It was mid-day and i was sweating like a pig as a i trudged through the woods looking for shrooms. I know what you’re thinking right now and no, you’re wrong. I’m not looking for shrooms to get high, although i do have some in my collection but i actually need it for study.
I am what you would call a mycologist, or rather a budding one since i’m still just a biology student doing his thesis in Pycnoporus sangeuinus and it’s ability to degrade pollutants in the environment; there’s so much to learn about mushrooms and being able to eat or get high with them is just a plus.
Anyways, right now im walking through the woods looking for that said fungus available in the area and as i wandered through the forest. My eyes were scanning the underbrush and dead wood for the fungi given that it usually grows on dead wood.
The damp ground squelched beneath my boots as i made my way deeper in the thicket, hearing the faint sounds of trickling water in the distance.
Which was weird since i am very sure that there shouldn’t be any large bodies of water where i am at right now. Shaking my head, i took the liberty to collect a bunch of other mushroom and fungi as i trekked,
Taking my time to take out my field journal and filling in the specimen samples that i already have and the ones that i don’t. There’s one there that i particularly like that i had ordered online.
It was the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis fungus commonly known as zombie ant fungi popularized by a game with mushroom zombies. The name need not be mentioned since i think almost everyone familiar with modern pop-culture knows about it.
As i stored the sample, i noticed that the environment around seems to be a bit different from what i remembered. The trees were taller and thicker.
Their branches were twisting and grasping out eerily like fingers; and the air was thick with the scent of damp earth and decay.
My heart started racing as i looked around; “What the fuck?” i cursed under my breath as why the hell was there fog in this stupid forest at noon? And why the hell is it so suddenly gloomy and dark?
Shaking my head, i muttered a soft. “Just passing through, if there are spirits here please dont eat me”
Taking a deep breath, i started backtracking and panic set in as i tried to retrace my steps but the forest seemed to be suddenly unfamiliar; shifting and changing around me as it taunted me with unfamilliarity.
I stopped, took a deep breath as my eyes caught a peculiar looking mushroom growing at the base of the big scary looking tree with branches that really looked like fingers.
My curiosity warred with my fear for a few seconds but in the end my curiosity won out nad strangled the unreasonable fear in it’s cradle as i moved towards the peculiar mushroom.
It was something i had never seen before; It was a peculiar shade of blue with gills that seemed to glow in the deep light. As i approached, I stared at it in amazement and focused my eyes at it’s structure.
Blue Glowshroom
A blue screen popped up in may face startling me to my back. “What the fuckk??”
Am i hallucinating because of the shroom? Holy shit, This is cool but also scary as fuck. Did the spores get into my system from being just a foot away.
Please dont be a poisonous mushroom. Hallucigenic would be okay but please dont kill me, i just wanted to look at you mushroom sir…
I sat there dumbly for a few seconds before the blue screen disappeared in my view but on the corner of my eyes, a glowing notification icon appeared; and then suddenly.
Fungi Identification Leveled up to 2!
Appeared In my mind; What the hell is happening!? I pushed myself up, feeling the cool ground under my fingers.
“Status?”
Name: Christian
Race: Human
Class: None (Please choose a class)
Rank: None (Please choose a class first)
Skills:
Mushroom Identification: 10
Fungal Ecology: 8
Survival: 6
Botany: 5
Holy shit! Did that mushroom gave me an honest to god system? Did i just hit the jackpot? Or maybe i am still hallucinating.
Raising my finger, i touched the please choose class text on the hovering prompt and bam!
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Fungal Forager
Mushroom Hunter
Survivalist
Mushroom Farmer
Plant Whisperer
Fungal Shaper
A wide array of choices suddenly appeared and as i read through it, i am just gobsmacked at the choices. What the hell are these choices? None of them look even remotely cool sounding or normal other than survivalist.
The fuck is a plant whisperer?
Where’s the classic, rogue, mage, warrier archetypes?
Taking a long and deep breath, I considered my choices, if it was real; it was still unique to have something like this and i don’t believe for a second that they would all be useless. Maybe they are all just starting classes?
Fungal forager and mushroom hunter sounds the same so i automatically crossed that out of the list, Farmer is meh while survivalist would be added to the to be considered pile.
Plant whisperer sounds just weird and fungal shaper is twice that; Either could be great but without any prior data to analyze, i could only consider other possibilities.
Plant whisperer could be literally just someone talking to plants to something as big to being able to communicate and control them directly.
As for fungal shaper. It sounds like someone that makes bonsai trees out of mushrooms, or it could also be an honest to god ability to control and shape fungi which if is true, the possibilities are endless!
I felt giddy as i stared at the screen although i did remind myself that this could just be a load of bull from hallucinating from a new kind of mushrooms, i might be passed out and just having the most realistic trip of my whole life.
Well, there’s no point waiting, i pressed directly on fungal shaper and crossed my fingers as a “Are you sure you want to be a Fungal shaper” prompt appeared.
Yes, i decided. Making Bonsai shrooms would still be cool and maybe profitable if ever.
“Class Fungal Shaper Has been Chosen”
A series of prompts appeared after that telling me about my new class and immediately, i checked my status screen.
Name: Christian
Race: Human
Class: Fungal Shaper
Rank: Novice
Skills:
Survival: 6
Fungal Growth Manipulation: 1
Spore Control: 1
Fungal Mastery: 8
Botany: 5
Mushroom Identification: 10
Fungal Ecology: 8
Fungal Communication: 1
Wuilderness Navigation: 1
Fungal Tracking: 1
I knew that if someone saw me, they would see my eyes flashing stars with a dumb smile across my face as i stared at nothing.
There was brief sensation in my mind as i felt something just click. I blinked my eyes and from one moment i just felt different.
Looking around, i saw that the forest was still just as gloomy and foreboding but it didn’t scare me anymore. I felt like i had some 6th sense giving me some information about the area. In my mind there was like motes of light spread around me that i could feel.
It was a weird feeling of spatial awareness that spreads around a few meters from where i stood. I could feel the blue glowshroom in my minds eye and as i walked back to it and stared at it for a couple more seconds and knowledge about the mushroom i didn’t even know before suddenly came up based on it’s features and form.
Blue Glowshroom The Glow Shroom is a carnivorous plant that grows in dark, damp environments. It is characterized by its bioluminescence, emitting a bright glow to attract small prey. Once the prey is lured in, the Glow Shroom bursts a sweet liquid from its gills, which has a mild antiseptic effect to help preserve the flesh. The plant's spores then slowly eat away at the flesh of its prey, eventually causing it to decompose. As the decomposing matter nourishes the Glow Shroom, new mushrooms grow from the remains, continuing the cycle of life and death in the dark corners of the forest. While it may seem like a gruesome process, the Glow Shroom is an important part of the ecosystem, helping to break down organic matter and provide sustenance for other organisms.
Holy shit, that came out of nowhere. But my surprise couldn’t smother my excitement; i knew instinctively that this was the ability coming from my Fungal Mastery 8;
I’m not hallucinating! I have an honest to god system!
Although celebrating in the creepy forest did taper down my enthusiasm, the magical experience was still magical in the end.
Trying out, my other skills, i mentally tried to send out a thought to the plant as i slowly place my hand upon it.
And upon touching it, it didn’t react from the external stimuli i was exerting upon it. Test 2 was a success, now time for some real magic!
I visualized the glowshroom growing and i felt a surge of energy flow from my hand into the mushroom, and then see it began to change, although I could feel that my control for it’s growth was still lacking as it grew normally as it would a normally would with my skill.
The gills grew longer and thicker and the glow began to slowly pulse with a soft blue light.
I still couldn’t fully believe it. I was actually making it grow with some sort of esoteric power coming from my body. It was an incredible feeling that i was actually doing magic.
Excitedly, using my knowledge from before, i scraped off a piece of dead wood usng my knife and communicated with the mushroom to spore.
It’s gills suddenly puffed and streaks of liquid came out and splashed at the forest floor. Taking my piece of deadbark; i scooped up some of the goop and used Fungal growth manipulation on it again.
Although it wouldn’t grow as optimally as it could from eating a living being's flesh, magic could substitute for its sustenance as I watched its spores grow from a minuscule stalk to a small mushroom before my eyes.
It’s like a timelapse; a very cool timelapse that’s happening in real-time.
I stuck the small mushroom and placed it in one of the specimen bags in my journal. I was about to close it and go on my merry way before suddenly having a really bright idea.
Although, most of the mushrooms are dead in my specimen’s journal. I had a literal magical green thumb for mushrooms.
It wouldn’t be irrational for it not to work since fungal spores that could be present on the dead mushrooms do have a really long lifetime.
With a renewed sense of purpose, i sat down and made use of my new skills to play around… i mean do scientific research on the magical effects of the systems skills.
1st step; growing all of my mushrooms from their dead carcasses. Muhahahaha!
I swear, this power isn’t going into my head.