Chapter 108

Talking to the adolescent mushroom was a completely unique experience.

While the young one was quiet confusing to understand, having found one that was entirely and wholly different to all others of its kind was absolutely astonishing.

After the young sapling told me of its experience I asked it to subsume a very tiny piece of the fungus then analyze and next send over the information to me through the mycorrhizal network.

Once it reached me and I studied the information, I could not believe it. A Devouring Mushroom.

A mushroom I very much recognized and had come across several times before. I was ready to eradicate it’s existence before I remembered what the young sapling told me. It was helping the sapling live, giving it nutrients and water when it needed them.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Whereas all those I met so far were harmful and detrimental to the forest as a whole, this one here was doing just the opposite. It was helping its neighbors grow. Ludicrous.

And as if that was not baffling enough I soon enough got a report from several other trees saying that they felt unnatural growth on top of their tree bark during the fire. They then reported that when the growths stopped that is when they felt water thoroughly drench them. Being slow thinkers they assumed the two were two unrelated events.

But this was all too suspicious to ignore. Unnatural growth was a crucial signifier that a devouring mushroom was running rampant.

But … their unnatural growth factor were only possible when they devour a significant amount of nutrients from their area, hence their name. None of the aftereffects from that particular behavior was reported to me by my colony. There were absolutely no withering plants or trees in my area that would suggest a Devouring Mushroom was present and yet all the evidence suggested one was present.

I was intent on asking the young devouring mushroom all my questions but it all went quiet poorly.

For now I will respect it’s desire for space and wait for it to contact me.