"Wait, they're waking back- Holy shit, are these zombie myconids?!" Sam stared down, stomping his foot onto the monster corpses scattered around before they could get up again. "Will they turn me into a zombie too if they bite me?"
"No, they're not that type of zombie. The Myconid Necromancer can just resurrect other myconids, but also just to some degree. If their bodies are destroyed too much, they can't wake back up."
Sam quickly understood what Ashton meant, and started crushing the zombie myconids even more. He grabbed them and tore them apart into small pieces.
"Ouch!" Sam yelped out, as the tiny monsters bit his ankles and his wrists. They were shallow bites, and frankly nothing all too bad individually, but there were just so many of them that it all stacked up. If the two weren't careful, they'd have all these little guys gnawing through them down to the bone in no time.
But if only they could kill the necromancer, all the zombies would just drop dead again.
However, another problem was presenting itself. Ashton could sense some magic being used nearby. The mana in the air practically quivered whenever magic was used, and he was feeling this from almost all directions.
He looked around. Which of these fuckers did the magic come from? Ashton flipped the notebook back open and took a look, soon finding the culprit.
Myconid Shaman,
Species - Ink Cap (Coprinopsis Atramentaria)
Reward - 11c
A species of Myconid that possesses weak magic that is used to strengthen their fellow tribesmen. While they are good when stir-fried with some butter, they can also be turned into particularly potent and delicious ink.
"Subtle, much?" Ashton scoffed, glancing down at his pocket where the pen was sitting, "Fine, don't worry, I'll make you some ink out of those guys."
Ashton could practically feel the Pen of Insight's glee from inside of his vessel at that declaration.
"Try to take out the ink caps! They're going to make the other myconids stronger," he warned, and Sam, who had just kicked a puffball across the greenhouse, yelled back confused.
"Which ones are the ink caps?"
"The ones that have black ink dripping off them!" Ashton explained. He couldn't actually point one out to him right now, though.
By now, the two had been moving independently to the point where they couldn't see each other anymore, blocked by the tall-grown plants in this greenhouse.
Actually, Ashton was moving around a bit to take a proper look at the plants in here. After all, that was still one of the main reasons why he had come here, so that Ashton could make some decent potions. There was so much that practically reeked of magical potency. Actually... it reeked of something else, too.
No, it downright stank.
"Urgh, fucking... Head toward the smell!" Ashton yelled out to him, "Myconid Necromancers smell like shit!"
"Is that what that is?" The blunt sound of Sam's gloved fist impacting the small monsters sounded out from the other side of the greenhouse. "Oh shit! I just levelled up!"
Ashton smiled, "Good for you! But don't pay attention to those system messages until after the fight! Don't get distracted, or you'll get hurt!"
"I'm not that stupid!" With a loud groan, Sam seemed to start running more around the greenhouse. The tall leaves and grasses were rustling around, until something suddenly snapped, and Sam yelled loudly. Ashton rolled his eyes and started running around the greenhouse. He could see blobs of black ink rising from the ground, enveloping some of the myconids.
The ones that were clearly enhanced by the shamans were now covered in black patterns that made it pretty obvious which were affected. It also made it easier to figure out which ones should be prioritised in the attacks.
Ashton spun his staff around, using the water to whip at some of the myconids sitting higher up, trying to shoot more darts at him and Sam. There were also a few others that were getting incredibly annoying. From the branches, a group of small myconids jumped down at him. They had red caps with white circles. Ashton saw their information just earlier.
Myconid Spearman
Species - Fly Agaric (Amanita Muscaria)
Reward - 4 Coins
A species of Myconid that is known for its fighting prowess. Instead of throwing their spears, they like to get in close and stab their opponent directly in the vitals. Famously, they are highly toxic.
Ashton spun the staff and hit the monsters out of the air.
"Seriously, why are these guys so fucking suicidal?" he sighed. Of course, he was happy about the sheer amount of coins he was getting out of this, but it still didn't change how annoying this could be at times.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Myconids had something like a hivemind. Each tribe was connected through some sort of 'magical mycelium'. As long as the tribe survived, they couldn't care less about how many of them survived. Rather, a dead myconid left on its own would release spores and create more offspring for the tribe. So in this context, being killed was actually part of their life-cycle. In a myconid tribe, the individual didn't matter. Only the whole.
And right now, Ashton was wondering if Sam might also be a bit suicidal. After just being told to be careful, he was now hanging upside down with his legs tied up by vines. A trap created by the small, round earthballs.
"Careful with your head!" Ashton warned him again, and quickly spun his staff around, before whipping at the vines. A single whip didn't quite do the job, so Ashton had to hit the same spot repeatedly. Some myconids were climbing down the vines to get to Sam, while others were throwing their spears at him.
Hell, one of the strengthened myconid brutes was throwing smaller myconids right at Sam. They were climbing all over him, and Sam just grabbed them as fast as he could, tearing them apart and throwing them away before they could attack.
But soon, the vines finally snapped and Sam fell to the ground. While he untied his legs and threw the monsters off himself, Ashton continued looking around, trying to get closer to that rotten smell.
And then, he found it. Right amidst a bed of... Rot Lilies. Ashton frowned. "What the fuck are Rot Lilies doing here?"
This place was in the corner, surrounded by overgrown bushes. Ashton wouldn't have found it if it weren't for the fact that part of the bush had started to rot. That tended to happen around Rot Lilies.
Ashton stared at the small monster. He was about to smash it with his staff, when the Pen of Insight tried to get his attention. It had come out of Ashton's vessel on its own, and was wriggling around in his pocket.
He pulled it out, kicking away a bunch of undead mushrooms at the same time, and the pen started floating next to Ashton, "What do you want?"
The pen's nib pointed at the necromancer.
"I mean, if you want to, sure, but I can't keep pulling you out in the middle of combat. I only have two hands, and that earlier was already annoying enough. Those things got me good in the back of the neck while I could only use one hand to fight," Ashton explained. He could already feel the venom coursing through him, slowly paralysing him, so he really wanted to hurry it up. But the pen seemed to insist.
With a groan, Ashton pushed his hand onto another pocket to grab a notebook, but the Pen stopped him.
"... Getting a real personality now, huh?" Ashton asked, frowning slightly, "So what do you want? I need to hurry."
As if it was getting annoyed, the pen kept pointing at the myconid, and Ashton seemed to slowly understand what it was trying to tell him.
"... Can I have you inspect things now, and then let you write it down later?"
The pen twisted around like it was dancing on paper, clearly happy that Ashton understood what it was trying to say.
"That would have been good to know earlier..." Ashton groaned. The Summoner never seemed to care, and just had everything going on around them transcribed. They had a neverending book with infinite pages, where their own contracted Pen of Insight was writing down everything that the Summoner saw, said, spoke, or thought at literally all times. So that idea never even crossed Ashton's mind.
And so, with the pen floating beside Ashton, he tagged the myconid and felt a spark of mana fly from it to the mushroom. Its information would be written down later, when Ashton gave the pen some ink to write with.
With that done... Ashton crushed the stinking mushroom in the centre of the flower patch. He had to slam it down a few more times to properly tear the thing apart. It was bigger than normal, probably an effect of it being a 'boss'.
[You have killed a [Hidden Boss]. For your extraordinary effort, you are awarded 100 Coins and an [Uncommon Botany Selection Box]!]
The zombie myconids at Ashton's feet fell apart, and Sam yelled out from across the greenhouse.
"You did it! That's what this means at least, right?"
Ashton quickly stepped out from the bushes, "Yup! Now we just need to kill the rest of the myconids! Don't worry, that part should be easy enough!"
And just as he said, for the next thirty minutes or so, Ashton and Sam were on clean-up duty. Toward the end, the sun had fully gone down and Ashton was lighting up the area using the wisp.
"You okay?" Ashton asked, though he could already tell that Sam wasn't feeling exactly... hot. He was bleeding from small cuts and bites all over, and had small darts stuck in his skin. "Okay, don't look at me like that. You levelled up, didn't you?"
"... And my body strengthening also levelled up. And so did my strike. Twice," Sam groaned, so Ashton just smiled at him.
"See? That was worth it, right?"
"I'm about to collapse from being poisoned. Again."
"Well..." Ashton smiled awkwardly, "At least it's not a lethal amount?"
Sam stared at his friend, who let out a long sigh, "I can't brew a potion right now, but I could offer you a detox cigarette and then give you an antidote potion later at Calibur."
"... No."
"They are very effective. I'm going to smoke one in a second as well," Ashton said bluntly, and Sam groaned loudly.
"Fine, I guess. Give me one," Sam held out his hand, and Ashton quickly grabbed a pack with the cigarettes he prepped earlier. He gave one to his friend and put one between his own lips, using a lighter to light them up.
"Deep breaths, alright? You really need the effect to linger in your lungs," Ashton explained. Sam took a puff, and immediately started loudly coughing. So, Ashton gave him a bottle of water just in case. "Don't be such a wuss, it's just a bit of smoke."
"It hurts... so fucking much..."
"Hm? Oh, yeah, it's gonna do that. The incessant stinging is going to stop after a few seconds."
Looking at his friend with a face of disbelief, Sam continued smoking, though he really would like to do anything but that. But as it was the best way to keep from collapsing right now, he had little choice.
And so, him and Ashton walked around the greenhouse, collecting all the materials they could. That included the myconids they had killed, as well as a ton of other plants that were in here including parts from the carnivorous plants. Ashton also picked up the bones of pixies that had been digested by them.
In the end, they collected so much that the Backpacker levelled up again, even.
"You didn't level up?" Sam asked, holding himself back from coughing.
"Sadly not. Well, the undine did. Twice. My Channelling skill also levelled up," Ashton said, as he pushed back through the bushes where the necromancer had been hiding. That was the last of them that he hadn't picked up yet.
"Urgh, that smells like shit... What is that back here?"
"Well, the myconid itself smells, but I think you're probably talking about the Rot Lilies. They're a sort of corpse flower."
Sam grimaced, "I don't remember these being here."
"Of course not. They're not from earth. They grow on top of dead bodies that weren't buried properly," Ashton explained as he uprooted some of the flowers, "I'm shocked that this grew here, though. It is making things a bit more... complicated."
"Wait, wait? Does that mean there's a dead body under there?"
"Mhm. Probably already a couple years old, most likely a murder, that's how this usually works." While Sam stared at the flowers confused and startled, Ashton continued with a broad grin, "Anyway, so, there's other types of flowers that grow on top of proper graves, but the grudge from being buried improperly soaks into the roots and turns them into Rot Lilies. If they're here, that means that this world was able to support these grudges long enough. I guess that means ghosts were already real on earth."
This was a shocking discovery, really. That, together with the fact that Poppy even existed, was proof enough that this world may not have been fully without magic after all.
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