Chapter 2: Encounter

“Argh…”

I woke up with a strong headache, though it is so much better compared to the pain that I felt before passing out. I remembered that I heard a “Ding” before I got that headache, maybe that has something to do with it? I looked at the messages that popped out before me, and yes, messages. There was more than 1 message in front of me.

For the continued usage of spores controlling skills, you have gained a level in [Spores Controller]. [Spores Controller] is now at level 11. For reaching level 11 in [Spores Controller], you have unlocked a new ability [Spores Identification].

For gaining the ability [Spores Identification], the amount of information gathered through [Spores Detection] have been drastically increased. The effect of the skill [Information Processing] have been activated.

For exceeding the limit of information that can be processed by [Information Processing], you have triggered the backlash from it. You have gained the status {Unconscious} for 6 hours. All spores have been rendered inactive due to the extreme backlash that was received.

Eh? 6 hours? I looked around myself and found that what was once something similar to the morning glow of the forest have changed quite a fair bit. The position of the sun had already went from one side of the sky to the other, seemingly that it will set in just a few hours more. I had probably wasted half the daylight or even more being unconscious. In order to figure out what happened, I need to check the effects of the skills that I just gained, so I proceeded to press on each of them.

Spores Identification(Passive)Enables the gathering of information on targets with active spores within their bodies.

Unique Passive Information Processing(Passive)You are able to process large amount of information easily, but with drawbacks.

For every 10 creatures that contains your active spores, you will gain 1 wisdom

For every 5 wisdom gained through this method, you will lose 1 intelligence

For every point below half of your base intelligence lost due to this effect, you will receive various debuffs and status

“Oh, [Spores Identification] sounds useful, but I guess that was what brought about that huge influx of information.”

From mere detection of the location on where the spores are to providing information of the creatures the spores are all in, I could see how much more the information could have increased. I reactivated a few of the spores near me to see how it works.

Name:Common grassType:PlantRarity:CommonDescription:The most common type of grass. It can be found anywhere as long as there is decent amount of sunlight and water.Usage:None discoveredIdentify:100%

Name:EarthwormType:InsectRarity:CommonDescription:This tube shaped worm are commonly found in soil, feeding on minuscular matters. They are able to regrow their body easily given the time to do soUsage:None discoveredIdentify:100%

“Not bad, it gave quite a bit of information on the creatures that contained the active spores. I suppose that it is quite obvious why I will suffer that headache with the sheer amount of data entering my mind.”

The [Identify] percentage probably means that it will take time for the information to be fully researched before I can find out everything about the creature; And even longer for more complicated or less common creatures.

Next will be the unique passive [Information Processing]. Being able to gain stats through a passive is pretty nice. 10 creatures with active spores within them to gain 1 wisdom? Sounds pretty cheat-like with how easy it is to insert spores into the bodies of other creatures, as long as I’m close enough, that is.

In order to test it out, I activated spores from another 8 creatures making a grand total of 10 creatures with active spores. I didnt want to flood my mind with too much information at a single time; Don’t want myself losing conscious again.

Having 10 creatures with active spores, or Spore Creatures for short, increased my wisdom by 1. After checking the status screen, I see that my mana increased by 10 points as well. 1 Wisdom is equivalent to 10 mana, 10 creatures gain me 1 Wisdom, 5 Wisdom reduces my Intelligence by 1 so using basic mathematics, 50 creatures would reduce my Intelligence by 1. Got to keep track of these stuff if I don’t want to receive the negative effect from the passive again.

From having found out about this, I increase my Spore Creatures count to 200 to reach closer to the max count, in order for me to have ample time to remember to switch some off while spreading spores and thus increasing my wisdom by 20, mana by 200, and reducing my intelligence by 4.

StatusName:???Title:???Race:???Gender:???Level:1Experience:0%Class:Spores MasterHealth:100/100Mana:360/360Health regen:1/sMana regen:7.2/sStrength:10Intelligence:10(6)Dexterity:10Wisdom:10(30)Vitality:10Willpower:10Attack:8-12Defence:0

Skills

Class Trees

Spores Controlling [lvl 11]

-Spores Emission(Active)

-Spores Detection(Toggle/Passive)

-Spores Identification(Passive)

Other Skills

Unique Passive Information Processing(Passive)[200]

Nice! With the increase in wisdom, my max mana increased too, same goes for my mana regeneration, allowing my [Spores Emission] to be permanently on, as long as I kept it to a 1 metre range. Other than the reduction in intelligence, I don’t see any more negative effects that can affect me.

“Please tell me that will remain the same in the future, and if it does, my unique passive will be a free wisdom increaser!”

*Gurgle*

Ah, come to think of it, I haven’t eaten anything since I arrived here, no wonder my stomach is growling. I have to get something to eat or I will die of starvation. What do I do? Where can I get food here in the middle of nowhere? Wait, I can use my spores to look for edible plants to eat. Or I could try using it to hunt down some animals

In order to do that, I first activated my [Spores Emission] by spending in a 3 metre radius of spores and proceeded to run for 3 seconds in a straight line in order to fully spread the spores that came out. I felt both dizzy and tired from running while in that state and had to sit down for a short while. I then turned on the spores in plants scanning the area for edible plants while keeping the limit of 250 in mind.

I proceed to pick the plants that I detect as edible with my [Spores Detection]

“I’m going to eat my own spores, feels kinda weird if you ask me, but I got the make full use of my skills in order to survive.”

After picking a sufficient amount of plants and gathered them at one spot, I moved on to do the same for animals.

Scanning through the animals with the assistance of my [Spores Detection], I picked the ones that would be easier to capture and proceeded to catch them by hand whilst keeping them on my radar. It still took quite a while to gather them as physically I am neither fast nor strong and the animals can run away pretty fast once they sense hostile intention from me.

In the end, I managed to secure enough meat and plants to last until breakfast. I went on to set up camp for the night. After eating, I kept my [Spores Emission] turned on while I slept, making sure that I didn’t overload my limit for the number of spore creatures. Doing so enabled me to sleep in peace as I will be able to detect creatures within a 1 metre radius from me. No matter how small a range that is, it is more easing than to sleep with no precaution at all.

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3 more days passed. The rate at which my [Spores Controlling] mastery progressed has definitely been reduced, but that is to be expected. The good news is that I’m already at level 20 in [Spores Controlling] since last evening, so I’m expecting it to reach level 21 by this afternoon and possibly unlock a new ability. It’s the morning and I’m moving at an unrushed pace as I have been doing the past few days. By now, I still haven’t encountered any monster or other things with hostile intention.

I think back to when I reached level 15 in [Spores Controlling]. When the “Ding” sound rang, I was thinking that I would get another reduction in mana cost for [Spores Emission] to maybe 3 mana/second, looking at how it got reduced by half when I reached level 5 but it wasn’t exactly what I expected. The base mana cost still remained at 5 mana/second but the mana cost for 2 metre of spores had been reduced to 10 mana/second, 3 metre to 50 mana/second and so on. I am now able to use 250 mana for a 4 metre radius of spores, which I wasn’t able to before, although I don’t think that I will change what I have been doing thus far.

While I was deep in thought, something appeared in front of my vision. Finally something I haven’t seen since I woke up, a Human! Or that was what I thought until I noticed the sharp pointy ears. He was wearing a mixture of leather and cloth armor and had a sword sheathed inside the scabbard tied to his waist. He was staring wide eyes at me for the duration that I was looking at him before suddenly wiping off his shocked expression, drawing his sword and charging at me.

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Author’s Notes: Thanks for reading the chapter 2 too(I don’t think you would have read chapter 2 without reading chapter 1, would you?). I’ve had chapter 2 written, edited, and proofread before I’ve even posted chapter 1(with the exception of tables). That’s the reason for the somewhat fast update. I already have chapter 3 written, but it haven’t been edited or proofread yet, so it will be better to expect it to be posted tomorrow.

Constructive criticism will be appreciated :D