The massive Bloody received the transmission but it didn't change course, nor did it seem to intend to take any different action. That was because Bloody had always been on course to destroy the mushrooms in its path!
Its charge skill activated and the behemoth's weird slithering suddenly hastened. Its speed was nearly tripled and the myconids that had approached had no choice but to be trampled underfoot.
Their bodies were plastered beneath Bloody but this was only temporary. Soon enough, the humanoid mushrooms soon began to melt away as if they had been thoroughly doused in acid.
'It must be the poison body skill' But wasn't the effectivity a bit too frightening? What did Bloody encounter on its journey to return like that?
The mushroom workers which were being melted suddenly ignited. They all burst into a mess of both spore and elements. That included water, wind, fire, light, it was a real mess.
Bloody's large body appeared to be mostly unfazed but the vibrations that ran across it seemed to suggest it was suffering from something.
'Bloody no!' W didn't realize the severity of the situation until literal chunks of Bloody's fat started to fall off its body.
'Hm? Wait…' The fallen parts splashed onto the mushroom field and covered the ground an acidic red. The mushrooms started to quickly die off with mycelium and all included.
'This… are slime creatures always this scary?' No matter how W looked at it nothing these mushrooms made could realistically compete with the current Bloody!
The cavern itself, perhaps opposing W's hidden thoughts, started to suddenly tremble quite fiercely. It felt like the very ceiling could fall at any moment. No, it was falling!
Stalactites started to fall down from the ceiling and onto the giant Bloody. They pierced directly into it splattering giant drops of poisonous gelatin. The final aftermath was chunks of Bloody falling off, and its interior being decorated by giant chunks of stone.
'How did that happen?' W was left confused. Did even the walls have grudges against him? Fortunately, Bloody hardly reacted to the attack.
It instead started walking closer and closer to W who suddenly noticed the problem with this.
'Bloody stay!' W transmitted causing the giant red blob to freeze. It was listening, at least until it wasn't. Bloody continued to slither word this time curiosity somehow present in its slithering.
'Stay away Bloody!' W screamed. The bloody creature started to melt the gray mushrooms on his side, it was as if it couldn't stop and wouldn't stop!
W was starting to grow anxious as it grew closer and closer to not just the death shroom slings on the outskirts, but also the defensive wall of barbed mushrooms and notably his Sentinel Shroom.
'Why?!? Do I need the command skill?' He obviously didn't have that. No choice, W had to make it evidently clear to Bloody that it shouldn't take another… well… it shouldn't take another.
'Bloody! I brought you into this world I can take you out!' This transmission used a legendary technique. If Bloody continued to move forward even after this... it was a problem child beyond help.
But Bloody did stop well intent on being a good boy apparently.
'That's enough Bloody' Ed had commanded with a slight look of incredulousness. He had just arrived to this sight and he was rightfully confused. What the clot happened to Bloody?!? It became bloody huge!
Apart from becoming a problem child and looking different, Bloody's status also had to be different. That meant that Ed could get some new skills from it. All he had to do was retrieve the consciousness inside it.
'That might be a bit difficult' W commented after the sixth sense skill was activated. Just like that time with the golem, the blood clot was now too large for their reach to reclaim the consciousness.
The consciousness of bloody was surprisingly housed in the eyeball Ed had placed for its sight. Ed could see that it would sometimes wander away from the center, especially when Bloody was trying to get a close look at something. But for the most part, it stayed in the center of the gelatinous mountain.
'I'll just have to area store chunks of it into my system space but…' If he did it like that some of Bloody's consciousness would be lost. The sixth sense highlighted an amalgamation of thought in the center but the entirety of Bloody was shining with the sixth sense, not just the eyeball.
'Hey, Ed, have bloody sever parts of itself!' W suggested after some careful consideration.
'That works?' Ed thought that might also cost it intelligence but if it was one of Bloody's skills the chances were at least reduced. Though if it really lost no intelligence Ed had to say the thing was extremely hard to kill.
It could grow fairly rapidly under a certain sort of condition and at least until the eyeball at the center was not reached, the blood clot wouldn't truly suffer damage. To top it off, the more fat Bloody lost the faster it was. So in theory, Bloody could just flee if it got that far.
'I need to create more blood clots' Unfortunately, Blurak's blood had been all but lost. The blood mushrooms were quite vigorous as his sentry shrooms were telling him but they weren't bloody enough to coagulate.
'Extracting blood from them might require some juicing' Speaking of extraction, Ed needed to get back some of Bloody's memories to learn the way out. If he did that he could plan out whether the magic mushrooms near him had to be exterminated.
Ed could see the mushrooms were still doing some post-Bloody damage control but that didn't mean they wouldn't be retaliating. As for what shape this damage control took, it was reforming their borderlines.
Some seemed like they were retreating by cutting off nutrient supply and creating a new border. Some other magic mushrooms tried to hold their ground. There was one common point though.
The area around Bloody became akin to a black canvas with not a hint of color. It was a neutral zone that none of the mushrooms dared to try and claim. That included Ed, though to be fair it wasn't that he didn't wish to.
'Bloody, make yourself smaller near the mushrooms holding their ground' Ed wanted to kill two birds with one stone. With the command skill issuing the order, the anti-blood clot could not really refuse.
It could, but the command was simple enough.
Soon, toxic rain fell onto the field of the fire magic mushroom. Its stubborn decision to hold down its fort costing it more precious land. The water magic mushroom had not been any smarter though.
Bloody was having a great time slithering around dropping toxic bombs on the fields of mycelium. By the point Bloody was back to its original size, the neutral zone nearly doubled in size.
Now that it was small, it used its charge skill combined with the passive slither to quickly approach Ed's field of gray.
'Use metal body' Poison body was passive so it couldn't exactly be turned on and off. Using metal body to enter Ed's turf was the only alternate solution.
'On second thought, making more Bloody's might not be too smart' The risks of having a giant blood clot explode his own area was not small.
Bloody's gelatinous body hardened and a metallic sheen took over its red deep dark red hue. Its clump-like appearance even seemed a bit more regal thanks to the shiny look.
As soon as Bloody was about to trespass the barbed shroom border, it disappeared into Ed's storeroom. The proximity to W made it so he didn't need to have it come close to his main body
Back in the system space, Ed rushed over to the storeroom and grabbed the consciousness of bloody. Before it was a spherical wisp of light, now it had taken on a more gooey appearance. It was like melted cheese but unbelievably brilliant.
Though in the eyes of Ed all melted cheese seemed to sparkle.
'Melted cheese' What an odd thing to remember. But how could someone forget it?
Having met his silly thought quota, Ed headed for the branding room where the extraction machine was waiting for him.
[Start Memory extraction? Y/N]
That was the first pop-up. After just a bit of deliberation, Ed decided to say yes. The needle protruded into the surface of the blob of light and in no time at all new ink was made.
[<(Bloody) Eating a Centicrawler> Memory Ink]
Ed assessed the ink as was natural and was left with a minute frown.
'Compiling the correct memories might be difficult this way…' If he had to brand every individual memory from one consciousness to another he'd be screwed 100%.
Ed, therefore, took another look at the available upgrades.
[Storage Shelves - Shelves to organize storeroom objects]
[Remote Materialization II - Able to materialize larger stored objects]
[Living Room- A space in your mind where time flows as normal]
[Unable to show further upgrades]
'Where time flows as normal?!' Ed had to temporarily throw Bloody into the back of his mind after noticing such an upgrade. That was simply too good to be true!
'How much?' Ed didn't need to know these details just yet. However, he needed to know the price!
[Acquiring 'Living Room' costs 24 orc consciousness. Offer? Y/N]
Shortly after the notification popped up, Ed got back to extracting skills from Bloody.
'I wonder what skills it has…' Did charge advance? How about slither? Something was new and that was enough to get Ed excited!