Leather chairs and oversized sofas, large enough for the clan’s monstrous residents, littered the room, along with sleek coffee tables. Intricately woven tapestries covered the stone walls, displaying magnificent battles scenes that could’ve been ripped straight from the pages of a fantasy novel: Some dark-elf warrior, wreathed in glowing shadows, sat atop a six-eyed shadow dragon. A ferocious dungeon troll with a meat tenderizer fought beside a tortoise-shelled lizard. A shapeshifting golem with mace-hands waylaid a small army of dungeoneers. Mounted prominently above the fireplace was a golden tree, entwined with a curling Azure Dragon.
The Tree of Souls.
The common room was genuinely warm and welcoming—at least, it would’ve been if the Terrible Twelfth weren’t at the very bottom of the proverbial pecking order. Shadowcroft Academy was an institution that valued strength, and the Azure Dragon Clan emulated that ethos to their core. The couches and chairs were already occupied by the strongest teams, while the private alcoves, fitted with bookshelves and oversized desks, were all occupied by the upperclassmen, who pretty much got first dibs on everything. Despite that, some part of Logan wanted to stay and socialize, but then he spotted Chadrigoth and his Undead girlfriend hamming it up with some of the senior dungeon cores.
Logan wasn’t one to be pushed around or bullied, no matter how small he was, but he just didn’t have the mental energy to deal with that guy tonight. Especially not since he had more important matters to occupy his time. So, after a quick round of goodbyes and good nights to his team, Logan beelined for the curling staircase that led to the first-year dorm rooms. Since he was the weakest core, he also got the worst accommodations. All the way at the very top of the tower, in the attic, which meant trudging up ten flights of stairs. His narrow room was nothing to write home about—not that he could write home—but it included a small cot, a water closet, and a little woodburning stove.
The room was small, but Logan thought of it as cozy. Besides, he was small, he reminded himself, so it wasn’t like he needed a giant room. Plus, the attic came with a fantastic view of Loch Endless. He had to climb a ladder up from Marko’s room, which was pretty spartan at the moment, though the satyr had big plans. According to him and Inga, crafting items was part of the dungeon-core gig. The more they leveled, the more they could furnish their rooms.
For the time being, Logan liked his little space. He pulled the bed over next to the window, the wooden legs scraping against the stone. He wanted to fall asleep watching the moonlight on the lake and wake up to the sunrise.
He had a wardrobe, mostly empty, a chest of drawers, and a worn table. A little fire burned in the stove. As a mushroom, he didn’t much like fire, but he did find the warm flames fun. It would go out in the middle of the night, and he’d enjoy the damp darkness under the sloping ceilings of his attic home.
That night, Logan couldn’t sleep. He knew he needed to, and he should capitalize on the fact that Marko wasn’t home and snoring. With his horns, the satyr couldn’t sleep on his side, so he slept flat on his back, which made the snoring worse. The guy sounded like a foghorn alerting incoming ships.
Marko, against all reason, had gone out with his friends to the nearby town of Vralkag, the only non-academy settlement on Arborea. That Gelatinous Knight was not being a good influence on the satyr.
Marko’s question came back to Logan... one of the serious ones. What was Fungal Vision? Also, Logan had to figure out which fungus he could start growing.
Since he couldn’t sleep anyway, Logan closed his eyes, accessed his core, and focused on the menu options. He found a description of Fungal Vision as well as his other passive skills.
<<<>>>
Passive Fungal Form Abilities:
Fungaloids have a wide variety of passive abilities, which never need to be activated to be in effect. Because of their unique anatomy, evolved fungaloids cannot be blinded, deafened, or poisoned, and because they don’t have a single source “brain,” they are additionally immune to mental spells and psionic attacks such as charm, frighten, and calm.
At E-Class, Ranks 10 – 6 Fungal Vision, Current Status: Unlocked
At E-Class, Ranks 5 – 1 Disease Immunity, Current Status: Locked
At C-Class, Ranks 10 – 6 Poison Immunity, Current Status: Locked
At C-Class, Ranks 5 – 1 Ability: Replicate, Current Status: Locked
At B-Class, Ranks 10 – 6 Blindness Immunity, Current Status: Locked
At B-Class Ranks 5 – 1 Deafness Immunity, Current Status: Locked
At A-Class, Ranks 10 – 6 Mental Immunity, Current Status: Locked
At A-Class, Ranks 5 – 1 Psionic Immunity, Current Status: Locked
Fungal Vision: Fungaloids are creatures made from a collection of spores, and they can use those spores to see in a variety of ways. Fungal Vision allows the fungaloid to see in the dark and to detect invisible entities. With practice, the Fungaloid cannot be surprised since their sight encompasses their spore field.
<<<>>>
It was a little nerve-wracking to think Logan was constantly leaking spores, but he decided to give this new ability a whirl. He exhaled and felt the spores leave his gills, just like when he was using his pollen ability. This time, though, he concentrated on his core. He still had Apothos, but more than that, it opened him up to the knowledge that he wasn’t his body, not really, but the gemstone in his belly.
Abruptly, he was seeing himself, lying on his bed, with his tiny fire flickering in the stove across the room. His clothes were hung up, and he was comfortable on his mattress, under the scratchy sheets and comfy blankets. The darkness didn’t matter. He had his Fungal Vision working!
What else could he do? His character sheet said that one of his racial abilities was fungi domestication. He’d read about that while he’d been in the Threshing dungeon, but hadn’t had the opportunity to go through the options available to him. Now, though, he had all the time he needed to delve into the information. It was time to get elbow-deep in all the nitty-gritty details of the abilities his new guardian form had to offer. Everyone seemed to think the fungaloid was rather worthless, but Logan knew he just needed to find the right loophole.
The right build.
<<<>>>
Domestic Fungi: There are thousands of types of mundane and magical mushrooms that grow throughout the realms connected to Ashvattha. But the fungaloid can spawn many of the rarest, deadliest, and most valuable mushrooms around. These fungi can be quite useful to dungeoneers and attract those looking for rare alchemic ingredients. More advanced types of fungi can have additional abilities or even be mobile and aggressive. Proto-Spore Cultures live inside of the host fungaloid and can be spawned even if mature specimens are lost, destroyed, or harvested. Mature mushrooms can take days or even weeks to grow, though it is possible to drastically increase maturity with the Rapid Growth Spore Ability.
As an E-Class, Rank-8 cultivator, you can select two Level-One Proto-Spore Cultures and one Level-Two Proto-Spore Culture. Would you like to view a list of available Proto-Spore Cultures? Yes/No?
<<<>>>
Logan read over the text once more, though this time at a far more leisurely pace than when he’d been dangling above a wild monster hog looking to gore him to death. After rereading the description, he mentally selected yes, pulling a brief overview of the E-Class system: