Chapter 46: Vegetation Demolition

Jellybee’s brick missile–infused with a volatile amount of magical mycelium–detonated after impact.

The mushroom bomb spell erupted into a cloud of yellow spores, blasting the charging orphworms every which way about the room. They hurled through the air. Several of them collided against the walls, gem encrusted hides cracking upon impact.

For the second time, my avatar was caught in one of Jellybee's brick blasts. My Soul Stroll forcibly ended and I winked out of existence from the damage.

Yes! The gambit paid off!

These monsters could be defeated. Even if they were made of rock, they could die!

One orphworm down. Five to go.

Up until this point, Jellybee had been my only Minion to demonstrate real combat prowess. Sure, Spinemess and Rinafen combined were technically higher level, but who was better fit for clearing out monsters made of rock than an undead war veteran with a Sapper class?

I now had a baseline for these creatures too. The one my Minions had tag-teamed was [Level 3], the same as Jellybee.

Those seemed like reasonable odds.

From my Core’s top-down view of everything I could see my two artillery Minions on B2’s stairwell. Jellybee and Spinemess were in the process of ‘reloading’ another round of explosive payloads. Jellybee held another brick in his grasp. Vibrantly yellow fungal veins crept from his bones and onto the hardened clay, where they permeated into the substrate. While Spinemess held another pinecone before their torso, gripped between the fingers of all four hands. They repeatedly pierced the pinecone with magic needles that shot from their center of their palms.

On the top floor, Jimbo-no was shouting. He was hobbling up and down the stairs that led to Bonny’s room, repeatedly flinging random objects past the Dungeon perimeter to hit her door.

Oh my lanta. That girl. She could sleep deeper than the dead!

Before the dust and spores settled, the five remaining orphworms recovered. They screeched and writhed. The two that had been closest to the walls burrowed into the dirt, quickly disappearing from my Dungeon sight. The other three, including the bugger with those creepy arms, surged towards Jellybee and Spinemess.

I had to buy my boys more time.

I reactivated my Soul Stroll, ticking my Mana down to 17/20. Each time I reactivated the Skill I lost a point of Mana. Which normally wouldn’t be an issue, but in combat it meant I had a limited amount of times I could play wormy hokey pokey.

In the background, I began Mana Sweeping away.

“Hey, uglies! Over here!” It was the first thing that came to mind.

What? I couldn’t always be clever.

I waved with my arms and pranced about.

Unfortunately, only the two juvenile monsters took the bait. They made a U-turn to face me. Their maws churned loudly, like garbage disposals filled with pebbles. Light gathered in the centers.

Rather than wasting more Mana by constantly resummoning my avatar, I instead tried running away from the ranged attacks.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

I didn’t get very far.

I couldn’t dodge a Volkswagon Beetle while crossing the road. What chance did I have against goddamn lasers?

My Soul Stroll ended once more.

Dagnabbit!

The two juveniles continued slithering up the stairs.

Once again, I was thankful for whatever military training my undead had received. They didn’t just stand there as the monsters rushed at them. Orphworms didn’t move as quickly above ground–just like normal earthworms–but they could still book it considering their size. The big one particularly moved swiftly, using its arms to pull itself forward.

Spinemess broke a thick twig off the back of their head.

“Give me another light,” Spinemess said. The dryad held out the twig with one hand, while their other three hands continued to pump needles into the pinecone pincushion.

“Roger that.” Jellybee tossed one his second brick down the steps.

He then grabbed the twig and stuck it in his mouth like a cigar. The green Witchpyre behind his eye sockets flared.

After two beats the twig caught fire. At the same time, the second brick detonated.

Smoke plumed out of Jellybee’s skull.

The big one received a direct hit. The two juveniles took some damage, but this brick had less explosive force compared to before. He hadn’t had as much time to charge up the spell.

The creatures kept coming.

Jellybee handed back the reverse cigarette, which Spinemess promptly used as an improvised match. They lit the pinecone grenade and dropped it.

Both Minions dashed up the steps.

Two moments later all three worms took another hit from the needle shrapnel at point blank range.

The smallest of them immediately turned into a needle-riddled pile of mostly squishy organic sinew and rocky fragments.

The two others slammed into the stairwell wall, pinning them in place.

The remaining juvenile looked to be on death’s door. They appeared dazed by the attack.

Ha! Not so tough now!

Right on cue, the big one roared defiantly. It reached out with its arms and pulled itself free, before burrowing through the weakened wall.

Okay, that one was tough. How was it still alive? What level was this monstrosity?

I briefly considered trying to Mana Sweep the last juvie to death, but decided against it. I could try later if the youngster was still stuck in place.

My focus was needed elsewhere. There were several monsters on the loose.

Where were they?

I pulled back my awareness and felt around the boundaries of my Stitched Leylines.

I hated to waste the Mana, but I needed to communicate with my boys. I used another point of Mana and reactivated my Soul Stroll Skill once again. I appeared right in front of Jellybee and Spinemess, who were running through the hall that led to the cellar area.

“On your right!” I pointed towards Jellybee’s room.

Spinemess handed off a regular, unaltered pinecone to Jellybee. The Sapper quickly infused it with his mushroom spell and then tossed it inside his bedroom.

My Minions passed right through my ethereal form. They continued running without stopping.

One of the burrowing juvenile worms broke through the wall and tunneled into Jellybee’s room.

I placed my hands on my hips and stared the worm down. “Really, child? Who raised you?” I asked. “We have doors for a reason!”

It faced me with a screech and began charging up another laser.

The fungal pinecone pulsed once.

Twice.

Then went up in a tiny poof.

Inside a bedroom that happened to be covered from floor to ceiling in various mushrooms. The other mushrooms began to pulse and glowed with magical potential.

Then they all exploded in a multi-colored chain reaction of vegetation demolition.

The entire Merriweather Dungeon shook.

I smiled as my avatar got caught in the blast radius.

These rude guests could go pound sand.