Chapter 72

Project turn into lichen was a go!

Heh, I love naming things.

I ripped some of the lichen’s mycelium out of the lichen’s grip and tried to assimilate it. And just like I expected the damn thing didn’t like it one bit better than the pain mushroom. I had to keep under heel just long enough for some algae to make the jump unto me. Then I’d let the lichen’s mycelium go free.

I waited. And waited some more. I waited long enough that doubt started to creep in.

Does the algae prefer the fungus its already bonded to? Will it just not bond with other mushrooms? Well that sucks…

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Hold on what if I just … eat the lichen?

Like I did with my own mycelium. The algae within the lichen cells will then be free floating within me. Then all I would have to do is use the nutrients I gained from consuming the lichen into growing more mycelium and mushrooms. Probably only mushrooms, cuz’ there’s more surface area on the caps than there would be on my mycelium.

But would that even work? It sounds like it could. It’s just … i don’t know It feels icky. The lichen probably isn’t sentient and wouldn’t feel a thing but this feels like actual cannibalism.

Consuming my own damn self was one thing but consuming another mushroom is a whole different proposition.

If I was human, eating a mushroom I wouldn’t even think twice about it but now … now that I am one, eating a mushroom feels barbaric. I can’t do that, it makes me uncomfortable.

Although… I guess I wouldn’t have to consume the whole organism. Just the bit I already assimilated… oooo better yet what if I consume just a small fragment of the already assimilated bit. I only really need one lichen cell to propagate itself into my cells.

Then I’d just have to encourage the algae cell to multiply. How exactly I could do that was the question.

But I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually. I’m not exactly in a rush anymore, I have all the time I need.