Milo was dying. He lay on the ground, his naked body trembling, cold sweat pouring off of him. His stomach knotted and tried to eat his liver. Harry kicked him in the stomach, forcing that rebellious organ to throw up a stinking broth of half-digested mushroom.

"That's about enough for today, you stink and need a bath, and you're a minute away from dying. Drink this" He forced a milky white potion down Milo's throat, then picked him up and packed him like a sack of fertilizer off to a large tub of water. Milo found himself dunked into the cold water. As he came up sputtering a bar of soap hit him in the face. "Wash, and I'll get dinner ready."

You have gained 50 EP in Poison resistance. Poison Resistance is now at Level 2!

You will take 15 less health damage per round from each tier 1 poison in your system. Half effectiveness against higher tier poisons.

You have gained 50 EP in CON. CON is now at Level 2.

Please add Amanita bisporigera, commonly known as the Destroying Angel to your list of things you don't want to eat.

Milo had a growing list of mushrooms that he should never eat, and yet was consuming anyway. But what were a few hours of agony each day in exchange for raising his Poison Resistance? After much thought, Milo had put all 5 CSP into gaining the new ability as a primary ability. If he was going to go through the agony of training the skill, he wanted it over in the least amount of time. It had taken nearly a week to get his resistance to level 2. As a tertiary skill it would have taken 9 weeks!

Milo had the long-term plan of hunting copperheads. To do that he needed resistance to their poison, and to raise the skill he needed to eat something poisonous and deal with the effects. Luckily Harry had a large supply of poisonous mushrooms of all types. He had been quite happy to feed them to Milo each day and take notes on the effects.

The first part of the plan had several parts:

1. Poison self with mushrooms, raise resistance.

2. Gather tons of mushrooms for Harry from the caves and fight the low-level guardians for a bit of EP.

3. Process the mushrooms for Harry, and learn mycology, and how to brew some potions to cure poison.

4. Eat lots of cheese!

Part 4 turned out to be essential to the plan. Not only because it made Milo happy, but because it greatly increased his rate of healing. He was nearly killing himself each day, and needed a lot of healing.

The trips to the caves for mushroom hunting went well. He was gaining a lot of foraging EP, and a little combat EP from the Myconian Guardians. He hadn't encountered anything like Cronk, and had only seen one buried guardian that seemed a bit bigger than normal. He was saving that one until the end of his grinding.

The difference in Primary vs Tertiary skills was made clear when he saw just how much work he had to put into mycology to raise the skill. He spent hours each day with Harry learning about mushrooms. He studied them in books, learned the basics of growing them, chopped them up, ground them to dust, dried them out, mixed them into infusions...and then started over and did it again. At the end of the week, he'd earned a disappointing 50 EP in the skill. But that had been enough to get him to rank 1.

That was enough to get him the first of the potions he needed.

Mycology at level 0 had let him learn the recipes for mushroom powders and decoctions. These were the basic ingredients needed for many potions made by mycologists and alchemists. Level one in mycology gave him recipes for resistance potions for poison and disease.

Each of those minor potions were needed. Minor Infusion of Poison Resistance would reduce poison damage by 10 for 1 hour. And Minor Infusion of Disease Resistance would give him a boost to resist the effects of mushroom and mold spoors along with infections.

Harry had explained just how important the second one was if he was going anywhere near the gigantic myconid that was infested with the Yellow Trumpet Creeper. He said it's fancy name in troll was Campsis Radicans Malignant. The dwarfs called it Yellow Death, and the elven name translated to 'Thing of beautiful nature which steals the soul and mortifies the remaining shell.'

One puff of the pollen at close range to a blossom could be enough to put a man into the blooms thrall. The poor victim stood for days under its influence while the plant sent tendrils into their head and ate their brain, leaving the body behind as a zombie under the plants control. As the body died, the plant replaced muscle and sinew with roots and bark. The plant obviously worried Harry, and he was working on far stronger versions of the infusions Milo was learning to make.

Dinner that night was stuffed mushroom caps with cheese sauce. Now that Harry was cured of his ailment, he was relearning skills he'd let slide over the last few decades. His meals before Milo had been clay sandwiches and handfuls of candied earthworms. Tonight, he had stuffed the mushroom caps with a combination of chopped herbs and bacon, baked the meal, and then covered them in cheese sauce. After the dinner, Milo consumed a pound of cheddar for dessert. The more he healed, the hungrier for cheese he got, and the more he needed to eat. As he lay back contentedly with a full belly, he was notified of a small change.

Through diligent snacking and binging you have saturated your body with healthy cheese! It's not easy keeping to such a proper diet, and you have earned the reward: Healthy Cheese Addiction.

Every day that you eat at least one pound of cheese you will enjoy the benefits of +100 Health, +2 STR, and +2 AGI.

Any time you have gone 24 hours without cheese, you will suffer -1 DEX, -1AG, -3 WIS. Don't let this happen! Be smart and eat your cheese!

Milo felt better immediately. This was a fitting reward for a smart rat like himself. And perfectly timed. He was about to start Phase 2 of his cunning plan.