Chapter 23, Pathfinder

It is a wonderful day and two nights spent in ecstasy together with Ari and in the end I think I nearly manage to break her. She moans and spasms at the slightest touch and I delight in her delicious pleasure. We decide to keep going with eating each other out for most of our time spent together as it is such a wonderful thing to feel your partner tasting, exploring and enjoying you while you do the same to them.

In the end she begs me for more, to go deeper, go harder to not let up. When it’s time to leave our rented room she even verbalizes her need for more and that puts a smile on my face. I simply kiss her deeply and enjoy our combined juices in her mouth before drawing back from her.

She needily whimpers as I draw back, clearly not feeling done with me and tries her luck by placing her fingers into my slit and massaging me.

“Ari, we need to get moving. If we continue I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to leave you. I’m serious, Ari.”

I really am serious. I’ve been feeling it growing each time my finished smoking session draws us together. It’s a wonderful feeling of love and it’s intoxicating but it is almost too much as of now.

The need to be with Ari, the need to feel her against my skin and the need for us to share in pleasure has steadily grown. I know that I can’t let it go on for any longer or we might just never leave our little paradise.

If we ever settle down in the future we might be able to spend years like this without break, indulging in all that both of us offer the other, but not now. I have a deadline to reach the Rhodolite Peaks before the expeditions make it there and steal all my experience and adventure.

“But, Zel! Just a little more. Please, I can’t be without you. I love you so much it almost hurts.”

“Just think about that for a little, darling. I told you I’d make you beg me and I told you I’d make you need me and I think I delivered on my promise. But are we really going to waste away in this shabby inn forever? We can fuck each other for all eternity when we’ve explored all that the world has to offer but we’ve barely even started.”

Ari finally seems to come out of some of her lust filled fugue and her eyes clear a little as she gazes down at where her fingers still massage my sex. Lifting them up to her mouth she sucks them clean while moaning before acknowledging my point, looking a little crestfallen that it’s over.

“Alright, Zel. You’re absolutely right and yes you definitely delivered. I love you so much and my desire for you won’t stop growing. Let’s take the opportunity to explore the world before I never let you go again.”

I give her a quick kiss to taste us one last time while gazing into those bewitching silver orbs of hers, letting my mental defenses I’ve held back with sheer willpower and carnal desire spring back up, isolating us once more.

As I come back to the material I groggily stretch about in the bed before getting up and looking down on myself. Slick pleasure is dripping onto the floor from my thigh gap but it has almost finished dispersing into ambient mana by this point. I let Ari scrub us down anyway since spending this long locked up in a room can’t have done any good for our appearance.

After having finished cleaning, clothing and styling ourselves I check the room and am satisfied that there isn’t any damage or uncleanliness from what’s been going on in here. The only addition to the room is a mound of ash on a table but I’m sure the innkeeper won’t mind.

I couldn’t care less about the crumpled sheets that plainly tell of what’s been going on in here but it would be a shame to leave the innkeeper with a room that looks trashed. Closing and locking the door I take in a long fresh breath, realizing that the air in there must be really bad and still smelling of different kinds of pipeweed.

It’s nothing to worry about though as smokers often have their rooms aired after they’ve been in one. I skip down the steps in a very cheerful mood and Ari sends a similar feeling my way. There’s practically no sexual frustration clawing at our thoughts after our long session of constant release and I’ll look forward to it building up again during this trip towards the mountain range.

“Feeling better already, Ari?”

“Yeah. I’m finally feeling perfectly satisfied and satiated even if my love for you hasn't diminished in the slightest.”

She sends a powerful wave of love my way with obscure feelings beneath the surface I can’t parse, still making themselves known for a split second before disappearing. The message is clear though and I reciprocate the wave. Our emotional bond has grown stronger by leaps and bounds.

“I’m also satiated. Let’s see how long it takes for us to reach the breaking point again. Maybe we’ll make it to the Riverflow kingdom and rent another room there. That would be nice, I think.”

“Yes! Let’s aim for that. Is there anything else we need to purchase before setting off?”

I hand the key to the innkeeper showcasing a barely concealed grin and a knowing glint in his eyes as he graciously accepts it, wishing me a good day and hoping for my return. I can’t have been that loud when pleasuring myself during the smoking sessions, right? Well, whatever. No one complained at least.

“Not really. Spending a few coppers on some fruits or baked goods to bring with us might be nice though. We can’t fill all of our storage since we need some space for monster cores but it might be nice to have something else to eat than just meat.”

“Sounds good. There’s a fruit stall 2 blocks up if I remember correctly.”

There is indeed a fruit stall being set up and its goods stacked for the day where Ari remembered there to be one. A woman ancient enough to be my grandmother is placing a few apples in an orderly and deft manner onto the available space. There are apples, pink berries in clusters, peaches and strawberries. I’ll have to identify most of them as they’re all mostly new to me.

[Jordnot Apple]

[Fen Berry Cluster]

[Peach]

[Strawberry]

“Hello, dear. Looking to buy? I’ll be there in just a minute.”

“Yes, thank you, ma’am.“

Ari and I debate internally on what to get and we settle on a few of everything. As much as we can fit really. The older woman takes our order and I pay 84 coppers for everything as I stuff it all into storage before rushing out of the city, shouting a goodbye to Pontus at the gate.

It’s finally time to get going again and I put on as much speed as my enhanced body can take as I run straight southwest. The rising sun in my eyes and the whistling wind in my ears is the music of freedom and I whoop in joy as I crest the hills surrounding White Rock, hiding it from view.

I keep running all day and only stop for a quick snack of an apple at midday and to watch the sunset and try out a peach. The peaches are absolutely delicious and I regret not buying more of them. Apples taste good but peaches are definitely superior and Ari vehemently agrees with me on this.

I continue to run southwest through the twilight hours but stop when the stars show themselves. Finding a nice spot in the grass on a hill to sit and start my campfire I summon a few jars of pipeweed before manifesting my pipe, the hypnotic golden decorations in the ivory gleaming in the celestial firelight.

“Which one should we try next, Ari?”

“Try the one with yellow and black squares. It looks funky as hell and it might be fun.”

I do as Ari says and send back everything into storage except a glass jar filled to the brim with the strange looking pipeweed. During our long fucking and smoking session I tried a lot of different grasses we picked up but none were more fitting than the first one for that occasion. We wanted to save it though and only use it as a starter to get our desire up to max before fucking.

The different strains smelled of baked goods, lavender, pine sap, flowers and more. There are still a few bags and jars we didn’t open and this yellow and black one is one of them. I honestly have no idea what to expect from something looking like this.

Opening the lid and taking a whiff I’m greeted by the aroma of honey and vanilla. A strange but pleasant smell and I happily pack a full bowl before returning it to storage.

Lighting it and puffing gently while gazing at the stars I enjoyed the evening and night in peace. There’s no real need to smoke sparingly and I keep at it every other hour or so, giving us some time between to just take in the world in all its glory without altering our senses.

Cutting the power supply I let our campfire die out at the arrival of dawn, the stars shying away out of view until their time for reemergence. Standing up and stretching I check my daggers, clothes and hair before taking off once more and it isn’t long before the Rhodolite Peaks come into view on the uneven horizon the rolling hills provide me with.

The dawn ends with the sun rising behind the lofty, pink, mountain peaks glittering and casting their translucent radiance like a dispersive prism of pink tinted rainbows. Moss covered valleys with sparse trees and gray rocky outcroppings bask in the light filtering down between them. It’s beautiful and I increase my speed further to reach it as quickly as possible.

I reach the bottom of the outer mountain range in the afternoon, continuing moving upwards at a slightly decreased speed. I have to dodge boulders and trees near the bottom of the mountain but as I move upwards the more difficult the terrain is becoming. The weather is also changing fast with the now darkening environment not looking as inviting as before.

Clouds have started gathering and they grow darker by the hour. A few pink rhodolite mountain peaks far away pierce the clouds and I hope I won’t have to go up there in this worsening weather in order to find anything interesting. There isn’t much to see yet on this ever increasing slope except harsher terrain and fewer patches of vegetation the higher I go.

An hour into my climb it starts to lightly drizzle down on my head and I shrug it off as it’s merely unpleasant to get soaked in this slow fashion. There’s a few boulders and rocks with patches of murky rhodolite here and there but nothing in quantities worth extracting. Especially not with the almost black clouds hanging in the sky as if strained by their own weight, urging me to get a move on.

After another hour with the rain continuously picking up from a drizzle to a pour I find something interesting. It’s a skeleton of what must have been a warg but it’s all twisted and burned away as if coated in acid. There’s also no skull anywhere in sight and if I had to guess, whatever did this ran away with it to keep it as a snack for later.

A sudden bright purple flash lights up the sky from the origin of a mountain peak 60 kilometers away and I can just see it through the pouring rain. There’s something wrong with the peak but I can’t tell what from this distance. The bright flash of purple light brought the pink rhodolite on the peak into stark relief and drew my eye but the subsequent pulsating flashes in ever lowering intensity give me enough time to see a small pink splinter break off the peak.

I’m in shock as that splinter to my eyes must be enormous close up and weigh thousands of tonnes. I never get to see its destruction as it falls down the mountainside, the glow disappearing with a final pulse and casting the distant terrain into obscurity thanks to the foul weather. It was definitely not something natural though as the rhodolite seemed to suffer from enduring whatever that was. I’m almost sure it’s my target as something that might crack a mountain may very well scare off the local wildlife of a region.

Only a few seconds after having analyzed the situation a low rumble goes through the mountain beneath me. It’s not enough to see it shaking but it can be felt nonetheless.

“Holy shit, Zel. We just felt that huge mountain splinter fall from all the way over here. What the fuck could have done that?”

“What the fuck it is, I don’t know. However, I do know the fucker is our target. It has to be what’s causing all the wildlife over here to panic, right?”

Ari sends me a mental stare that plainly tells me how unlikely she thinks our chances are against something that can crack a mountaintop made of rosy crystal.

“You know what I mean, stop trying to make me feel like a suicidal fool could you?”

A mental slap on the ass sends Ari squealing into a response.

“Yes, yes! I know we won’t rush the mountain cracker! But what do you expect to find there except our death?”

It’s my turn to stare at her, just to make it clear how annoying it is, before answering.

“Minions of course! Something that powerful usually has minions.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“Then we just hang back and watch the expeditions coming here flailing against it. It should be a good show at least.”

Ari considers the proposed plan for a few seconds before pointing out another problem.

“I see. We’re going to kill its minions to level up and explore the area for anything interesting while the mountain cracker is busy with whatever it’s doing. That might work as long as we’re not spotted and deemed interesting in return. Our core may be quite strong but I don’t fancy comparing its structural integrity to a mountain peak of crystal.”

“Let’s just get closer and see what we’re dealing with.”

I continue running up the mountain side but don’t go straight up any longer. I’ve instead chosen to run at an diagonal upwards right angle towards where the purple flashes had come from. I’m now fully entering the mountain range as I make it towards the other side of where I’d started and immediately spot something new of interest.

It’s more bones. Several different skeletons in fact and none of them have skulls. A giant snake, a boar and a bear are all placed at different elevations a few dozen meters below me. The skeletons are burnt and twisted here as well. Are these weird remains also connected to why most of the wildlife has fled? Something or someone might be killing them in a gruesome manner.

“Any ideas, Ari?”

“None.”

I delve down into the valley, still moving southwest to get further into the mountain range as I skip between boulders and jump over chasms. One such jump has me landing on a piece of moss slick from the rain and I almost fall down. Except for a short moment of heartstopping panic, I can’t be bothered to fret overly much about my near slip up as I’ll probably survive the 20 meter fall down the chasm. I think?

The forest can barely be called as such but the spruce and pine trees look healthy enough. There’s moss growing all over the ground on dirt carried here from mountain runoff and even a few bright blue flowers can be seen dancing between the trees as the raindrops hit their petals.

A sound between a tortured animal and a gurgling wail makes its way towards me, breaking my immersion of studying a giant anthill located on the southern side of a pine. It’s really quite the large anthill though and no one can fault me for getting distracted. I’m about to go and check what’s making the horrible noise but Ari speaks up before I even manage to take a single step.

“We need to get under cover from the rain. Something’s wrong. Very wrong.”

Taking the overly serious tone of Ari as a really bad sign I scan my surroundings for somewhere out of the rain, settling for a tall spruce tree for now. Diving in between the green, prickly branches I make my way towards the trunk while snapping the small twigs in my way before hugging the trunk closely and bringing as much of its protection over me as possible.

“Ari, what is it? Have you figured something out?”

Ding! Resistance [Curse Magic Resistance] has increased from [3] to [4].

“Shit! Is it a curse? But from where?”

“Yes, Zel. The whole fucking raincloud over this mountain range is filled with a curse. It rained down on us and it only started to take effect at the same time that tortured cry came from the creature hidden between the trees.”

Ding! Resistance [Curse Magic Resistance] has increased from [4] to [5].

“What do we do? Can you prevent it from spreading?”

“Yes, the curse is only skin deep for now and I can keep pushing it out but if you haven’t noticed, it’s affecting our mana reserves. I’m actually draining more to keep it from spreading than our mana regeneration can support.”

“Alright, think, what do we do, what do I do? I need to find somewhere we can hide from the rain and subsequently the curse. Then we can shed a layer of ourselves before regenerating it. It will be expensive but we’ll be clean then. What do you think?”

“Alright, Zel. But hurry with your searching as I don’t think staying in the rain will improve our condition and it might even get worse.”

Ding! Resistance [Curse Magic Resistance] has increased from [5] to [6].

I take off running towards where the noise came from as I have to see the effect of the curse for myself. I pass a few trees while scanning for shelter but there’s nothing here and I guess my best chance is finding an overhang or cave in the mountain to the southwest.

The sight filling my vision as I move around another thick spruce tree almost has me halting in my tracks but I don’t stop and only keep running. I allow myself to inspect the abomination for as long as I’m able and it’s quite disgusting to see whatever that thing is crawling its way out from the carcass of a boar.

The boar skull has somehow lost all the meat and skin, a mushroom cap wider than the skull sprouting from its top. The mushroom’s short stem and gills are white as bone with a purple cap and ring just visible beneath. The empty sockets in the skull glow with a sickly, purple light that flickers as the wriggling mycelia dance where a brain should have been.

The creature uses four different limbs with three joints each, ending in a sharp looking spiked purple bone, to pull the rest of the body out of the dissolving boar’s neck. The body that attaches the skull and the several meters long insect-like legs reminds me of a slug.

Its body is white and slimy looking with most of the mass trailing behind it. The limbs prop up the skull and body into an upwards bent curve in a grotesque half standing, half lying posture.

It’s probably 2.2 meters tall at the top of the mushroom cap and the boar skull looks positively tiny compared to the rest of the creature. I inspect it as it gurgles a screech, sounding like a human woman screaming in terror as she sinks to the bottom of boiling mud.

[Fungus Parasite - Level 64]

I keep on running not wanting to tangle with whatever the fuck that is supposed to be and Ari is keeping me constantly informed on the ever growing cost of keeping the curse from spreading. I dash as fast as I can out of the forest up the mountainside and finally find an overhang that barely qualifies to be called a shelter after half a minute of frantic searching.

Ding! Resistance [Curse Magic Resistance] has increased from [6] to [7].

It’s only a few meters deep and if the wind picks up speed the rain might get at me even when pressed against the wall. Looking behind me to check if the fungus thing followed me I’m relieved to not see it as I duck under the overhang and hunker down. I don’t want to fight that thing in this tight space as I couldn’t stand straight without hitting my head on the rock overhang.

“Alright, Ari. What do you need from me? Clothes off, I take it.”

“Yes, clothes off but don’t disperse the daggers as we might need them at a moment's notice. Who knows.”

I disperse all my clothes and sit down on the chilly, slightly dirty rock before laying the sheaths and daggers to my right, just within reach.

“I’ll turn off the pain for us but it will still feel really weird. I need the data though.”

It feels weird alright. My skin and tissue beneath is disintegrating and dispersing into the air as if I’m emitting myself into the environment like a ludicrous candle. Ari increases the speed at which my body is being disintegrated and scattered and she doesn’t stop until my mana bone is visible or even gone in several places. Next goes my vision as she pops my eyes from their sockets before flinging them to the side to disperse away from us. She even gouges out parts of my ear canals to make sure nothing is left.

Ding! Resistance [Curse Magic Resistance] has increased from [7] to [8].

I sit there with almost no flesh left on my body, skeleton visible and mana blood running freely from my wounds. That’s to say from everywhere. Ari finally decides to put me back together and she does it quickly after pushing everything else out of reach. We don’t want the curse to get another hold on us after all. I shudder slightly as the last of the parts missing get regrown, feeling quite monstrous all of a sudden.

“That was freaky as hell, Ari. I know we both designed this vessel but seeing its insides from the outside for a prolonged time like that is kind of creepy. Especially without any pain to go with it.”

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t sure if you’d prefer feeling the pain or not. It was quite excruciating, let me tell you. I wouldn't have found that pleasurable and it’s better we both avoid it to keep our focus.”

“Alright, thanks. I’ll put on some new clothes, scrub us down when I stand up will you?”

Ari scrubs me down before I manifest everything back, styling my hair and equipping my daggers. I hunker down and look out through the still pouring rain. A gurgling screech not far away from us makes me risk getting wet again to check if it’s coming my way but it’s not.

I can see it going south, taking a very difficult path to get there but seemingly determined, almost as if it had a goal and not merely wandering about. What could its goal be though? What’s to the south except…

“It’s probably going towards where the purple flash occurred.”

“Hmm. You might be right. Why, though?”

Trepidation and anticipation bubbles up within me as I reach a reasonable conclusion.

“Ari, I think every animal caught by the curse in this whole region has been making their way there. There might even be a veritable army gathered already. It’s been going on for about a month hasn't it? The cursed rain might have poured once every week or more frequently and pulled everything it caught towards its source.”

“That sounds like a plausible theory. It would explain why we haven’t seen these monsters even if we’ve seen the remaining skeletons of whatever birthed them.”

“This is going to be so fun as long as the rain isn’t too frequent.”

“We’ll have to scout out any region we pass through for cover in case it does.”

I’m brimming with excitement at what I believe to be a new slaughter ground more tailored for my current level. If even a boar, a common animal, could turn into a fungus in the level 60 range then a warg must have turned into something in the 90 to 100 level range. It would be absolutely perfect if it’s true and not merely wishful thinking.

Ari and I wait out the rain and it doesn’t take more than 6 hours or so for it to clear up once again. Long shadows grow between the peaks and valleys as the evening sun dips beneath the horizon. Not knowing the delay between cursed rainfall I immediately set out after the boar fungus to catch up. It’s the perfect target to lead me towards more of its kin.

I find it after a couple hours of sprinting since it’s only as fast as a human without a class running through these mountains and I hunker down behind a rock, watching it slither and pull itself up small cliffs and boulders. Thinking it safe to continue following, I'm about to step out from behind the boulder but freeze as the fungus suddenly twists around, staring in the vague direction of where I’m hiding with its glowing purple eye sockets as if sensing something amiss.

It looks quite eerie in the darkness as I keep my own eye glow to a minimum, only relying on the limited light the new moon provides for me. I have no idea if it knows it’s being followed or just very careful but I continue slinking after it as it turns back around, continuing on its way. In the worst case scenario I just have to kill it before searching on my own.

Either it’s smarter than I give it credit for or it no longer senses me as it continues forwards around the current mountainside without acknowledging my presence. A sudden gurgling screech far to my right draws my attention but before I manage to locate it more gurgling screeches sound out along the whole area. It’s almost like a monstrous howl and they might use it to locate more of their kin as the fungus I’m following indicates, turning slightly right on its way towards its destination.

I continue following the parasite for the rest of the night and when dawn breaks it joins up with two more of its kind coming in from our right. These two have seemingly been made from a bear and a deer-like thing from the looks of the skulls. They’re more of the same though.

[Fungus Parasite - Level 66]

[Fungus Parasite - Level 63]

I keep a little further back as their number increases to three since I haven’t fought one yet and being spotted now might make things difficult. Their watchful behavior from feeling the identification isn’t helping me being stealthy either. I still manage to keep them within sight though and after following them for the rest of the day and half the second night I finally make it somewhere more interesting.

It’s a valley surrounded by mountain peaks and I guess the large mountain to the south to be just in front of the peak that split. The large piece of rhodolite that broke off from the peak probably lies behind that mountain in another valley or gorge. On this side the look is quite different as what must be at least a hundred fungus parasites are making their way around the mountain’s base, not bothering to climb it.

My quarry also makes their way down the valley to join the others in marching to their destination and I decide that this is far enough for my unwitting guides. I can find my way easily from here and these fungi parasites should serve as an excellent test. Not letting them get too far I manifest three missiles while only firing one at the last parasite.

The idea of luring them one by one fails immediately as a screech leaves the parasite before its stomach gets blasted open, alerting the others. They turn around with surprising speed using their 4 strange insect-like legs and locate me almost immediately, the golden glow from my two remaining missiles giving my position away. Stupid. I should have thought about that.

All three of them rush at me and I know I can’t let reinforcements from the rest of the valley get dragged into this. I’ve got no other choice than luring them back the way we came to create enough distance to the valley. They pull themselves after me a lot faster when not simply moving to their destination and even start gaining on me as time goes by. The sound of sharp spears piercing dirt, rock and wood in rapid succession behind me has me running faster than I thought possible.

Reaching a flat spot without boulders or trees, good for fighting them in, I turn around and fire one of the remaining missiles on the foremost bear parasite. It deftly dodges to the left thanks to the distance and the missile goes straight for the one in the back instead, the one I’d already hit.

It tears straight through the wounded parasite and it shrieks as the missile detonates just below the boar skull, sending it flying with the mushroom cap still on top. No kill notification but I don’t have time to investigate it as the remaining fungi are starting to pincer me from both left and right.

I launch the last missile at the ‘deer thing’ parasite on my left that hasn't had a chance to practice dodging yet. The dodge it executes looks almost effortless as if purposely taunting me.

Sighing in disappointment I bring out my daggers with a twirl before lowering myself into my stance, shortly launching myself straight towards the bear parasite who’s gotten close in the short moment I took to watch its counterpart dodge my missile.

It sinks two of the sword looking insect limbs into the rock and dirt, using them to lunge towards me while raising its other two sharp limbs up and out at either side. It tries to embrace me in a swift and deadly movement that would have no doubt split me into three if I let it.

I don’t let it hug me though and instead of dodging away from the long reaching limbs I jump straight up and over them at its purple glowing skull, piercing one eye socket with a reversed right dagger before slicing my left across its throat and pulling myself up with enough strength to land on its mushroom capped head.

The capped head is quite squishy and I sink down a few centimeters into it before it gurgles a screech, shaking wildly and spitting slimy and white goop from its partly severed neck. Something else also comes out and it’s spores from the gills under the cap my feet are currently massaging. The spores create a purple mist that evidently dissolves everything except the fungus as it wafts upwards on the current, eating away at my pants and boots like a fast acting acid.

Seeing the deer parasite come at me with a sharp limb I step hard on the cap before jumping straight over my new attacker, leaving the sizzling purple fog behind me to eat away at its friend but probably not doing much. No stomping on mushrooms if I don’t want to get trapped in clouds of acid spores, got it.

Landing and springing into a twisting somersault I reorient myself to face the still turning deer parasite. I try taking it by surprise by sprinting forward to tear at it before it gets its momentum going again. It has already raised its front limbs in preparation for my arrival though and this time I let them close in on me.

Holding my daggers in a reverse grip I enhance myself as much as possible before meeting the diagonally downwards slashing limbs with my daggers, staggering slightly under the weight of holding it all up.

As it raises one of its lower limbs in preparation to pierce me I take my chance and jump straight up, letting the upper limbs slash uselessly beneath my curled up legs and pulling it off balance. It tilts ever so slightly towards its unsupported left side as I reach the skull and get a grip with my right dagger into its eye socket.

Pulling down hard and unbalancing it even further I shoot up, feet first for 2 meters before twisting mid air and extending my right leg in a diagonal axe kick. Bringing all my momentum to bear against the creature's right side skull I crack it and send pieces of cranium and dislodged mycelia flying.

Ding! You have slain [Fungus Parasite - Level 63]. Less experience awarded.

It also sends out a new cloud of purple acid spores but I’m saved from entering it as a swipe from the limb of the boar fungus heads for my chest while I’m still airborne. I borrow the generous momentum by blocking it with the sides of my crossed daggers and pushing off with both arms to put some distance between us.

“You’re a tricky lot, aren’t you?”

My only answer is another gurgling screech and charge but I’ve played with these enough for now. I only really wanted to test what abilities they had.

Enhancing my legs to the limit and kicking off, I hold my daggers to my right side and cross between its flailing sword limbs to slice and tear up its slug-like body with all my momentum. It sprays me with goop burning like acid and I guess getting covered with this will suck.

Not taking a moment to let it recover I stamp my right foot into the rock and transfer as much momentum as possible into my left leg executing a roundhouse kick to the grisly wound my daggers caused.

My leg goes straight through and I dodge the toppling mass of slug, skull and limbs before manifesting a missile and sending it at the inert skull. It pierces it between the still glowing purple eyes and detonates, throwing a few pieces of crania around but not giving me a kill notification.

Curiously walking towards the twitching limbs and separated slug I study it and what I find is both fascinating and disgusting. The wriggling mycelia is still connected to the tissue in the barely held together brainstem of the torn open skull. It’s wriggling down through the upper slug and exiting its torn body only to spread out in search of its lower part.

Finding it after spreading itself in 2 square meters the mycelium strengthens the connection before slowly squirming its separated parts together, following the established link to start reconnecting the tissue. I put another missile into the visible inside of the skull and finish the job before it gets back up again.

Ding! You have slain [Fungus Parasite - Level 66]. Less experience awarded.

But this must mean…

I do a leaping forwards roll over the carcass as I hear swishing limbs cut the air behind me. I had stupidly forgot about the remaining threat that never died with a missile to the skull. This is the first razor rat incident all over again. Luckily no one saw it happen, I couldn’t stand the embarrassment if someone commented on it.

“Forgot about that one, didn’t you?”

Fuck, I forgot that Ari’s watching. She’s going to witness all my blunders and I swear she’s currently exaggerating the blush on my cheeks.

Turning around and getting into my stance after coming out from the forwards roll I take in the previously almost dead opponent. It’s back to being whole again if you discount the still gaping hole in the front of its skull where mycelia is visibly flailing as if angry at having failed the sneak attack.

Running left I lead the parasite away from the other corpses to give myself a little more room to maneuver. When it gets a clear path to me it digs in all four limbs and hurls itself towards me. Feeling like finishing with style I jump upwards in a front flip in preparation, stretching out my left leg while kicking down in time to catch in the front of the skull, smashing the remaining crania apart and spilling wriggling mycelia all over the ground.

It’s miraculously still alive and I guess some of the fungus brain must still be attached to the main body. Sheathing my daggers and manifesting a small globe of celestial flames in my left hand I lob it at the upper portion of the smashed apart fungus, setting it alight and watching it slowly burn to ashes.

Ding! You have slain [Fungus Parasite - Level 64]. Less experience awarded.

“We haven’t used the celestial flame in combat before have we? It might be perfect to finish off these things."

“Yeah but it’s still expensive to keep going in large quantities. We burned through the remainder of the capacitor and started eating away at our primary power source to burn it.”

“We’ll get there eventually, Ari. Let’s get out of here as more might be on their way to aid their fallen kin.”

Moving away from the battle ground and hunkering down between two boulders I start reassessing my physical condition. Ari seems to have been able to resolve the damage from the acid spore cloud and the acidic vital fluids covering me when cutting its slug body open.

It wasn’t a very long fight and my mana pool remained mostly untouched as only the now refilling capacitor got emptied. The fight itself went fairly well in my opinion. They are certainly tricky opponents and at levels matching and overshooting my own they will be a real challenge to take down.

Waiting for another minute I spot a new fungus making its way onto my battle ground. Its creepy purple eyes gaze at the corpses as its head swivels around and the limbs tap the ground in a fast chaotic pattern as if in fury at what it’s seeing.

[Fungus Parasite - Level 65]

Quickly sinking its limbs into the ground and lunging towards one of the killed parasites it reaches the cracked head where the mass of mycelia is located. Lowering its boar skull and opening its jaws it makes a low, gurgling, sucking noise and to my astonishment the mycelia in the corpse responds.

It flows into the parasite’s open jaws like thin slimy worms and the purple light in its eyes flashes a brighter purple before going back to its previous luminosity as the flow of fungus brains stops. Not sparing a moment longer for its dead kin it rushes towards another of the corpses and starts sucking out its brains as well.

“Zel, I think it might be incorporating the mycelia of its dead counterparts into itself and it might even get information on us from it. We should kill it and burn all the corpses to make sure we don’t leave too much information to these strange creatures.”

“You think? Seems far fetched but it’s better to be sure, I guess.”

Taking Ari’s concerns seriously I sprint back towards the battle ground, daggers out to finish the fourth parasite. It’s now inspecting the burned corpse of the third kill and only notices me when I’ve made it into the open. It lets out a gurgling screech before launching itself towards me and I meet it with my own lunge.

I take my last few steps while crouching further down before I launch myself straight towards it, daggers prepared to pierce its skull but missing as it actually dodges to my left, slashing vertically downwards on the spot I will pass by. Surprised but ready for a new battle rhythm I bring my daggers on top of where the sword limb will try cleaving through me and brace for the impact.

I slam into the rock beneath me with enough force to rattle my bones but the daggers protect me from getting split in two. Another limb comes down upon my head like the tip of a spear, trying to crack me open but failing as I roll out of the way in time to dodge both it and another stab from the limb that failed to slice me.

Getting up quickly I back away slightly as the parasite moves closer.

Spinning on my feet while dodging several stabbing limbs I tear one of the upper limbs off with my rotational momentum and a reverse grip right hand dagger. The next limb to go is a lower one with a lunge towards it from me followed by a right booted stomp, cracking it in half.

The parasite keeps shrieking and flailing trying to slice and pierce me but when it fails it starts shaking its head wildly, letting those acidic spores fall out from its gills in thick trails.

Deciding that it's as good a time as any to practice my missile aim, I back off and manifest two missiles before firing them at once on the lower and upper part of its body. The upper missile gets blocked and redirected by the parasite but the lower one hits its mark and a big chunk of gory goop splatters the ground as half the flesh keeping it together suddenly decides to be elsewhere.

Using the single second my damage has bought me I sprint towards the parasite while keeping close to the ground, taking care to make it look like I’m aiming for its wounded spot but internally preparing to launch myself upwards when I’m close enough.

The fungus brain responds by blocking its wounded part and spraying more acidic spores but I push through and launch myself straight towards its skull, piercing it from beneath with both daggers before pulling them violently apart, scattering pieces of bone.

Still having a little of my upwards momentum I bring both daggers into a reverse grip, arching my back with arms held overhead behind me as I stare into the flailing mycelia barely half a meter away from my face.

I hang suspended in the air for a split second before slamming my daggers in a hammer strike straight into it, tearing the fungus brain and cracking the skull in half with the force.

Touching the ground I swiftly sheath my daggers and manifest a small ball of celestial flame, tossing it onto the completely dissected and visible clump of mycelia. Jumping back in the same motion I avoid the corpse hitting the ground with a slimy splat where I’d been standing.

Ding! You have slain [Fungus Parasite - Level 67]. Less experience awarded.

Ari seems confused by the notification and it’s indeed odd.

“Wasn’t it level 65 when you identified it?”

It indeed was but it can’t have gained two whole levels in such a short time without killing anything, unless…

“It gained two levels by doing nothing else than drinking the brains of its kin. That must explain it somehow.”

“You’re right. And it fought differently too. Almost like it had adapted somewhat to fighting against us.”

Had it really adapted slightly to our fighting style? It moved slightly differently compared to the ones that came before but that might be explained by a simple difference between creatures. If Ari’s right about it adapting to us though…

“Think about what this really means, Ari. If we kill a hundred of these parasites, letting their carcasses lay intact and one of these finds our slaughter it might gain a hundred levels and develop an amazing ability to counteract our fighting style from all those references. That would be terrifying.”

“Let’s burn every one we kill to avoid that fate.”

“Or not? Isn’t this an amazing way of grinding lower level monsters and then creating our own higher leveled one with an ability to challenge us for real? We’d level super fast if we took advantage of it.”

Ari lets out an exasperated sigh at my genius plan but she can’t really hide her own excitement about creating our own opponents to fight and level from. This might get interesting.