Chapter 47

Adrian woke up barely holding off a scream.

He lay eyes open, looking at the wooden slats of the bunk above him, with the residual of the dream spinning in his head. He had been convinced to supply an army with Yukon paste in order to defeat the rebel forces. Then a third force had stolen it and used it against all of Melbourne, killing millions and leaving it as a desolate wasteland.

Adrian forced his breathing to normalise.

What would he think if Jaracol had made that request to keep the fungus?

He would have trusted the interface.

His breathing calmed down.

Kiyoko had put those conditions in place for a reason and he would use his judgement before using it. No matter how dire the situation was Adrian vowed to never deploy it against humans, even if someone like Adhava had taken over Melbourne.

Jaracol would not have asked him to keep the poison for something like that. If he needed to use such a deadly weapon, the cause would be crystal clear. Kiyoko was the same. She wasn’t evil. If she thought he needed to take the fungus to Melbourne, then there was a damn good reason for it, and he had no doubt that he would find out at some point.

With a low chuckle in order not to wake anyone, he swung out of bed.

His interface flashed and then his map updated to show where the fungus valley was.

When he slipped outside, there were the sounds of fighting in the distance, but he trusted the rest of his team to take care of the imps.

He jogged through the streets invisible to friend and enemy alike and none of the imps got close enough for him to detour to finish them. That would come later.

In short order, he jumped over the impressive town wall that did nothing against the flying creatures, which were now harassing them. A short time later, he was fully out of town. His senses were jumping up and down as he approached his destination. Immense potential was ahead of him, but he did not get excited because he knew what the source of the impression was. While the fungus was a master-level treasure, it was dedicated to killing. When he imagined natural treasures, it was something like the zuaqliaq berries he wanted to find. A plant or fungus that he could use to improve his or his family’s body or mind.

Nevertheless, his extended senses drew him straight to a nearly invisible gully. He slipped inside and instantly everything became damp and smelly. The tiny space was almost custom built from Yukon fungus and other similar growths. There were conspicuously empty patches. Those areas had been harvested previously. Presumably to deal with the other problem that Kiyoko had mentioned. The town had clearly been forced to capitalise on the valley’s resources to fight something. That was the only explanation of why everything had been harvested apart from the Yukon fungus, which they had been unable to get near.

Adrian curiously went to one of the harvested spaces and knelt down to work out what had happened.

Ouladada Sprouts

Highly poisonous and often used by direct application onto weapons.

That was surprising, and every single sprout had been harvested and by experts because there was no evidence of failed attempts. Anyone good enough to harvest without failure would have known that if you left thirty percent of the plant mass behind it would regenerate.

What would get them to destroy a renewable resource like that?

“What the hell happened in this town?” he asked into the empty valley.

He had been curious when Kiyoko had originally mentioned it but seeing this place his curiosity had increased. They had needed poison to kill something and Kiyoko had guided them, but what was that something? Not the imps for sure. Some sort of classed monster? Adrian dismissed the thoughts from his head. They were not useful and he would ask Kiyoko later. Instead, he focused on extracting every scrap of the Yukon fungus and burning the roots away after.

It wasn’t challenging. His air magic kept the poison that surrounded the fungus from his face. Even with his high tempering, breathing in the poison might still have been fatal. He felt the pathway stir with interest, encouraging him to sample a small amount of the poison. Adrian did the mathematics and decided that it wasn’t worth it when he had the materials in his bag of holding to progress the pathway to the finish. The margins with the fungus were a little too fine for him to take risks. An extra couple of milligrams and he would die and Jaracol could not save him a second time. He forced the compulsion down till it yielded and then kept pushing till the desire had been completely crushed.

His spear flared in encouragement. It, too, would protect him. While the airborne pollutants could be swept away by his air magic, there was nothing he could do against its more immediate defence.

His gauntlets disappeared as there was no point getting them damaged for no purpose. He tested his telekinesis, but the fungus resisted him easily just as he had known it would.

Hands or nothing. Keeping his body as distant as he could, he leant forward and dug his fingers under the first fungus, twisted and pulled it free. Unblockable spatial magic tore long cuts into his hands and the poison soaked in through the broken skin, quickly going to work against his nervous system. Blood drenched the ground, but he worked quickly, stepping away from the fungus and straight over to his prepared alchemic set.

A single fungus was enough to produce an antidote. He could take shortcuts. Herbs blurred from his bag of holding and his temperature domain went to work, keeping the three solutions functioning as needed. He boiled liquid, captured the steam, turned it back to liquid, filtered it via some choking bluebell roots, and then sucked the finished solution straight into his mouth.

The antidote hit his tongue, and taste returned. A moment later, he regained feelings in his hand. The cuts that not even his regeneration had been able to affect because of the poison immediately started healing. His harvesting was going to rely on his regained regeneration from the title.

Pathway of Poison Resistance - 77% (+1%)

Protected against the fungus’s defences, he moved quickly from fungus to fungus. Pausing when the toxins built up, to drink and eat to give his body the substance to replace the blood loss. Gathering Yukon fungus was incredibly annoying no matter how carefully you were, you were going to get hurt.

His mana ran low, and he started consuming health potions every second harvest.

Finally, it was done.

He remembered Kiyoko insisting he harvested it all, aware of what the deadly fungus could do in the wrong hands. Out of an abundance of caution, he went through the valley once more, applying his domain to search everywhere. There were no master-level herbs present in the tiny valley and his visual check confirmed he had burnt all the spots the fungus had previously grown.

Satisfied, he checked the time and discovered he had five minutes to get to town.

Wind gust, wind gust.

He soared into the air, propelled to over a hundred kilometres per hour and fifty metres high. There were no flying monsters to concern himself with. Two more gusts doubled his speed. The spear cut the wind and let him fly without air resistance. Two kilometres passed in less than a minute and he used twenty mana to bring himself to a halt and land gently two metres from the door to the old supermarket.

Seven minutes later, Charlotte and Jules emerged.

“Let’s kill,” he said.

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