“Wait, use the toxic spores against the foxbats?” Miri asked with a raised eyebrow. “What do you mean by that?”

  “You see how those foxbats are affected by the spores of the mauve agaric as well?” Anne explained, pointing to the foxbats that had recently died from the spore cloud’s poison. “If we could extract the spores, store it in a flask that’s mixed with an accelerant, then light them on fire and toss them right underneath where the foxbats were hanging, the vapors of the toxic spores should be able to rise up to the foxbats and poison them that way. We can essentially kill two birds with one stone.”

  “Huh, that actually sounds like a neat idea,” Miri commented, feeling impressed by Anne’s ingenuity. “Do you think it will really work?”

  “I do not know for certain. We’ll just have to try it out and see,” Anne answered.

  “Alright then, let’s give it a try. How long is it gonna take?”

  “It shouldn’t take too long. I have a spell specifically made to extract essences from various medicinal ingredients. Plus, I always keep a supply of ethanol on me at all times for when I need to make tinctures, which I can use as a flame accelerant. Given the amount of mushrooms we have available in front of us, I’d say the extraction process will only take about 10 to 20 minutes.”

  “Okay, sounds good. Let’s get on with it.”

  The two proceeded to put their plan into motion. Anne began casting a special spell that extracted the toxic spores from the mushrooms and carefully stored them in glass flasks. Inside the flask, the spores were mixed with concentrated ethanol before the whole container was plugged with small pieces of cloth—turning them into some kind of improvised poison smoke bombs.

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  Once they’d made a fair number of bombs using all the spores they had available, they carefully snuck closer to the area where the foxbats were hanging from, lit the cloth plugs on the flasks with one of Miri’s Flame Orbs like some kind of fuse, and tossed them at the ground below the foxbats. As soon as each flask shattered onto the ground, it emitted a large purple cloud of spores that bloomed over a small pool of flames.

  The toxic cloud of spores continued floating upward due to the updraft of the flames, allowing it to approach the cavern ceiling where the foxbats were hanging. As soon as the foxbats breathed in the spores, they let out a short shriek before dropping dead onto the ground—their bodies soon disintegrating into pink particles to indicate their faux-death status.

  Based on what they could tell, the plan seemed to have worked, prompting them to proceed using the same exact trick over and over again. They would extract the spores, turn them into flask bombs, light them with fire, and toss them beneath the foxbats—allowing them to all die by the spores’ poison. One group after another, those foxbats pretty much dropped like flies. Soon, the entire cavern section within their vicinity was cleared of almost all foxbats, allowing them to traverse onward unhindered.

  “Hah! Yes! We did it!” Miri cheered, pumping her fists in the air. “Anne, you are one smart girl!”

  “Why, thank you,” Anne replied with a shy blush. “I do try my best whenever the occasion calls for it. It is simply part of my duty as a cleric, after all. There’s really no need for such lavish praises.”

  “Oh, geez. Learn to take a compliment every now and again. You totally deserve it!” Miri said with a smile, wrapping one of her arms around the cleric’s shoulders in a friendly manner.

  However, as the two women advanced onto the next area, a mysterious person was just coming up from right behind them. A young man, roughly in his late 20s, with green hair, wore a green robe, and wielded a wooden mage staff with several green leaves growing out of it on one end—green leaves that’d been tinged with purple along their edges. His eyes were dull and unfocused, almost as though he was sleep-deprived. Given his overall appearance, he seemed to be some sort of druid.

  “Hmm, it appears that someone else has already made it here before I did,” the young druid muttered to himself, using the end of his staff to prod at the remains of one of the flask bombs with intriguing interest. “How…very…interesting.”