Chapter 7

The mushrooms I was growing to lure the animal back reached full maturity.

They were the only ones I grew to that size but I really want to keep track of time, so instead of growing my regular sized mushrooms I grew tiny ones along the ground branching off from my sensory network. They were super tiny ones and once they reached a certain size I stopped their growth and stopped my nutrients from reaching them. This actually helped grow my network grow a bit quicker all the while I could keep track of time.

These little mushrooms were smaller than my regular mushrooms so obviously they were tracking a smaller amount of time.

Once my little trap experiment to learn more about the creature was done I would have to wait a long while for the predator to lose interest but once it did, I would compare my tiny mushrooms to my regular mushrooms.

You might ask why I didn’t measure them while I grew the bait mushrooms. And that had a simple answer I hadn’t thought to.

This might seem ludicrous to believe but I’m making up this as I go along. I’m not some psychic or a really confident person who had everything in their life planned out. Even when I was human that wasn’t me.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

As a mushroom though I’ve been forced to think and adapt on what I think might lead to my continued survival.

On that note, I was avoiding the root systems of the forest. it wasn’t intentional, but I guess I was scared to find out if the trees and plants were sentient or hostile. They were an easy and fast way to attain my needed nutrients but I think I read that some species of trees like their space and when that space is violated they retaliate hard. Sometimes killing other trees around them.

Perhaps growing an offshoot from my bde project mycelium and contacting the root system from there might work better than directly contacting my local part of the root systems. That way if the plants there do kill the mycelium my main collective will be safer.

That was definitely safer but it would take some time for my mycelium to reach an acceptable distance to then split and go their separate ways.

I was like 30 mini-mushroom growths in when some of mycelium that was apart of my sensory network started dying. I wouldn’t know what the creature was exactly but I was certain that whatever it was wasn’t bipedal. I didn’t even know if it was the same predator that consumed my other mushrooms. Perhaps that one eventually died somewhere nowhere near me and this was a new one.

I would know a bit more when it consumed my mushrooms. If the remaining stalks were jagged in a similar way to the first time it happened, I would at least know that it was likely of the same species.

One mushroom gone.

The second mushroom was gone as well.

Hmmm… yeah the teeth marks match. This was likely the same predator as last time. So this is another thing I’ve learned I’m not poisonous.

And what this the creature just killed some more of my mycelium but it hasn’t moved.

What … ?

Why am I feeling satisfied?

Ugh no EWWWWW!!!

The bastard just pooped and my mycelium automatically started consuming it!