Ed kitted out the blood clot to the best of his abilities. The blood clot could be said to have no fighting power anymore. The Vipera Antrum had died, so naturally, its consciousness had become his.
One of the skills it had by default was <Poison Fangs lvl. 7>. When passed over to the blood clot it became <Poison Body lvl. 1> instead. That was good on its own since poison resistance was not all that common.
The monster encyclopedia, which Ed had yet to find out whether was up to date, noted how lots of monsters did not grow resistances. The reason? Power levels. Even if you were resistant to poison if an A-class poisonous monster attacked you your resistance may as well not exist. That was to say, they would die before ever adapting.
Then again, Ed felt that this was a very extreme and unlikely scenario. Otherwise, whole ecosystems would die and the whole world would be plunged into chaos and eventually death.
'Or maybe I'm the one thinking in extremes' Ed commented before focusing back on the other skills of the blood clot.
Surprisingly, the <Tough Exoskeleton lvl. 4> skill turned into <Metal Body lvl. 0>. It was practically the blood clot sacrificing its elasticity entirely to protect itself. That also meant it was an active skill rather than a passive which Ed did not know if he should be bitter about.
'If I branded the tough skill directly this might not have happened' Which was quite honestly just as fine, metal Body could potentially be used on even his mushrooms. His defenses would become unstoppable then.
'I shouldn't brand general skills right away unless necessary' He had for example been disappointed when he taught the blood clot to slither. That was because nothing changed.
That was also the last skill Ed had branded onto the blood clot so it was now very much ready to go out on a journey.
'So long bloody' Ed thought as he watched the blood clot retreat towards the other mushroom forests. As far as Ed could tell, it was the only way out of the cavern.
Ed would be lying if he said he wasn't afraid, the fungus could very well try to eat Bloody. Ed therefore couldn't help but run an assessment as Bloody started to slither out of his territory.
[Bloody (Anti-Blood Clot)]
{ Bloody as named by the mushroom Ed is the first of its kind. It's also the strongest powerhouse of its kind. }
'Thank you System' Saying the second statement after the first was the same as saying nothing but Ed appreciated the sentiment.
With Bloody dealing with the foreign affairs, Ed could now focus on the domestic side of things. He was creeping closer and closer to the other magic mushroom forests with every passing hour.
As for why it wasn't also happening the other way around… Ed knew it was because the forests were clashing. The myriad colors were in conflict and giving each other no leeway.
'If I join in now I'll be dead meat' Ed wanted to know how fungi battled but at the same time, he was certain he didn't have the nutrients to jump in unprepared. W was partly to blame as he hadn't tried entering the fields again, though Ed couldn't blame himself for this.
'Do I have to eat you octobuddy?' Ed asked with a mental sigh seeing the octocrawler that had made its home on the cavern ceiling.
'Hm? Can't I use this?' The octocrawler was not a spider, it was, but it was a crawler. Ed assumed it was its own type of monster in this world. One seemingly measured by the number of legs they had.
Why bring this up? Because crawlers might be able to mate with one another. If he acted as the octocrawler's wing- No, that'd probably frighten it…
If he acted as the octocrawler's fun guy, far more accurate, he could help it get a boyfriend… or… girlfriend? Either way, Ed could eventually eat its babies.
'...Something about that doesn't sound right' Ed shrugged off the feeling however under the scrutinizing eye of himself. W was looking at himself as if he was weird.
'Did I get the humane half?' He wondered letting Ed plainly hear the thought.
'A little rude' But Ed was more focused on the fact that he was the environment. If he offered plenty of opportunities for growth to the inhabitants, they would remain even if he ate a couple of them.
The issue then became what sort of benefits he could provide. He couldn't offer food and offering combat power was the same as kicking them out. There was nothing to hunt there anyway.
'Can I make a bait mushroom?' If he could make an irresistible aroma that attracted crawlers, there would be no need to offer them food he didn't have. They would come running in droves for a worthless snack only to end up becoming the snacks themselves.
The only problem that might arise from this was that he could be overrun. If he was going to use such a thing he would need to place it and store it in intervals to have the crawler come in waves.
'I guess this deviates from my original line of thought but it also works' He had already put up a barbed mushroom perimeter, had doom shrooms, metal shrooms, and even sling shrooms. He had the defenses, he just needed the waves of enemies.
Well, if he had to point out one thing lacking it was his long-range firepower. The sling shrooms catapulted element less mana in the form of small pebbles and were exactly as unimpressive as they sounded.
The damage was bound to be negligible to beings with <Tough Exoskeleton>. Ed needed to at least change their elements before engaging in this idea.
'That still leaves the bait unsettled' W pitched in and said while chilling in the mushroom puppet. That got Ed thinking for a bit and he managed to come up with a simple idea.
'You can be the bait' Ed said. If he had a face, W pictured he'd surely be smiling sinisterly.
'He- Hey don't tell me you hate yourself?' W asked back with some worry. Was he a masochist and sadist? Did he enjoy watching himself suffer while knowing all of these memories would go right back to him later?
'If I hated myself wouldn't you know?' Ed did not want to use himself as bait either. He just thought that he could trust no one other than himself with this important task. Particularly due to the system.
'Then… is it so I can defend the bait? Can't I do that in here?' W asked still not sure how he fitted into the equation.
'It's for instant reaction' The fog of war1 he suffered from wasn't hiding things from him, but rather the inability to manifest things from out of his storage. He could have split a small portion as he had before, but there was also no real need with W there.
Two heads, especially the same heads, were better than one. It was like having parallel thought. W could not oversee things in a combat role. Not to mention the mushroom puppet would need some jury-rigging or be rebuilt after a battle which was just a bother.
With a fairly solid argument, W could only complain inwardly. All of this would go back to himself later and surely then Ed would learn to take care of himself more.
As for the aroma, it had to be something sweet or flowery. The crawlers were ultimately still bugs. Even if some might not eat sweet things or flowers they would still understand that where there were sweet things there were many smaller bugs.
The candidates Ed had were not many but, as a self-proclaimed master baiter, he was not worried they wouldn't suffice. The main ingredients were the herbs he used for potions on the previous floor and they had all the basic things a monster might love. The orc blood fruit for example had the juiciness of fruits and the iron taste of blood all monsters would surely die for.
Ed entered the system space this time with Ed in tow. The two of himself had to work together to make the best bait the dungeon world had ever seen! He would not be doing his system forge skills justice otherwise.
That was right, the plan was to fuse as many delicious things as possible onto a simple gray mushroom.
'Let's use a doom shroom' W surprisingly suggested when they entered the storeroom.
'I suppose it's not a bad idea' When the monsters came and succeeded in acquiring the bait they would be blown up. The damage would be small, but the mental slap in the face wouldn't.
Ed was starting to wonder if he was bullying the dumb but he didn't have to wonder for long as W readily agreed.
'...you can't read me here' There was no network, so how did W know what he was thinking?
'It's that I was thinking the same thing' W said before continuing to sift through the storeroom. While W did this, Ed grabbed a doom shroom and some orc blood fruit and left to the forge with them.
'I look forward to the result' Ed thought as he tossed both ingredients into the forge. He wanted this bait to be an explosive hit among the monsters.
2. The fog of war (German: Nebel des Krieges) is the uncertainty in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations.. The term seeks to capture the uncertainty regarding one's own capability, adversary capability, and adversary intent during an engagement, operation, or campaign.