get stronger." She said and went down towards the pool.


    When she entered, the usual cacophony of voices and information invaded my mind. It took a few minutes until my mind cleared. I examined Kira thoroughly, as I hoped I could give her some sort of strength that she wanted. Kira was immediately sedated as she entered the pool, which I did not actively intend for it to do. But it was useful, as the examination took a few hours.


    [Cat beast-kin, female analyzed]


    [Progress to new understanding 1/10]


    [Child analyzed]


    [Unlocked Growth Inclination]


    Oh, analyzing a child gave me an option in the pool. I could direct the growth of the person''s skill and stat gain. So it was not essentially strength, but I could focus someone to become a certain type of class. Kira woke up quickly as I powered down the Fungal Pool.


    "Did you get anything?" She said, sleepily, while rubbing her eyes.


    "Yes, but not exactly something to strengthen you." I said.


    "Oh. That''s too bad." I could hear the disappointment in her voice.


    "Kira, do you know what class you want to be? Do you want to be a warrior, an archer, or a mage?" I asked.


    "Hmmm. Never thought about it. Don''t know." She said.


    "What do you usually want to do? What are you good at?"


    "I can move fast. And I can jump and climb. I like climbing."


    Okay, what class would climbing fall under? Maybe a rogue-type class. I don''t know how I feel about making Kira a thief or assassin, though. But she would not be a child forever, and getting rid of the useless stats and skills would be quite important to get early on.


    "I see; that would fit with a rogue-type class. Like a thief or an acrobat or something like that." I decided to let her decide for herself.


    "What is a thief?"


    "It is someone who sneaks around and steals things from people."


    "Hmmm. Can I steal from humans?"


    "Yes. Well, not right now. But when you get older."


    "Then I want that. If I can steal stuff from them."


    Back in the pool she went, and I used my [Growth Inclination] to raise her agility, perception, and dexterity gains. I removed some gain from strength, regeneration, and elemental resistance stats. I then made her inclined to get skills fitting with those stats I had empowered the gains of.


    Essentially, she would only get skills to fit with her stats. And that should make her a lot stronger as she grew up. I myself had agility as a stat, but as it was a stat that boosted your mobility, I could not use it at all.


    I silently prayed that I did not just destroy this child''s future; she could change her mind after all when she grew up.


    But that''s a problem for another day.