《A Fungal Dream》Chapter 37. One thing after the other.
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Patrick POV:
“What is happening?”
The space around me was slightly purple with the monster floating in it.
As my body moved, it felt as if I was encased in gelatin, but I had no trouble breathing.
While I tried to figure out what was happening, the shivering feeling returned, followed by the purple dome, slowly dispersing before my eyes and the monster slowly falling at me.
Panicked, I slashed its torso, which somehow cut the thing in half, its black blood spilling out in slow motion.
Not wanting to be covered in gore, I backed away from the edge of the barrier, and once my foot passed its edge it vanished into thin air, finally letting the monster fall to the ground.
The creature shrieked as from the two halves of its bodies grew several wine-like tentacles, flying in the air madly.
“H-How is that thing even alive?!”
As if answering my question, the monster turned towards me and started dragging itself towards me with its blades.
“Shit, shit, shit!”
For some reason, I wasn’t able to move quite as well.
Panicked, I fell on my behind, I tried to get away from that thing as fast as I could.
“Augh!”
Stab!
From the sky, someone fell down, stabbing two white spear-like things into the back of the monster.
“The fuck is you two doing?!”
It was a tall, wolf-headed man, with white-gray fur and wearing brown leather armor.
“Who are you?”
“Me? Who the fuck are you? And what the hell is this thing?”
The monster under its feet kept on screaming before something happened.
From the points from which the spears entered its body, a white foam-looking thing started to spread out. The monster kept on screaming and screaming, trying to run away but the spears kept it in place.
It only stopped when the white stuff completely covered its body and slowly dissolved before my eyes.
[Combat Finished]
[450 EXP Received]
[Level 9 reached]
[Congratulations]
[You witnessed the first murder of a kayeri]
[You are one of the first who learned the weakness of the kayeri.]
[Alert.]
[The Father of kayeri has noticed you and it's angry.]
When the letters in my head disappeared, the ground underneath our feet started to shake, as something started to dig itself underneath from the ground.
“We need to go!”
“What about Miranda?”
“What? Where is she?”
“Over there!”
I pointed to where she was bleeding out, but several green tentacles shoot out from the ground around her.
“Shit, Mira!”
The wolf-man ran towards his sister, but he was stopped by several arrows piercing the ground before his feet.
“You are wanted by our boss. I recommend not moving too much.”
Standing on one of the seats of the colosseum, another black knight was aiming an arrow at him.
Boom!
Around the wolf and me, more tentacles shouted out, grabbed us, and started to pull us down.
“No! No! No! No! No!”
I tried to get rid of them but they became tighter and tighter.
“I won’t be killed by stupid plants!”
With a shout mixed with pure energy, the wolf broke through the tentacles and flew up in the air, its hands glowing in bright blue light-
“I will destroy all of this shit!”
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“As if I let you do that! Archery Skill: Hail of Arrow!”
Accompanied with a greenish hue, a volley of arrows flew towards him, but they bounced back harmlessly, as a bluish barrier showed up around his body.
“Ultimate Wolf Destruction Magic Technique: Ataque del asesino-“
As the magic started to condense in his hands, something happened, because I saw it suddenly disappearing without any trace of it.
“WHAT?!”
Woosh!
Before he could react, an arrow pierced his throat, making him fall into the torrent of tentacles.
Once they got a hold of him, more of these things grabbed me and started to pull me down, making me sink into darkness.
*****
“…Seriously? Seriously?”
I was just taking a nap from my encounter with those steam fuckers and now this happened.
Out of nowhere, I was awoken by the notification of the system, telling me… well this.
[Alert.]
[Kayeri wields was killed.]
[Weakness of kayeri been found]
[Weakness: Bone object piercing the kidneys at the same time.]
The fuck type of weakness is this? We aren’t vampires!
“No, no, calm down. This happened, you cannot change this now. You need to think and act carefully. After what I just did, I am on thin ice. One wrong step and the war will start sooner than I want.”
While I was muttering to myself, the chair took me to the holding cells, where our newest prisoners were held.
“Well, you are in quite a pickle. “
Behind the bars, were the cockroaches who came from the past, the insect girl, and the wolf idiot. The former two are in intensive care and I forgot all of their names.
“What am I going to do to you? You made the world aware of my soldier’s weakness and killed one of them. That really pisses me off.”
The cockroach tried to say something, but I shut him off by raising a finger.
“This is what’s going to happen. I can not kill the two idiots, because their dear mother dearest forbids me. Their punishment will be different. As for you, my friend from the same world, I will allow you to make a choice. Leave and never return to this city ever again, join my new army, or stay in this dark hole forever.”
Before the cockroach could answer, from one of the tunnels, a group of black knights came to me.
“What? I am busy?”
“Boss, we received a report. Some of the dwarfs at the forge have rebelled and are now attacking the kayeri guarding them.”
“Fuck, right now? Alright, I am going. Take the royalties to my lab and prepare my surgical equipment. I will need it when I am done with those little fuckers.”
The knight nodded and looked at the prisoners.
“Can we…roughen them up?”
“…Do as you like. I only want them alive, with all of their pieces attached.”
I left them to their own devices and stopped before the door leading to the workshop.
I pushed myself off my chair and vomited out my usual black smoke, from which my armor appeared.
I could store it easily since it was technically alive. Once on, I sighed and entered the room.
“Kill them!”
“Protect the wounded! Inject them with the antidote!”
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“Kill those mother fuckers!”
It was chaos.
The dwarfs somehow made a barricade of the worktables I provided to them and we're using the fire pokers to defend themselves from the unarmored kayeri guards I posted to keep an eye on them.
“Oh, for fuck sake.”
I pressed the left side of my armor which slowly opened up, allowing me to access the inner pocket of my lab coat.
“One after the fucking other, why thigs can be simple for…Got it. Now, where was that thing ....”
I flipped through the pages of my book and slammed my hand on the part I was looking for.
“Here I go… At the beginning of time, there were two powers. Then from these powers, the elements were born, raging fire, shifting wind, calming water, and solid rock. The creators looked at each other and saw that their creation was flawed and wished to hide its mistakes, as I pray to my lord to hide my sins as well. Twilight Whale!”
As it happened with the prince, a colorful cloud of dust started to flow out of my hand, now covering the entirety of the room.
As the dust settled down, the eyes of everyone in the room became covered by the stuff, before falling to the floor unconscious.
Slowly I walked to the barricade and tore it off with a single hand.
Behind it were the unconscious bodies of the dwarfs, and in the furthest corner, I saw a strange device.
An egg-shaped sculpture, made from gold and silver, with different stones peeking out from it.
What the hell is this thing? Steam Engineering.”
Using my skill, I tried to analyze the construct, but I didn’t get anything.
“Figures. This is something that was made with magic. What I need… is the maker.”
I lifted one of the dwarfs up by its arm, and with the other one, I read the text from my book.
“By god's forgiveness, open your eyes, my child. See the world built by him and spread his glory. Holy Clarity.”
A stream of white light descended onto the dwarfs from who knows where dispersing the stuff on its face.
“Hey, wake up.”
I shake him a little, making him open his eyes.
“Wha-What? Where am I? What happened?”
“I tell you what happened, you fuckers screwed up. What was the plan anyway? You hold off my guards till you activate your… What the hell is a thing even is? Art?”
I kicked the egg, making it spark, while the dwarf screamed.
“ Careful! You are going to kill us all!”
“Kill us? Did you short fuckers build a bomb or something?”
Now angry, I changed my grip, now holding the dwarf by its throat, and pressed its face to the egg.
“Tell me. Or I will use your skull to bash it in!”
“IT’S A TELEPORTATION DEVICE!”
Its screams were so loud, that it almost woke up his colleagues.
“What did you say?”
“It’s a teleportation device. We made it from the exam materials we had. It's linked to the palace. Our plan was to be teleported to safety.”
“…How does it work?”
“I have no idea! Stoney made the magic in it! I and the pals were charged with the prosthetics you ordered us to make.”
“Stoneye. Which one is that?”
I tightened my grip on its throat, forcing him to point to one of the unconscious dwarfs.
The old one was nothing more than a fossil, its body was so frail, I was afraid that a small wind would kill him.
Such fabulous knowledge, contained in such a weak body. What a shame.
“Okay, now the question that will determine what state of being you will leave the room. Is. the. prosthetic. finished?”
The dwarf nodded as fast as it could.
“Show me.”
I threw the dwarf on the floor.
The creature gasped for air as it held his throat and with a wheezing noise, it took me to a corner of the room.
There, on an intact table, was something covered in a sheet of red fabric.
I grabbed the sheet and pulled it off, revealing the beautiful machine underneath it.
“Marvelous work.”
I placed my hand on the machine and used my engineering skill to check its insides.
“Hmmm, I can tell that you guys wanted to trap me. Rerouting the man pathways, transforming it into an actual bomb when a certain frequency hit it. Nice try, but even I can modify such error.”
Modifying the pump system to extract the liquid mana from it taught me some things about this type of thing.
“No matter, except for this last-minute frenzy you guys have been quite tame. As promised, I will release you.”
I turned to the dwarf.
“That said, you all deserve a punishment.”
*****
Sitting on two of the seats of the colosseum, the two black-cloaked figures were staring down into the arena, which was perfectly repaired, leaving no trace of the fight which just happened.
“Well, that was something. Putrefaction has amassed quite a force.”
“This isn’t right. In records, Putrefaction usually kills everything around itself. Why is it using subordinates now?”
“You know how it is. He probably hasn't been through the process yet, so his personality is still intact. Things will change when he turns.”
“Hmmm.”
“What?”
“…Was using the coin necessary?”
“Come on! He was about to vaporize them! It wouldn’t be fun!”
“…Whatever. Just be sure to have enough coins. I have the feeling that taking him with us will be quite hard.”
“Hehe, you said it, pal. You said it.”
*
*
*
[
Name: Phil Smith 'Plague Father'
Race: [Molded High Elf] Lv: 22/100 (52/100)
Main Class: [Life Father]
Sub Class: [Rouge]
HP(Health Points): 284/284
SP(Stamina Points): 70
MP(Magic Points): 204/204
TMN (Tamed Monster Numbers): [0]
Blessings: [Blessing of Nergal] [Blessing of Airmed]
Active Skills: [Basic Steady Hand] [[Hive control] [Hive Absorption] [Hive Repulsion] [Mold Field] [Basic Spirit Voice] [Aether Vision] [Steam Engineering] [Dagger Arts][Presence Concealment] [Lock Picking]
Passive Skills: [Body Knowledge] [ Plant Knowledge] [Medicine Knowledge] [Stamina Enhancement] [ Movement Enhancement] [ Reflex Enhancement.] [Basic Sponge Mind] [Perfect Stomach] [Hive Mind] [Music Instrument Knowledge[Healing Hands][Medical Senses] [Medical Mind] [Surgical Precision]
Affinities: [Basic Farming Affinity] [Basic War Affinity] [Basic Pestilence Affinity][ Basic Fire Affinity.] [Basic Life Affinity] [Basic Death Affinity]
Titles: [The One Who Saw a Thousand Worlds] [Knowledge Driven] [Chosen by Flies] [Medicine Pioneer] [Hive Master] [Giver of Life]
]
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