The branding machine pressed down onto the sentry shroom and then…!
[<(Mushroom) Spore-radic lvl. 0> has been branded]
'Spo- Spore-radic? Spore… Sporadic…' Ed thought before shooting the branding machine a questioning glance. Was there something wrong with it? What the hell was with spore-radic?!?!
'I'm really curious, how are you naming these things system?' Was there some higher being or natural law that named all of these skills or was the system solely responsible? No matter the answer Ed couldn't find solace in them.
'Sigh, bad puns aside this is great' Sporadic spores were better than no spores, it didn't matter to Ed if the intermittent time was larger than it would have been under the regular skill.
Ed had of course not stopped just there. He also tossed the metal magic mushrooms onto the branding machine and clamped down on it after confirming things through the system.
[<(Fungi) Mineral Spore lvl. 0> has been branded]
'A different skill was branded…' This was a curious occurrence. Additionally, the skill was not attributed to the magic mushrooms but rather to fungi as a whole.
'Gut feeling was a general skill' It wasn't exclusive to any mobs though extracted from instinct. This skill though obtained from a magic mushroom was exclusive to fungi?
The mushrooms were like the fruits of the fungi which was the mycelium which made it all the odder. The mushrooms were the ones dispersing spores en masse after all not the mycelium.
'It seems like branding picks the skill to brand from some sort of skill library' If the branded skill could be acquired by the species then it would. Otherwise, it would sift through a broader category. If it still could not match it, a general skill would be received as was the case for gut feeling.
This was what Ed speculated anyway, he had no way to guarantee that the order was correct. It was possible that the general skill would be prioritized instead of another category. Spores were practically only used by fungi and bacteria meaning that any generalization would be turning it into some sort of seed skill. That was to say a general spores skill might not really exist.
But Ed would never find out for sure without doing some field testing. He commanded the spirit smith to continue assembling these mushrooms before taking what would be the first prototypes out of the system space.
The sentry shroom with the spore-radic skill did not look any different from the other sentry shrooms and it was quickly assimilated into his mycelium network. The same applied to the metal mushroom.
They took root easily and acted just like the others. A new 'camera' feed appeared in Ed's mind. Shortly after that, Ed could faintly see spores being released from this new feed.
[Mushroom WHY: <Spore-radic> is recovering - ??:?? Minutes remain]
The cloud of spores seemed all the same as before. The colors hadn't changed, seemingly only the random duration made this skill any different from spores. Ed was really curious as to why but...
Not a second later, another mushroom took action. This was of course the metal mushroom.
[Mushroom ZNWP: <Mineral Spores> is recovering - 479:59 minutes remain]
Unlike before, Ed could clearly see that something was different. The cloud of spores was much darker, almost black. The speed at which they fell towards the ground also doubled. The mineral spores had to be pretty heavy.
The ridiculously long cooldown time was also not easily missed. If the cooldown was even remotely close to the growth of the mushrooms, as it had been for the magic mushroom, then he had to say the skill was great.
Others in Ed's situation might have begrudgingly accepted the cooldown but to Ed, it seemed beyond generous. The mushrooms were made out of literal metals. If new mushrooms could grow with these metals in them than this was better than any mining Ed could have done.
'I can get the ores from the outside!' If he smelt down the adventurers' armor and made a metal mushroom out of them he could farm the ores! How awesome!
These mushrooms did not seem to have much combat potential, but the supportive power was beyond belief.
'These mushrooms might even be able to be used for medicines and potions' No, they definitely could be used in medicines and potions. It was just a matter of learning or creating the recipes
Ed was starting to get excited but he still didn't forget his number one objective. Surviving. If his farms kept on getting ravaged he would never progress. The mineral spores might survive the fireflies' onslaught of flames, but his main mushroom body couldn't.
Thinking about it again, how could a hivemind have a main body?
'...maybe there is no hivemind for me' Ed could hardly glance at the distant lights but he could definitely say he spotted no main bodies. The main mushroom body might have been a clever workaround by the dungeon. It made no sense otherwise as it didn't seem to be the norm.
'Huh…' Ed thought briefly before focusing back on the germinating mushrooms. If the sentry shrooms could be reproduced Ed could farm not just metals, but organs too!!! Locally grown organic organs to boot!!!
If Ed was in human society he could become a powerful business tycoon by ensuring the supply of organs and metals. Though perhaps the selling of organs could be a more… low-key business endeavor.
As the hours progressed, Ed planted more and more sentry and metal mushrooms as had been prepared for him by the spirit smith. His supply of metals was not endless however so he had to switch to orc iron at one point. There also weren't enough eyeballs to go around.
He could only hope there was some freaky eye monster on this floor he had yet to encounter.
'Hm?' Speaking of the devil… Was that a f*cking centipede?!?! The saying wasn't quite right, but there was no way centipedes belonged in heaven.
[Centicrawler]
{ An insect that possesses one hundred accurately counted legs. They are carnivorous and enjoy eating insects. }
Thankfully, the centicrawler which was ridiculously large compared to Ed was not interested in him and his mushrooms. It was instead interested in the bugs that resided in them.
This news did not calm Ed down at all, however. That was because he could now see that this centicrawler was only larger than himself. Much more fearsome centicrawlers were prowling around the much richer forest of elemental shrooms.
This meant Ed was starting to be recognized as a feeding ground for weak predators. It was an insult to himself.
'I need to eliminate it' It wasn't like the centicrawler was very gentle as it passed through the tiny mushroom forest Ed had created. Even if it didn't intend to, the crawler was definitely taking out many of Ed's gray shrooms.
The sentry shrooms which were quite weak were thankfully unharmed. The forest of metal shrooms that surrounded them meant the centicrawler had to expend effort to get there. Why do that when it could just eat the insects on the gray ones?
That being said, the centicrawler was not that big a threat. But things didn't have to be detrimental to be gotten rid of. If they were profitable greed would do the rest. The nourishment that a whole corpse would give Ed was indispensable.
His area of the cavern was not very rich in nutrients. If it had been the other mushrooms would have long since expanded in his direction. For whatever reason there weren't enough plants, Ed had to feed himself almost solely on insects.
The young and/or weaker centicrawler was thus put on Ed's hit list without much more consideration.
'It's time to go to the drawing board' Since his defenses were working fine against the weak centicrawler, Ed had to up his method of attack. Instantly, many methods came to mind, but Ed promptly decided on which one was best.
Ed returned to the system space and opened up the spirit smith's catalog anew.
[Compatible materials detected, listing acquired possible combinations]
[Sentry Shroom] - Orc Eyeball
[Crystal Mushroom( ! )] - Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Death
[Skeleton Mushroom ( ! )] - Human Bone
[Doom Shroom ( ! )]
The spirit smiths crystal mushrooms and doom shrooms were ideal for Ed to tackle the centicrawler but the main issue with using the doom shrooms was that Ed didn't have enough materials for it.
'The doom shrooms use death and fire element crystals' After going back to the storeroom to get more resources, Ed noticed the black crystal from that one time he used the crystallize skill on a torch. He had without hesitation brought it along to be tossed into the holding box.
The results of having all those crystals tossed in were good, it showed him the option. That didn't mean he had more than one death crystal though…
Even with these considerations, Ed couldn't help but try and resist the urge to laugh.
'I just need to brand spores onto it' Ed really wanted to break into a crazy fit of laughter. He wanted to laugh at the dungeon for thinking it could put him down so easily. The branding room and these mushrooms were the best things that could have ever happened to him!
'Make it!' Ed instructed the spirit smith who wasted no time in taking the resources out of the holding box. That was an element less magic mushroom, a fire crystal, and a death crystal.
The dungeon not giving him an element even turned out to be one of the best perks of the mushroom body!