I am greeted with a new prompt giving two choices one to Start a Colony, and the other to Start a Lair. Both sound quite interesting and give very different images. A colony seems to be a collection of like-minded mushrooms working together to become strong, sharing resources with an ancestor who started it all. A lair seems to be much more centered on one mountainous mushroom, focusing on this spot and collecting as much power for the core mushroom as possible.

As I think about it I’m more interested in the colony for my ability to explore and maybe start a community. I do like the idea of becoming powerful and maybe even fighting things that aren't just rats and centipedes though that would mean leaving my lair exposed which feels like a bad idea. I wish I could take the community with me like a mobile colony or a mobile lair maybe? As soon as I think this I am greeted with a prompt.

Ding

You Have Unlocked a Custom Option

Custom Option: One Colony One Mind

I see a massive mushroom with four legs stepping over trees and rocks, a hill blocks its path and it simply collides with it the stalk splitting into smaller mushrooms that run along the sides of the mountain breaking into yet smaller copies to avoid boulders or brush too big to step over in this smaller state. Oh, this is it not only is it a custom option so you know it's good but the name isn't just Spore Reserve it is like Dark Gaudians Sporatious Vault or some other crazy unique name.

When I choose it I feel a shiver run through me and a choice to split or combine myself. I choose to split and my mini-me becomes a medium-me I suppose. There are now two medium-sized me’s I can see out of both of them with their blind sense and it feels a lot like the vision I had. One Colony One Mind. The Colony, me, does what I think. If I think to move forward both of me do. If I think to peak around a corner just the me closest does it or I can peak both corners. It's quite intuitive. It seems that the more I relax the easier the double vision is. Not sure how I'll do if I really start splitting but then maybe the vision will mostly overlap.

Well, two mushrooms are better than one when it comes to adventure. That's what I always say. Or what I will always say. I have my two bodies split off and start wandering down two different tunnels out of my little grotto. Walking is surprisingly easy I think I might have cheated with the multiple bodies cause it seems like I should have to think about it but it sorta just happens. Maybe the knowledge was in the legs trait either way can't stop me now.

In front of me, I am greeted with the smiling maw of a rather enormous spider standing on its rather impenetrable web. Well one of me sees this the other sees a woman who seems to be bleeding rather badly I head over but need to focus on the immediate threat so just take root nearby. Now the spider, though it does not seem very interested in me, does seem pretty sure I am edible. I plan to change this expectation as I am not one of the things I have eaten and therefore I can assume, with absolute certainty, and no bias or ulterior motives, that I am very much not edible. To prove the point I shove roots up from as close to the spider as I can but they do not appear to have much effect on the webs and I can not reach far enough to get the spider in its web creation. Nevertheless, when the new fails go for the old. I shoot a deluge of spores at the spider who begins swatting at the cloud before rushing forward likely to prove me wrong on the edible thing. As its front very sharp-looking leg comes down upon me I panic and realize I have split once again.

Oh boy oh no very slow little legs go very slow. But I am alive. I run back and fuse back into one medium-me just in time for a very sharp-edged web to fly forward like a blade and cut off my cap. I did not see that coming and as I watched the cap fall to the ground I could not feel its connection.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Ding

You have lost Biomass

Oh, yay, yeah thanks for the heads up. Alright, well, no spiders it is. I scamper as quickly as my little legs can carry me back to other me. I can feel my injured body shifting regrowing a cap as it grows smaller overall.

Back to me… other me. This woman is not dead she will be soon which brings me to the rub.

It feels shameful to kill her but also should I put her out of her misery? Isn't that a thing? She's so big it would mean a lot of biomass. She might have cool traits too right? I probe her gently with a little tendril of spores.

Ding

Choice: Help or Harm

Reward: Title

OOO, well I do like the sound of that. Let's see. Help or Harm? As a collective, the best choice is to help especially if that means shiny new things. I choose and feel a shiver run down my cap. It seems my spores have gained a new functionality as they settle on the woman her wounds are quickly woven over with mycelium that thickens to create a spongy flesh alternative where she is … missing bits. Turns out she actually had two arms but seemed to have lost one while fighting something.

She wakes suddenly sitting up and coughing up a chunk of gunk the size of a rat which shlops onto the floor a few feet away. I sit very still roots clenched in the ground. I was not expecting this reaction but it does certainly save time. She looks around, then sees me, both of me at this point, one tall and one shorter. She looks back and forth between the gash across her stomach now filled in with interwoven threads and her arm which might have started sprouting small mushrooms.

I decide to take a leap and merge back into one. She looks more anxiously between her arm and me now. I go out on a limb and form my spore cloud into an approximation of a thumbs-up. She pales and then bursts out laughing.

“I thought I was going to die here in a Dungeon my team said I was too weak to solo and just before I do a sentient mushroom decides to heal me back up and give me a new arm.”

The woman stands up and goes to shake my hand then pauses as she realizes I do not have arms.

“Ooo sorry”

I extend one leg bending my back one for extra height and knock her retracted fist which gets a chuckle out of her. Now to see if I can persuade her to assist my exploration mission. I try to form an arrow with a question mark but the woman seems confused. Ahh well, it can't be helped.

I begin walking into the further section of the tunnel leading away from the grotto. Adventure is out there and I will find it. Ahead I can see a hooded figure who seems to be barefoot and have quite spindly feet. Nevertheless, I shall fight it and eat it. I split into two then three. If I come from three directions I should be able to semi-surround it and a full-circle spore cloud will whittle him down nicely. As I take up position the figure notices one of me and the vision from it goes all cloudy as I feel like I have a splitting headache in one-third of my head. Then that me trips tumbling for a bit before being able to right itself.

Ding

You have Experienced a Psychic Attack

You Have Gained a New Trait

New Trait: Mind Magic Resistance

“You will die silly plant”

He says this not into the air but within my cap as if his words are just transported there without the requirements of spoken language. I attack with roots from below as well as a thick cloud of spores. Even if I'm not on my feet the best with my third body it can still pump out spores. My enemy appears to be unable to see through the sheer density of the cloud and for a moment I see its eyes widen as it hears my body split further in the cloud all the while pouring out more spores. Tiny roots fire up from the ground poisoning all who stay upon it. As much as this skeletal fiend tries waving his arms and attacking a body whenever he sees one is not working well. This is due greatly to the fact that if a body is reabsorbed it seems to treat the affliction as if it were newly encountered resistance-wise but not damage-wise. This has allowed me to simply absorb and back off with one body that then splits and is reabsorbed by others on the back line theoretically exponentially reducing the affliction effects. Also, it means my resistance to it grows more powerful which is shared by the whole colony not just the body that was affected by it. Truly a great life a Mushroom lives.