Ed started to use wisps of himself as a form of mini-drones that would give him shocking pain as a means to return the footage.
'I seem to lose a couple of health points each time as well' The pain was obviously because the wisps were being hurt, pain usually followed injury. Still, Ed didn't plan on stopping.
'I'll figure out how to heal myself on the side' He was straining his mind, and if he wasn't careful, that would come to bite him in the back. Nevertheless, that could wait. His mushroom empire had only just started!
Well, in truth, his mushroom empire took only a bit to build. The split portions of himself revealed that each batch of spores would be fully matured an hour after being released. In this hour he would be able to release two batches of spores. By the next hour, the matured spores would become mushrooms that have a cooldown of their own which would allow them to release spores as well.
[Mushroom AB: <Spores> is recovering - 24:01 minutes]
[Mushroom BZJ: <Spores> is recovering - 01:59 minutes]
The system had a special way of designating this by allowing him to check the cooldown of any mushroom he was connected to. Letters would be automatically assigned as a name to each spore factory, erm mushroom.
'There are thousands of tiny spores in each batch, fungi are scary…' His territory had already covered the entirety of the small chasm floor in less than a day and eaten up the dried and new leaves that fell there. Unfortunately, this also meant he was now stuck.
His spores had a tougher time growing on the cavern walls where no leaves gathered en masse. Nevertheless, fungi were interconnected. The nutrition could be evenly passed off to all of the fungi or specifically given to a certain sector of fungi.
As soon he figured this out Ed was able to start creating a path out of the chasm. A shining grey path outwards towards what he presumed was an eventual surface.
'Huh, that's where the leaves come from' As he got close enough to the top the wisps started to notice many different types of food, Ummm organic life. There were vines growing from atop the cavern, these vines were all over the place
The humid environment was also ideal for the formation of stalactites which sometimes housed small worms or insects, these too could be a source of nutrients.
Of course, they weren't just on stalactites. Some of those buggers were already trying to eat him. Well, that wasn't entirely true. Some were just attracted to his glow. These were the easy prey as some of these insects could indeed eat him.
[Lighting Bug]
{ A bug that learned to harness the power of lighting by eating magical shrooms }
The lightning bug which in his original world was not a bug capable of harnessing actual electricity was such a creature. Apparently, many of the bugs in the area simply grew up eating the magical mushrooms.
'It's good that I can assess things when they touch my mushrooms or spores but…' It wasn't all good since there were times were small natural disasters would occur.
[Fire Fly]
{ A fly that has learned to set things ablaze through eating magical shrooms }
Fireflies which should have been the same as lightning bugs were actually much worse. Whenever it glowed it would set his mushrooms on fire. It was essentially cooking him before eating him! What a gourmet!
The problem was that this gourmet was also incredibly wasteful. It cooked more than it definitely needed!
Ed's path upwards was burned and split on multiple occasions by these fungi fires. Thankfully, magic mushrooms were quite persistent. The burned mushrooms could still be eaten up and recycled and the separated patches of mushrooms could easily reunite.
Anyway, these magical bug variants were quite the trouble makers but just like there were good and bad people, there were good and bad bugs. It just so happened that most of these bugs, as long as they didn't set him on fire' were pretty good.
They could help him expand in all sorts of directions.
It turned out that there was more than one way to exit the chasm. One was to grow mushrooms steadily upwards and the other was to attract bugs, which his natural light did, and have them carry the spores.
'You fools, you are working on my behalf!' These fungal spores were separated from him and therefore could not communicate through his network of mycelium. Even so, they were still him and knew to branch out back towards him.
Eventually, these migrant spores would return victoriously to their home country of Ed having conquered for him new territory.
This was fun and all but Ed hadn't forgotten the ticking of time mixed inside of all of this new excitement.
'I can assimilate something but…' Ed was still hopeful of getting back to his orc body soon however. He wasn't too sure what assimilating something could do for him as a mushroom and the only way to find out was to do it but... if he was to get into battle as soon as he entered his orc body assimilation would be key.
He could only sigh for the time being, Ed switched gears and focused on reporting to himself how far he had grown.
The chasm he was in was not extremely deep, just enough to guarantee the drop would break the legs of the average human. This chasm was, however short, connected to three different tunnels.
He had already made three illuminant paths in these directions but only two of the tunnels were able to be explored and connected thanks to the bugs. How did Ed know all this? He could feel it. The layout was mapped out in his mind by way of feeling.
There did come a problem with growing large beyond one's capabilities, however. Ed's wisps would only spawn at the bottom of the chasm and float upwards but they couldn't venture into the tunnels or the soul calling might fail to retrieve them.
'I need to be able to see it for myself somehow' This required that he found a way to summon his wisps from random mushrooms like mushroom ABDSGU over there, or for him to make the mushrooms be able to see on their own.
'Wait… can I store one of me?' Ed believed this was worth trying so he did. Random mushroom SPHXASLGKVC was the unfortunate mush.
With SPHXASLGKVC inside of the storeroom, all that was left was for Ed himself to enter the system space.
In there, Ed grabbed the mushroom as well as various crystals and materials and took it directly to the spirit smith. The spirit smith knew what was up and provided him a list of options.
The list was however not satisfactory. As in, there was nothing new. Luckily one of the system's new wares met this very need.
[Upgrading 'Spirit Catalogue' costs three orc consciousness. Offer? Y/N]
Ed was forced to say yes by the pressing time and the upgrade was seamlessly applied. With the upgrade, Ed took another look at his options.
[Compatible materials detected, listing acquired possible combinations]
[Crystal Skeleton] - Fire, Water, Earth, Wind
[Anti-Skeleton] - Fire, Water, Earth, Wind
[Metal Mushroom ( ! )] - Orc Iron, Antimony
[Magic Mushroom ( ! )] - Fire, Water, Earth, Wind
The options instantly seemed more fleshed out as mushrooms were now in the mix. Ed's goal was ultimately some sort of eye mushroom but acquiring such a thing for 3 orc consciousnesses would have been a steal.
Nevertheless, creating a metal mushroom and giving it a consciousness was bound to suffice for now, he would work around this.
'Sort of like Ed sentries' The current splitting costed health and needed to be done constantly. If he placed these fortified mushrooms with wisps in them however he wouldn't suffer from this.
Ed told the smith to prepare one, since he only brought one mushroom, and just like that. An orc iron metal mushroom was born. Ed then also acquired a split portion of himself and inserted it into the mushroom.
'This alone might not do it…' Ed brought out his smithing tools and carved out an eye on the mushy yet metallic surface of the mushroom.
Now all he had to do was place it. Which was actually not all that easy while being a mushroom.
'I wonder if this new mushroom variant will be rejected' It was made with one of his own but he couldn't deny the possibility. Fortunately, his worries were unfounded.
The heavy metallic mushroom which appeared near his main mushroom, his brain mushroom perhaps, was quickly settled into place by the surrounding mushroom at Ed's behest.
Now that the mushroom was connected, Ed could easily insert or remove the consciousness from it to review the footage. But if only it were that easy...
'No footage…' A quick merger told him. The eye mushroom was a noble idea but it had failed. Ed wasn't one to give up so easily though. He would figure out how to make things see no matter what!
***
"Sir Balin, We are reaching a settlement" Siar the scout leader reported to Balin who was leading a steady march.
The two were walking side to side and Balin didn't answer for a couple of seconds.
"How large?" He asked after a bit of thought. This question made Siar form a wry smile.
"The largest we have ever seen… But the early reports say it looks worn out and old so there is a chance that nothing-" Balin cut off Siar at that moment.
"Hmmm… Pull everyone back and have them scout every inch outside of the wall. I want a detailed map. After that's settled we will move inside the walls" Balin commanded in a stern voice leaving Siar with the words in his throat.. Balin's excessive caution never sat well with him but he nodded simply.