Like that, Ashton aimed for the stalks of leaves, which the water seemed to pierce through easily enough. At times, Ashton swapped the end of the staff he was manipulating the water with for that whip attack to clear the path a bit more.
Because, really, this place was completely overgrown. It was hard to see where you were going.
"Sam, careful, those vines are trying to wrap around your feet," Ashton warned, and Sam groaned, quickly hopping over them.
"Why do they keep coming after me, and not you? They keep ignorin' you," he complained, and Ashton glanced down at his feet.
"Right, I haven't told you. I got my hands on a magic item, they're called 'Silent Step Shoelaces'. They seem to block all vibrations from spreading out from my feet, and those vibrations are what those vines are after."
Sam scoffed. "You got a magic item called 'Silent Step Shoelaces'?"
"You'd be shocked at some of the other stuff I found. Looks like the council made their own series of earth-inspired items," Ashton said, though frankly, he wasn't actually quite sure about that, "Maybe it's all stuff coming from the system itself. I'm not actually sure if the council designed it themselves."
"Does it make a difference?"
"I'm not sure." Ashton stepped over the thick roots growing over the ground in front of him. He remembered the path from the last time he was here, though it was obviously a lot harder to find the path. At least this world wasn't far enough along that this was a full dungeon, otherwise the space in here would be fully distorted, and the location of the greenhouse may as well be random.
"Ouch, what the-" Sam slapped his neck, as if he was stung by something.
Ashton immediately stopped and turned around, trying to take a look at Sam's neck.
"All good, I can still pull out the venom if it..." Ashton started, but what he saw wasn't some kind of bite or sting. It was a dart. A tiny dart. "Ah, fuck."
Sam looked at Ashton nervously, "What do you mean, 'ah, fuck'? What just stung me?!"
Ashton looked around, "Nothing 'stung' you. But come, we need to hurry."
He grabbed Sam's arm and pulled him forward.
"Could you fucking tell me what that was? I- ouch, fuck man, again?" another tiny dart hit Sam's neck.
"Myconid."
"Myconid? You mean like a mushroom guy?"
"That's the one. They love to use poison darts. There's not a lot in each individual one, but there's never just one." Ashton could already hear the high-pitched whistling of tiny darts. Sam was also flinching, clearly being hit again and again. They were also hitting Ashton, though the darts got stuck in his jacket, and Sam's tight, thin shirt let these things through quite easily.
"What kind... of poison is it?" Sam asked, already slurring a little bit.
"Usually paralytic. Nothing too lethal. The poison darts are really just to slow you down, anyway, because the real attackers are-" before Ashton could finish the sentence, he could see some small figures dropping from the tall leaves and trees that had grown in this place. They were around Poppy's size. Small, humanoid figures with bead-like eyes. They looked like mushrooms had simply popped out of the ground and had grown stubby arms and legs, carrying small, sharp spears whittled from sticks.
Immediately, Ashton spun his staff around. He had pulled the water as thin as it possibly could get, and then quickly sent pulses of mana into his staff. He made the controlling side of the staff oscillate, and as he did, the water practically went wild.
The bubble shot back and forth and twisted and turned, and the whip that cracked through the air cut into the tiny myconid bodies. This might not have been enough to cut through muscle or bone, but these were plant monsters. They didn't have muscle or bone, and were just animated plant matter. So, the soft, spongy bodies of the myconids were cut through fairly easily.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
[You have killed a [Myconid]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 3 Coins]
[You have killed a [Myconid]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 3 Coins]
[You have killed a [Myconid]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 3 Coins]
Three of them were dead immediately. That was another great part about these things. Even though a mushroom should be able to regrow and recover from something like this, these things were made from magic in the image of a person. And well, since a 'person' would have died from having their bodies cut in half, the magic that puppeteered them dispersed.
Ashton kept spinning the staff around, oscillating the direction that his magic pattern faced, and continued to whip the myconids in half, taking down a few more leaves and thin branches in the process.
There must be dozens of them around here, jumping down from all sides. Sam was reacting well, too, punching or kicking the myconids whenever they came close. His attacks weren't quite lethal, though they were enough to stun the little fuckers. A few did die, but a blunt attack wasn't quite the best fit.
"Grab them, and then crush or rip them apart!" Ashton told him, and Sam quickly nodded. The venom seemed to be spreading through his arms already, slowing him down a good bit.
Sam did what Ashton told him to, until there were no more myconids coming at them. But there was no way that this was all. Maybe it was all the ones in this part of the gardens, but definitely not all the myconids here in general.
At the moment, he was sure there weren't any more lurking around, whether ready to shoot darts or stab them with a spear. Well, myconids weren't exactly the most powerful monster around, and their poison was clearly not all too powerful right now.
Then again, just as Ashton thought that, Sam fell forward.
"Whoa there," Ashton caught him and slowly let him down, starting to pull the tiny darts out of Sam's skin.
"You've got... a few in you... too..." Sam said through slurred speech, and Ashton slowly nodded. He had a dart stuck in his cheek, and he had been stabbed by a couple of those fuckers that had tried climbing in through the legs of his trousers, though he had managed to kick them away and then finished them off with the undine's water.
He could feel the venom flow through his cheek and make it sag a bit, but it was fine. Ashton was just hit by a couple of them altogether, so his treatment could wait.
Ashton brought the undine's water to his friend's neck, covering the impact points with small bubbles one after another, making sure there was no more air trapped underneath. He then carefully pulled up on the water to create suction that seemed to quickly pull the venom out. He repeated this for every easy-to-reach place where a dart had hit Sam.
"Okay, at least it shouldn't get worse," Ashton said, quickly asking the Backpacker for one of the potion bottles that he had made, and had Sam drink some of it.
Of course, it tasted terrible, but Sam just had to live with that. After just a few more minutes of rest, Sam seemed to be able to get up again, though he was still a bit groggy.
"The potion is in your system now and should counteract any further venom to some degree now."
Sam rubbed his hand through his face, clearly trying to hide his embarrassment, "So, uh... I'm still not feeling great..."
"Of course not, that venom is going to keep coursing through you. But if you level up, and most importantly if your resilience stat increases a bit, your body should sort of get a physical boost that helps with this sort of thing," Ashton explained, "You should be close to levelling up, too. Myconids don't give a ton of experience, but I still feel like you should be close to the edge."
Sam quickly nodded, "Definitely. But hey, my strike skill levelled up, at least."
"Okay, that's good. Keep cycling your body strengthening through yourself as well, that should help speed up the potion."
Going a bit slower this time, Sam and Ashton continued through the botanical gardens. There were vines that had to be torn and cut through, flesh-eating plants that were trying to pull either of them in, and a few more waves of myconids as well.
Of course, Ashton was collecting as many materials from these as he could. Whether it was their sap, venom, or leaves, he collected everything that might seem useful.
[Contract | Backpacker - Level 4 -> Backpacker - Level 5]
"What kind of potion are the myconids good for?" Sam asked, drinking some water as the two were taking a brief break, not too far away from the greenhouse.
Ashton smiled, "They're not great potion ingredients."
"Then why are you picking up all of their bodies?"
"They're mushrooms, aren't they?"
"... No." Sam shook his head. "You're going to eat monsters?"
With a raised brow, Ashton nodded, "Yeah, of course. Not humanoids, obviously, but these guys are just mimicking people, so they don't really count. And trust me, the more animalistic monsters that are definitely roaming around Drakewood's outskirts should be a wonderful source of food. I'm sure there should be some boar-like monsters in the area."
"And they're not poisonous to us, or something?"
"Not inherently, but there's some poisonous monsters, yeah."
Sam grumbled lightly, still scratching his neck a bit in the places where the darts hit him earlier.
By now, the sun was already setting, and darkness was setting in within the gardens. Sam looked around as it was getting harder and harder to see. "You sure it was a good idea to come here this late?"
"It should be fine. Rather, combat classes level up the more they struggle in combat. So, fighting while partially paralysed and in partial darkness should get you more experience than normal," Ashton explained, looking further down the path, "But I do agree that we should finish this before it gets too dark."
Since they were both in agreement, the pair continued on. They soon reached the entrance to the place that Ashton had already be determined to be the mana well, the greenhouse. And in there, there were numerous plants already writhing around.
And in the centre stood massive Venus Flytraps, large enough to bite a grown man in half.
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