The mushrooms were pulsing with luminescent shades of red, blue, green, and yellow colors. Some even pulsed with the spontaneous nature of lightning, and some grew as tall and sturdy as trees.
The only thing these mushrooms shared in common was the way their spores blew about softly every so often creating a mist of myriad colors. It was literally a breathtaking sight, breathing in those spores was no different from breathing fire, water, earth, etc into your lungs resulting in death.
Further away from this dazzling scene were gray mushrooms.
These gray mushrooms spread rapidly and without scruples, but their beauty left much to be desired. Some seemed to have eyeballs inside them quietly observing the surroundings. It was quite eerie.
Others were white in color and skeletal in nature. Creepy. Near them were some sturdy shrooms with a dark gray metallic sheen. These industrial mirrors were the only ones that held a tinge of normalcy.
Ed who was in a way the father of all these mushrooms was currently contemplating his work thus far.
'To exterminate these bugs I need defensive power' The last time the bug burned everything down before he even had a chance to see it properly. In that case…
'I need the undead properties of skeletons or the toughness of metals' With this train of thought Ed had brought these types of shrooms to life and split them into two sides.
The defensive wall of white mushrooms was protecting the sentry shrooms darted about. It made it seem as if there was a method to the madness. But in reality, there wasn't, the boring gray magic mushrooms were expanding outwards without worry.
In less than an hour Ed's mushroom empire managed to seem fearsome. But that was if not used in contrast…
'Those boastful neighbors' The magic mushrooms in front of him all just so happened to meet at that certain point and create a picturesque scenery but they all had territories. They were practically blankets of mushrooms being inhabited by both hostile and friendly creatures.
With their sheer number, the only thing that could threaten them would be the freak of nature that had decimated Ed, and even then since they had an element they'd have some form of resistance.
'Urgh, I just need to get my skeletons here' Thanks to having 24/7 access to the system he had put the spirit smith to good work and had it pumping out bodies for his skeletons but unfortunately he couldn't arrange them while being a mushroom.
He could try, but the process was tedious and time-consuming. Success might happen within hours as he'd be relying on the growth of the shrooms positioning it in a certain way.
'There have to be some other mushroom skills I'm missing' Looking back to his competitors he could see the mushrooms acting like living beings. Some would move like appendages stuck to place and others would simply pulse or vibrate.
Some could even do the unthinkable, create bodies!
[Water Mushroom Worker]
{ A humanoid mushroom monster that follows the will of the hive mind. It contains the element of water }
These workers would collect resources for the mushrooms and at times even fight other workers. This sounded very impressive but it actually wasn't. These creatures were sluggish. Their elemental affinity also rarely came into play as they didn't know to cast spells.
'But a hivemind huh' Ed had to say that was probably quite dangerous. He was connected to all the mushrooms through the mycelium network so it was fit to say they were hive minds but he didn't feel that way.
'Maybe my mushrooms are spawning with the intellect level of a mushroom' Ed's consciousness was much stronger than that of a mushroom. So although they were all technically him his personality ultimately reigned.
The hive-like thoughts would be drowned out before they even get a chance to affect his mental state.
'I suppose if I keep growing things might get complicated' He needed to grow though and the only way he knew to deal with this complication was to level up. Each subsequent level up would make his consciousness stronger and therefore his personality stronger
[Assimilation is off cooldown]
'Time sure flies' When he was summoned he had been waiting for this exact thing. What would he assimilate though? Why of course, another consciousness!
'Maybe that can make me stronger' Even if it couldn't, it might be able to heal his consciousness health at the least. Otherwise, Ed simply couldn't fathom what else it might be able to do.
Ed left his mushrooms to continue expanding and entered the system space. In the blinding white temple, he ran over to the spirit room where he fetched the plumpest consciousness he could see.
The unfortunate orc consciousness was then brought to the spirit smith where all memories were smacked out of it.
'I can't risk reading the memories' Assimilation was inclined towards learning, so Ed was afraid it'd read the memories. It wasn't just that he was afraid of, assimilating could mean three things and one of them was to become more similar to something.
If he assimilated the memories… perhaps the best-case scenario would be a minor split personality with borderline insanity at the lowest end of the spectrum.
After giving the consciousness a good whacking, Ed could finally assimilate it.
'Those chisels do good work' Ed commented in passing praise before reaching his hand out to the consciousness. He grabbed it and breathed in and out figuratively in preparation.
[Assimilation is on cooldown]
[Health +11]
As soon as the assimilation triggered Ed felt more comfortable in his spiritual body. That seemed to defy common sense but it was what had happened and once Ed read the system's message he could plainly understand why.
'My health has been- Increased…?' Ed asked doubtfully, did such a good thing exist?
[Name: Edw#&!]
Type: Level 7 Consciousness.
Health: 435/811
Bodies: Skeleton, Orc, Mushroom
~Skills~
[Transmission lvl. 6 (-2)] -Show-
[Fortified Mind lvl. 0] -Show-
[Assessment lvl. 3] -Show-
[Assimilation lvl. 7] -Show-
[Thought Manifestation lvl. 2(-1)] -Show-
[Language lvl. 1] -Show-
[System Link lvl. 4] -Show-
[Eloquence lvl. 4] -Show-
[Sixth Sense lvl. 1(-1)] -Show-
[Body Recollection lvl. 2] -Show-
Ed took a quick gander and was surprised to find that his health had indeed been permanently increased by 11. Wasn't that rather crazy? If he assimilated every 9 or so hours as the skill would normally allow him to, he would gain-
'That's not actually all that much' It was plenty since he could cover the 100 health points from a level up in three or four days but… with that same number of assimilation he could significantly improve the level of his physical bodies.
After doing the short calculations, Ed's mind became focused on finding any faults. The consciousness of an orc wiped clean would likely not cause him much trouble, but there was no way to know as this was the first time he had done this.
Ed decided to put the matter on a backlog, he'd probably do it again, just not now. He had mushroom business to deal with now.
'Let's work on proliferating my mushrooms through the spore skill' The skeleton and metal mushrooms did not naturally acquire this skill. Ed was wondering what would happen if he added it to them.
To do this Ed of course needed mushrooms which he had already gathered plenty of and… that was it. The mushrooms only possessed the spore skill as far as he could tell so acquiring the skill would be easy.
'Now… how do I do this?' The mushrooms were brought into the space without separating their consciousness from the body; This made them different from the trees and other living things. Ed presumed it had something to do with them being a part of him but he couldn't be certain.
It was just as likely that the mushrooms were considered dead when not connected to his mycelium network.1 If he managed to get skills while the answer being the latter… the dead bodies he had collected would not be spared from the branding room.
Ed entered the branding room and placed a gray mushroom on the extraction machine. Ed found there were no immediate issues. Though relieved the mushrooms weren't flat out rejected, Ed didn't think he was through it all just yet.
The needle sunk into the meaty texture of the gray luminescent mushroom and got to work on extracting its content.
[<(Mushroom) Spore lvl. 2> Skill Ink]
Unsurprisingly, the mushrooms managed to overturn Ed's thinking by functioning though seemingly dead. To top it off, Ed was quite lucky.
The only skill he could see was spores but as he had learned hidden skills could also be acquired if running was anything to go by. Ed was a master runner but he never saw the skill come into action.
'Though I'd better not say I am a master runner…' Ed said inwardly before placing the skill ink on its respective spot. The ink that was on the machine imprinted could only be wasted once removed which was a pity, but Ed didn't cry over those basic skills.
The sentry shroom was the first to go up on the branding machine.
[Brand <(Mushroom) Spores lvl. 2>? Y/N]
The system sought affirmation which basically assured success, but Ed still watched carefully. If he could brand his special mushrooms with spore he would certainly be invincible!!!