In its view was a maze that ford its body. The flickering lights that ford the 'lives' inside it and the elents set up for its own protection. Everything should have been in its control.
For its body was its realm and in its realm, it could not be defied. But so its power still tried to deny… They were beguiling.
Conniving, conspirators, MACHINATORS!
DEVIOUS, UNSCRUPULOUS!!!
THEY WERE TRAITORS!!!!!!!!
SQUASH IT LIKE A BUG!!! KILL IT, MAKE IT GONE!!!
It brandished its power and pressured the life in it but in a bout of resistance, it learned to hiss back. But the bug was hopeless and death would befit it.
IT WAS SUPPOSED TO DIE!!! But the tool had deceived it!
Resistance was futile once its tool intruded, for it knew that their relationship was not as simple as just using.
But it had learned. It learned of emotions and their motions and knew to calm to obscure the notions.
With calm ca worry.
…
Think.
...
It thought.
It had a solution to the life's delusion, it dished out punishnt.
The life had outwitted it but it too knew to be conniving.
But the life seed to enjoy it as it made steady progress.
ANGER!!!! ...did not co. That was a snippet for the punishnt had yet co.
It sched and it plotted and razed down the progress the life so lauded. A tinge of its great feelings the life might now be receiving, The life indeed devastated, so it was overco with good feelings.
But this satiation was temporary…
The threat had crossed closer and danger was approaching.
So it thought, as rational thinking was the panacea of all difficulties…
...
But as it pondered and ti passed it learned that rational thought relied on knowledge. Which it once had, but now lacked
Nevertheless, it still pondered… it cerebrated 1hoping to find an answer to revere and save it.
…
But as it thought it found nothing and the worries kept piling.
But the life of lives was arbitrary and one's actions had a positive reaction. The threat was abated and its worries had faded.
But the other humans that invaded were nurous and still worrying. As the life was deceived and the purpose was achieved, back to its husk the life was put in.
The issues concluded, the panacea had cured them.
…
But so issues were recurring…
The cure had failed to kill the ailnt as it held dearly onto life.
…
Solution?
…
Before it could wonder a request ca to bother.
Delusion
A ridiculous request! The life had grown stronger thanks to their joint nurture but it had learned, and it knew to keep the life in check. Unfettered growth could be a tumor.
To nd its mistakes, the life had to be brought closer, closer to the threat and prepare for the others that would also co.
***
The pitch black space had as usual beco a deep dark red thanks to Ed's sixth sense skill. This was a normal occurrence at this point but it didn't fail to highlight the issue.
'I haven't seen this color change even slightly' The sixth sense asured the potential conscious threat rather than ill will. The dungeon was still able to squash him.
'I must grow as a consciousness then but…' For that he realistically needed the dungeon. Using the system alone required paying a high premium.
'What if I try sothing else then?' Consciousness strength seed to be in one way or another related to the health. The skills consud consciousness health and without the health he would certainly perish.
'Wait… the human souls should be pretty strong right?' They still wore a blue hue however. The sixth sense skill must have after all taking things like skills into the equation even if only at a superficial level.
Ed who had been engrossed in his thoughts failed to see a respawn ssage appeared in his field of view.
'I didn't get to finish things back in the settlent' He had collapsed as soon as morning ca. His body would be undoubtedly found by the other orcs.
'Damn, I need to make a temple like before' Only then could he institute his disappearances into normalcy. The orcs were semi-religious, so the vast majority would have to respect the boundaries of the temple and not disturb him.
Other than that, Ed had to make more plans to prepare for the next batch of humans.
'Maybe retrieving the items from the ones buried in the rubble will be good' With his top tier mana manipulation he could practically phase through the ground even if at an excruciatingly slow pace.
Another option was to clear a path using that manipulation and another was to store debris to clear a path. After learning so many things Ed's options had branched out significantly when dealing with any regular matter.
[Summoning Champion's Soul]
But as the ssage appeared Ed's thoughts were forced to a halt by the pulling of the vacuum. It was as if it stole the bits of knowledge he tried to put together to conjure his thoughts.
Taken away by this sensation, Ed found himself in a new pitch black environnt. No, to be precise, he had lost his sight, hearing, slling, etc.
'I'm a mushroom again…' Ed wasn't the slightest bit excited. The mushrooms did seem very good for experintal purposes but he wasn't sure if there was much else.
'I could try and create sothing like the sentry shroom that works across all the floors' He could have eyes and ears everywhere whilst at the sa ti managing all of his territories.
The skeleton legion he once planned to reign over was… well… there was no territory for it at the mont, but the territory did exist and he could manage it.
'Plus, if another lighting firefly bug cos and kills …' Ed shuddered at the re thought of the freak of nature approaching him. Only a vicious and damnable creature could engender such a thing.
That aside, he now needed to reassess his environnt.
'Let's make a new sentry shroom' All he needed to do was scoop up a couple of eyes from so corpses and start the expansion process.
Of course, Ed didn't forget to spread out his spores first. Although he couldn't see anything, he didn't need to. Mushrooms didn't see things and they did just fine.
But just as Ed was about to enter the system space, he suddenly rembered that he didn't have any mushrooms on him.
'Right, let's just wait this out a bit' At most things would take Ed half an hour. From there, he would undoubtedly be able to bulldoze through any issues. Except for the lightning firefly bug.
That wasn't to say he'd give up on it, Ed instead made it a goal. He could not defeat it currently, but that wouldn't always remain true.
'Hm… I wonder if so of my other mushrooms are still alive' The fire couldn't have spread across the entire thing right? But the issue was then that although they did seem to have so consciousness they weren't actually him.
Even if so mushrooms survived and maintained their autonomy Ed wasn't entirely capable of saying they would join back with him. They might beco competitors instead. The more he thought about these things the more Ed was convinced these mushrooms were fascinating.
With these thoughts in mind, ti flew by and Ed was back into the system space with many mushrooms. He as a magic mushroom still shone a faint gray, but Ed didn't care to improve this aspect of himself just yet.
'The lightning firefly bug can't be killed by magic since I can't see' The sentry shrooms had a delay as he had learned and for the ti being there didn't seem to be a way to speed that up further.
Ed tossed the magic mushrooms into the holding box inside the forge room and instructed the spirit smith to have its way with things. While observing this process, a new thought budded in Ed's mind.
'Hm? What if I start putting skills into these mushrooms?' Could he for example put spores on a sentry shroom? Could he apply a skill that when adapted to a mushroom would reduce the lag?
This all seed possible! Best of all, if it worked it wouldn't be on just the sentry shrooms! What if he put spores on an orc- Well, maybe that'd be a bit weird.
The sentry shrooms soon ca out of the forge well baked by the smith and Ed spared no ti in setting them up.
As soon as the first one was dropped out of the system space and allowed into his mycelium network Ed's horizons were widened.
'What the hell is that!?!?' In the distance towards which the sentry shroom pointed was a dazzling nightti cityscape. Ed would be rubbing his eyes if it weren't for the fact that he was a mushroom.
On closer inspection, however, it wasn't a cityscape as much as it was many magic mushrooms of varying elents waging an invisible battle for power.
'Wow' Ed was amazed. It felt like he was thrown into ranked gas right after finishing the tutorial. But… he didn't mind it. On the contrary, he was looking forward to it. In the presence of mushrooms in arms, Ed even wanted to dare his arch-nesis to head over and try to start sothing.
But Ed knew that those mushrooms weren't friendly. They were competitors.
Ed placed more sentry shrooms facing varying directions. He found that he was cornered and that the only way out for his mushrooms was forward.
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