Now that I am down at ground level, I can see the differences between this forest and the one I was in. This was more like a tropical rainforest. The area I arrived in was much different, it was more like the forests I was used to. This was more like videos I had seen of the Amazon. While the trees are similar the area itself is different. The thing I notice most is just how humid it is. The previous forest was cool and dry this one is hot and humid. This forest lacks much of the ease of movement. The floor of this forest is covered in undergrowth and vines.
I find that I have to cut my way forward through the undergrowth. I find myself peering around nervously. My senses and my map do not show me any enemies, but I know that they are not infallible. But I don’t sense anything large around so I continue forward.
I chop my way forward until I find a wide path. The area seems out of place so I decided to investigate. The path is bordered on both sides by strange stones. They look like granite and have glyphs carved into them. When I touch the stone, I can feel the power inside them. When I clear some of the dirt and detritus the glyph on some of the stones starts to glow. I can also feel that the amount of stone showing is just a small amount of the stone. They are more like pillars the amount of effort to do this was mind-blowing. There is a pillar every three hundred feet. They seem to be either tapped into their power source or even generating the power. That power is what is keeping the path clear of plants. This seems to be an ancient roadway. The path does not show signs of any recent travel just like the path on the mountain. It seems that whatever ancient civilization created this path is long gone!
I decide to follow this road since it is heading in the direction I want to go. It makes my travel much smoother and allows me to let Akurra travel on his own. As normal I am amazed at how his scale pattern shifts to match his surroundings. I also start to notice more movement on my map. I also see birds flitting around the trees. There are several larger insects. Bugs that might be an inch or two back home are as big as my hand. The forest is also alive with sound.
We move on and for a few hours, everything is peaceful. Until I watch on my map as a dot heads in our direction.
Blackstone Urtrine lvl 26.
As the beast enters into view, I wonder what fresh new hell I have found myself in. The creature is a weird horrific hybrid. It’s as if someone took a praying mantis top and connected it to a cat body. The thing has six legs the front two being like the scythe claws of a mantis. The back half has fur like a cat the paws look like they have claws as well. This thing is like the worst combination of both creatures.
Before I can do anything, I watch as Akurra stuns it and strikes. The beast dies from the envenomation. It is strange though as the beast half visibly dies first, it’s as if the two halves are not as integrated as they seemed at first. This is further confirmed when I cut into the beast. There are two cores it’s as if two separate beasts were fused. For the first time, Akurra turns up his nose at one of our kills and does not eat it. From his general disdain, I deduce that there is something he does not like about these things. We fight a few more of them as we travel before, we hit what is obliviously the territory of something else.
It was obvious from the claw marks and smell at the border that something large and territorial lived here. I watched my map there had been a few of the Urtrine following us once we crossed the border they peeled off. This led me to surmise that whatever lived here had taught them to fear it. Akurra and I kept moving hopefully we could get through this thing’s territory without issue. I knew it would not be the case but I could hope. I was watching my map as we walked and about forty-five minutes in when I see a large dot heading in our direction. The beast hesitates slightly when it comes to the stones on the roadway. But its need to defend its territory and hunt overcomes whatever was holding it back, and it steps on the road.
Bristle Back Reitel lvl 13.
The thing looks like a giant version of a honey badger. The main difference is of course the size, it is four times the size of a badger from home. It is also blue where the honey badger would have been white, and the hair seems to be coarser. Akurra immediately stuns the beast and strikes it. He then looks at me for me to cut the core out of the beast. I am immediately reminded of a video I watched once where a honey badger had been struck by a cobra and shook it off. The way the beast is moving leads me to believe something similar is happening here.
I Immediately draw Sky Cutter. Akurra looks at me strangely before the reitel starts to move. This will be a good test of Sky Cutters new abilities. The reitel rolls over and stands his eyes are red and savage. Honey badgers are notorious for being hard to kill and crazy.
I immediately use remote cut to slash at the beast. The effect of this skill is interesting I expected that when I used it, it would generate from my blade and hit the target. What happens is when I slash my blade a cut appears in the area I was targeting. It also does not seem to separate the background from my target as everything is cut from the tree branches to the dirt.
The reitel screams in pain as a slash appears on his side. Its whole-body flashes red as it turns and charges me. I can tell that the beast has entered rage mode as it is all claws and teeth. It takes everything I have to not get turned into chum as the beast attacks relentlessly. I am ducking and dodging the beast attacks which give me little time to plan my own. When I overbalance and get clipped by a claw mid swipe.
The attack pushes me back a few feet back. This gives me space to attack I decide to use remote cut, and violence strike together. I move to a place to gives me a good angle to attack and activate both skills. The cut this time is three times as large and cuts the beast's head from its body. Upon its death, the beast started leaking noxious fluids that smelled like death itself. The smell was bad that Akurra didn’t even look at the corpse twice.
“Hey, buddy not everything is going to die from a bite some things might be immune to your venom out here. We have to be careful, if you would have eaten that thing it would have torn you apart from the inside.”
Akurra looked at me strangely before moving on. I put the beast's head into my storage and left the body. I knew it would not taint the things I had there but I was taking no chances. We moved on quickly since the smell was only getting worse. The good thing was that current sense allowed me to keep us upwind from the corpse. There was another benefit to having dealt with the beast from what I could tell its territory was quite large. So, we did not run into or see anything else dangerous.
As we walked, I started to wonder if there was another dead beast in front of me. I realized the smell was coming from the swamp and it was getting worse the closer we got. I checked my bag I hoped at least one of the many masks I had packed survived. I mean masks had become ubiquitous since we had been in the throes of a global pandemic. When I checked my options, I found that I had multiple options. Pulled out one of the masks that I bought that had a digital camo pattern on it.
Neck Gaiter Air Mask; Camo, Enhanced, Repairing, Rare, 1500/1500
This personal protective equipment (PPE) is used to protect the wearer from airborne particles and liquid contaminating the face. This mask has been enhanced due to your trip through the void. This mask will filter out contaminants and toxins. If damaged this item can be fed mana to repair it. This mask will hide your facial features and help you blend into the environment. +20 to Stealth.
Putting the mask on had immediate effects as the smell of the swamp disappeared. Akurra even blinked he could still smell and feel me but for some reason, it seems like he was having a hard time seeing me. He still knew where I was but it was like he had a hard time locking on with his eyes.
“I’m right here buddy,” I say to him pulling down my mask.
Once I am sorted, we start walking again. The rest of the day was spent walking toward the swamp. We only ran across a few smaller beasts. The transition from the forest to the swamp was strange. It looks like someone just flooded this part of the existing forest. It does not seem like this happened over a long time due to the lack of aquatic vegetation. The other tell was the trees, some of them seemed to be doing fine. But a larger number either were struggling or dying. If this had been a swamp for some time the trees would have adjusted. Either way, we have to cross the swamp to get where we were going. The one nice thing was it seemed that the path was not completely flooded and was still visible.
I decided to again cut our travel for the day a few hours short. The reason was simple, we had come to the border of the swamp. I wanted to watch the swamp for its nighttime activity. I hoped to push the next day’s travel well into the night. I really did not want to camp in the swamp if it could be avoided. The rest of the day was spent trying to find a proper meal. I found a few of the smaller prey-type animals late in the day. The reitel had from what I could see jealously guarded its territory. I ended up giving Akurra one of the dire squirrels I had left in my inventory. He swallowed it down happily and settled down to rest. I did the same intending to keep an eye on my map for some time.
The transition from day to night had always been interesting. Watching the daytime creatures scurry to hide from the nighttime ones, was like watching the discovery channel. It’s what had taken over as my only form of entertainment. Since I lacked music or a phone or any talent. I had watched my map and imagined that Morgan Freeman, or someone was narrating what was happening. Tonight, was different though because the area lacked the frantic pace the shift normally had. I watched thinking maybe I was wrong, but as I continued, I knew that I was correct. None of the animals in the contiguous area went to ground. They had no fear of the larger nighttime creatures. Maybe those beasts did not find it worth it to test the reitel. I thought this might be the case but I doubted that the rietel hunted the swamp. And, the was no movement in the swamp at all.
The fact that the swamp had absolutely no movement was eerie. My whole time on this would I had never seen a place that was devoid of movement. And a swamp while disgusting should have been teeming with life. There should have been all kinds of predatory life. But as I continued to watch I saw nothing. I thought that maybe I just was not able to sense anything due to my senses not working on the water but I climbed a tree and watched with my eyes as well. The place was eerily still. I was now certain that this swamp was not a natural development. Something told me that something was going on here.
I watched for a while longer before climbing down and going to sleep. The next morning I prep a quick meal, and feed akurra. The whole time I keep an eye on our surroundings. Still no movement. The hair is standing on the back of my neck at this point. It seems like the reitel and the other beast I ran into were the last beasts on this side of the swamp and we killed them all.
We start our way through the swamp slowly at first. The roadway is obvious due to deforestation. Either by luck or by the strange magic that permeates the stones the path is only partially submerged. The water is only a few inches deep in most places. We are moving slowly not because of the conditions, but because of my wariness. For the first few hours, we proceed at three-fourths speed, and my head is on a swivel. After that, we increase our speed. I am still paranoid but I need to be out of the swamp.
We continued like this for multiple hours. I would have normally stopped for lunch but not here in this place we would stop once we were out. As it is with life everything is good, until it is not. We were moving across the swamp on the path when we reach an obstruction. Several dead trees have fallen across the path. Climbing over the trees would have taken extra time and seemed unnecessary so we diverted off the path. The ground was mostly solid as we walked around. At the end of the fallen trees were two suspicious growths. As we get closer the mound begins to move.
As they stand my threat detection pegs off the charts. The beasts look similar to some of those I have fought outside the swamp. One looks like one of the urtrine’s and the other is a dire rat, but they don’t identify as such.
Spore Minon lvl 3.
Spore Minon lvl 3.
Two things cause me to pause. The beast both look like entrants in the walking dead sweepstakes. Both are impossibly thin and are missing patches of skin, and one is even missing an eye. The other is the names of both creatures are different than their original species. Before I can stop him Akurra goes into his normal pattern. He uses his stun that does bupkis, I can’t even tell if these things can see.
“Akurra don” I start to say. But I can’t get it out before he strikes. The reaction is immediate as he recoils and starts to roll around on the ground. Both creatures are more or less unfazed but one now has a smoking hole in its side that it seems to be ignoring. I draw Sky Cutter and lash out, a large cut opens on the side of the beast. It ignores the damage and keeps moving in a jerky disjointed manner toward me.
I moved to a different angle and cut again. This time I aimed for their heads. Removing them at the base. Both of the beasts’ heads dropped into the swamp, but the creatures kept shambling toward me. I was horrified that they kept moving after me removing their heads. Without a mouth or teeth, the threat they posed is limited, so I take more time to look at them. Both creatures have what looks like a cluster of mushrooms and mold growing on them. I aim for the cluster on one of the beasts and stab, and watch. The cluster deflates as soon as the steel touches it, and the beast drops. I move over to the second shambling beast and stabbed it in the cluster and watched it drop.
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I turned to deal with Akurra who was still writhing in pain on the ground. I give him a once-over and try to calm him down. Once I get him to stop writhing, I inspect his face. The scales around his fangs have darkened, and I can see where something has latched onto him.
Your familiar has been infected with a black spore. Time to conversion 12hrs.
“Dam buddy we don’t always attack first when something like that happens,” I say to him drawing my wand.
I pull out my wand of cure since there is no physical damage. I use the wand and watch a large amount of mana be sucked out of my mana pool. I take almost three thousand mana, but Akurra calms. I can tell he feels better but he is not fully okay either. I look at my notifications to see what happened.
You cast cure.
Cure is opposed. Your cure fails, your cure skill is not high enough to cure Spore Blight Plague. Time to conversion is now 36 hours.
“Fuck.” This is bad at least it gave me more time. But if this thing was like anything in any of the games, he played this was bad. The Spore Blight would become more resistant to my magic over time until it was completely resistant. All I could do was hope this shit functioned like the monsters in my game. Which meant that this was some kind of hive-minded plant-based creature. The movement on my map was giving me hope that this was the case. Once the two infected beasts had died the previously still swamp had burst into movement. I could now see all types of things moving around.
From what I could tell this was a truly insidious creature. From what I remember the thing started small as an innocuous-looking spore that grew into a mushroom. That mushroom would either wait for something to eat it, or the worse ones would spew more spores once it became large enough. Either way once that happened, the creature would spread. The creatures it infected would get attacked and the spores would spread until it took over a large area. The worst part was that if you were unprepared, you would almost always end up as the creature’s minion.
The good thing for me was that since I came here from a place that was amid a pandemic. Even though I had not planned for this. I actually would be okay. I had a mask to keep out the spores. I also had fire magic. The swamp made much more sense now! The best way to truly deal with something like this was to burn it out. Just light the area on fire and let it burn. Similar to the body getting a fever to fight infection. These things were normally weak to fire, a theory I would be testing out here shortly.
I was not about to lose Akurra right now he was my only friend. I would be damned if I let some plant take him from me.
“Hey buddy I need to shrink down climb on,” I say looking at him. He looks over at me and then reduces to wrap himself around me as we did in the cave. Once I have him positioned, I start to move. I need to test out how to kill these things as fast as possible. I see three dots shambling towards me on the map. The thing about these creatures is that they are not fast. They are basically zombies.
When I find the new group, I can tell that these creatures have been infected for some time. They are barely holding together, and the spore mounds are quite large. There is also a new wrinkle as the mounds are actively spewing spores into the air. This creature is both advanced and insidious, as either breathing in the spores or attacking would be enough to infect something.
I cast elemental aura, and minor elemental orb before I move, and choose fire for both. The beasts only notice my presence after I have closed within a few feet of them. The spores in the air burn up as soon as they touch my aura. I send one of the many flame orbs floating around me into the mound on the back of the closest beast. The mound bursts with a pop as soon as the flame touches it. Both it and the beast it connected to burst into flames catching the beast immediately adjacent to it in the flames as well. It did not take long for the flames to spread, to all three creatures were on fire. The effects were better than I could hope for, I had used one orb for three creatures.
I could also see that the main body had noticed as well as the swamp became a hive of activity. My map lit up with hundreds of dots all milling about. When I saw the next group, they were spewing a cloud of spores into the air. I could see that this thing was trying to make it impossible for me to move forward. Too bad for it since I had my flame aura active it burned any spores that reached me into ash. I would retaliate with a flame orb and let the beasts burn as I moved on.
Hunting this thing took me further into the swamp, and learned the reason for the horrendous smell. This thing had converted hundreds if not thousands of creatures. All of those things were decaying but without the natural scavengers and other processes to aid in the decomposition. The sheer mass of beasts shambling about explained much. Like why there was no shift from night to day previously, and why there had been only one large predatory animal on that side of the forest. The reitel I had fought had been the only one smart enough to stay away. Either way, I kept moving until I ran into the first of many problems.
I hit an area that was nothing but murky water for a couple of hundred feet. I could see the water moving meaning there was something in the water’s depths. Whatever it was had been converted as well since I could see minions entering and exiting the murky water on the far side. From what I could tell this was possibly the origin point of the flood. Look at the surrounding area, it looked like this is what remained of a riverbed. In both directions the trees were split, if you looked you could see where the sides of the river would have been. It was obvious with this thing's weakness to fire creating this swamp had been one measure it took to protect itself.
I had to find a way to cross and swimming was most defiantly an option. I could see movement in the water leading me to believe that there was defiantly something under the water. I found one of the trees that seemed to be surviving and began to climb. The tree was still sturdy and even seemed to grow well in these conditions. I looked around all of the trees that were doing well were similar. Once I was up high enough, I finally reached a branch. The view is much better and when I look down, I can see shadows in the water.
“That’s a nope.”
I looked at the opposite side. While I could not be sure the trees seemed to be in the same shape on the other side. I decided that I would try to land on one of the other trees. It seemed to be the best option since I could not be sure of the ground. I backed up to get a running start. I knew I would need to time my spell for the last second. If I cast it too soon, I would not have enough momentum to get across. I only slightly miss time my spell. But I do get enough momentum when I jump, to get over to one of the branches of the next tree.
From my vantage point, I see a mass of movement on this side of the river. The minions are shambling around in random patterns. It is truly like a zombie apocalypse. I watch as they run into each other sometimes the collisions are harmless. Other times one or both are damaged, sometimes beyond being able to move.
As a test, I decide to hit a few with orbs. This time I decided to test different magics that I can conjure. I know fire is highly effective, I want to know what else works. My testing gives me multiple options, acid, and ice both work. Acid like fire is instantaneous but does not have the same spreading capabilities. With acid though I notice that the death is so fast that the hivemind does not register it. Ice is the opposite as it is very slow to kill, and causes the hivemind to send more shambling minions.
My testing over, I have stirred more action. More and more dots have shown up on this side leading me to believe that the hive is defiantly on this side of the river. The thing is insidious it is not smart it is the opposite. As it activates more minions, I find that it makes it easier to find the thing's location. I find a densely packed group and hit it with a splash of fire orbs. The mob goes up in glorious flame. I watch from the trees as more shamblers arrive. Taking note of the direction they came from I move that way. I keep this up moving from tree to tree attacking and heading the way the creatures come from. I manage to do this for several hours until my mana runs low and I am forced to rest. I eat one of my last remaining protein bars not wanting to risk starting a fire. I check on Akurra the timer is down to twenty-four hours. I want to push through but I know I need at least a few hours of sleep. It would also take two hours for my mana to refill anyway. I decided to rest for a few hours and get some sleep. While it was not ideal it would be better than trying to fight this thing while exhausted. I find a crook in one of the wide branches of the tree I am in and settle down for a quick nap.
I wake up and realized I have overslept. When I check the timer there are only twenty hours left. I also realize the sun has begun to rise. What I see horrifies me. The air is currently full of spores. It seems that the creature has upped the spore generation through the night. The air looks like Los Angeles in the eighties, or New Delhi after harvest season you can see the particles swirling in the air.
The stagnant air of the swamp is perfect for this manner of attack. There are few currents to move the air around so the spores just stay trapped floating around in the air waiting. It looks like the minions have a limit. When I look at them now, none of them is currently producing spores. They have probably been storing this up for some time. But it will take them some time to build back up. The better tactic would have been to have half produce the spores and keep the other half in reserve. Again, the creature while diabolical is more instinctual than smart and tactical.
The only thing is that I now can’t see more than ten feet in front of me. I have to rely on my map and my other senses for some time until I find a small clear area. All of the minions have stopped moving their shambling down to a minimum. I need to rile them up again. I cast and throw a few flame orbs down on the nearest minions.
I don’t realize how much of a mistake I have made until I watch as the beasts catch fire. There are more beasts in the area than I had accounted for. And I watch as the flames arc from beast to beast. The flame heads for a dense patch of the air with spores in it.
“Oh fuck.” I don’t have time to do much as the flame hits the patch of air. I do what I can by putting the tree between me and the initial blast. My mistake was forgetting that the air was full of spore particles. I remember an old video where they were using lycopodium powder to recreate flour mill explosions. It fit here because lycopodium was also a spore, and when in the air in sufficient quantities burned rapidly. Once the flames hit a section of air with a high enough density of spores. The reaction was swift and energetic, to say the least. A roiling cloud of flame burst out in all directions from the ignition point burning everything in its path.
Akurra and I were only saved by a few things. We were lucky that the tree we were in was hearty and took the brunt of the damage. We were also saved by my earlier stupidity. The fact that I had started the flame in this area had left less fuel for the fire to burn. But outside of this little area was utter devastation. I had unintentionally taken this creature’s best attack and turned it against itself. Even with our shield, I had taken a huge hit.
Warning you are at 15% health.
I was at twelve hundred of over eight thousand hit points. If I had any less HP or had moved any slower, I would be dead. I had moved to shield Akurra, so he was only down slightly less HP. I could feel the burns and the heat all over my body, and my natural regen had not kicked in yet I must have been because of the nearly catastrophic damage. I needed to help my regen along. I reached for my Wand of Greater Heal and used the magic on myself and Akurra. I felt the cool power of the magic wash over me. I could feel my HP start to rise I decided to look around.
I can only guess about what happened here. This attack was probably its best attack to flood the area with spores to infect and stop attackers. Considering the stillness of the swamp when I arrived. This thing probably had not been attacked in some time. It must have had a huge buildup of spores more than it would have had previously. Then I go and hit it with the equivalent of a flame thrower. The side of the tree that was hit by the impact of the flames was charred, and all the leaves had been burned off. It looked as if a bomb had gone off. The mostly dead or dying trees either were shattered the healthy trees were burned and one side had all of the leaves stripped off but the trees were survivors. The minions had borne the brunt of the fierce flames. Most were ash and the few that had survived were mostly just twitching in place. The flames had fixed another issue the ghastly odor that permeated the area had been reduced. I think that also had something to do with the energy of the flames.
I had received no notification that whatever this thing was had been defeated. Akurra also still had a timer counting down. That meant this thing was still alive. So, I needed to continue. I needed a direction so I picked one that still had movement and headed that way. The environment had become a factor now as well since there would still be a flare-up from burning trees. There was also the occasional minion still combusting here and there as well.
It takes a few hours but I find a mass of dots on my map. As soon as I see it, I head in that direction. I know what I am looking for is there. Up until this point, the minions have been shambling outwards. This group of dots was moving in the same direction. The dots were circling something. Once I can see it with my own eyes, I am sure I have found what I was looking for.
Coming through the brush I find a stagnant body of water with a large island in the center. The island is ringed by intermittent trees. The trees are mostly dead and are covered in black moss. In the center is a huge mound of black fungus. The fungus would be horrid on its own, but multiple stalks of fungus are covered in what can only be eyes.
Black Spore Creeper lvl 76.
It looks like I have found the epicenter, and it is bad. The Island is surrounded by minions. These minions seem to be under the direct control of the nightmare-fueled creature in the center of the island. While some of the creatures are damaged, they seem to have avoided the worst damage. The minions are set up in rings. There is a large mass of smaller minions moving in a large circle on the outside ring of the island. There is also something huge in the water, I know this because the water moves when it goes past. Then on the island, there are three more beasts. These things are larger than anything I have seen outside of the queen spider. If Akurra was not in danger I would leave this whole situation and go on about my life. Of course, I would need to scrub my eyeballs and have nightmares. Akurra is my only friend currently and I refuse to lose him to a nightmare mushroom.
The three minions on the island are all different beasts. One is a huge cat of some type. I could not tell you what its fur or color would have been originally. It was something I would not have wanted to fight on my own. Next to the cat was a bear the size of a large SUV. Imagine a grizzly bear and make it three times the size. The third thing was some type of six-legged lizard. It had a massive head with a frill and huge teeth.
I make the decision this thing has to go for Akurra, and my mental health. I knew that I would feel uneasy if I let this thing live. Now I have to find the best way to do it. I need both elevation and line of sight to start to form a plan. I went back to my tried-and-true system of moving from tree to tree. It was much harder now since most of the trees had been burned in some way. I made it work. At one point I was sure the creature had seen me, but I quickly found out this was not the case. It was quite the opposite.
I was watching trying to time it so I could get to a closer tree. When a burning branch from the tree I was in fell on top of one of the beasts. The roving group stopped moving and moved away from the burning member. The larger minions moved to the side of the burning minion in a defensive formation but did not leave the island. I also noticed that one of the many eyes on the stalks went dark. It was something I needed to confirm.
I decided that I would test it even with the attention facing this direction. I cast Greater Reduce Gravity and jumped. I decided that I would glide to the next tree while the attention was on the area, I was in.