《Reborn as a MUSHROOM!?》 Prologue Prologue So I¡¯m walking down the street same as always just tryna get back to my sweet sweet bed when a car hits and kills me. Yeah and that¡¯s not the fucked in part. My death wasn¡¯t a quick and easy one either I actually survived the hit. Instead of the quick and painless death I desperately wanted it was taken from me when a Good Samaritan saw I¡¯ve been hit, immediately ran to help, checked my pulse, saw my heart wasn¡¯t pulsing and began cpr. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Fucking Good Samaritans. I might have appreciated her efforts if I lived, but now thinking about it I wouldn¡¯t have. Who would have settled the bill? Her? Not likely. I would have to cough up the money. Which was laughable because I barely had enough money to pay my rent. So I survived. For like 15 hours of excruciating pain. And then I died. Fuck Good Samaritans. How am I writing this you ask? Truth is I¡¯m not. I¡¯m narrating this in my head. Because just like all those fucking anime isekai bullshit shows I watched and enjoyed I was reincarnated too and brought to another world. Now you¡¯re asking, ¡®hey if you liked these shows why you getting mad?¡¯ I¡¯m not mad I¡¯m pissed because all these isekai mother fuckers were reincarnated into god like human bodies while I was reincarnated into a FUCKING MUSHROOM! Chapter 1 Chapter 1 While I adore mushrooms saut¨¦ed in some olive oil, with some salt, oh and a little bit of cayenne for some spiciness or oooooo even some mushrooms on some ¡®za!!! And don¡¯t get me started on all the vegan mushroom dishes out there ... actually where was I going with this? Ah right as much as I love mushrooms, I don¡¯t want to be one. How I ended up as one ... you know what I¡¯m not saying correlation equals causation here but what if my love for mushrooms was seen by some fucked up god and choose this body for me as some sort of cosmic joke? Do I believe in a god? Gods? Well if you asked me that while I was still human I would have said fuck no and moved on with my day. Scoffing all the while at a dumb question. But seeing as my days now consist of sitting on a damn log everyday and doing jack shit as a mushroom, I¡¯m starting to believe. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Because I have all this anger and no one to direct it at, it only makes sense to direct it at some unloving fucked up god. Lashing out at myself does me no good and seeing as there¡¯s no one to talk to as a fucking mushroom and even if there were, I have no vocal chords! ¡ª it seems I have no choice BUT to direct my anger at a god. One thing ¡ª among many ¡ª I hate about being a mushroom is that I can¡¯t see. No eyes remember? The only way to sense my surroundings is by growing my mycelium. Which is practically useless because all I could sense is rotting wood. Which is fucking disgusting!! I mean as a mushroom this stuff is actually delicious. Not that I can taste, mind, I just feel nourished as hell whenever my mycelium consumes a bit of the surrounding rotting wood. But as a human? Well I guess it¡¯d be more accurate to say as a human living as a mushroom, with human sensibilities. Whatever you know what I mean! It¡¯s gross. Thinking on it more though, didn¡¯t my high school biology teacher say that mushrooms can feed off of excrement too? So I guess I¡¯m lucky I got stuck on a log. Reframing my situations into a positive, heh my therapist would be proud. Chapter 2 Chapter 2 You know what I just thought of? What if I get picked off my rotting wooden log!? By human or animal? Would I die? I don¡¯t think so, since I''m more than just this singular mushroom, but I¡¯m really fucking scared someone¡¯s gunna rip me out of the log and eat me!! I mean I get it as a former human I would totally want eat me, I¡¯d bet I¡¯d be fucking delicious! Oooooo speaking about delicious things I heard about this one mushroom that tastes like chicken! I mean can you picture it? That umami, chicken-y taste in a mushroom with no nerves, bones, or vessels in sight! Ooooo I fucking love mushrooms. I think its called chicken of the woods? If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Hmm what was I talking about? Oh yeah. I DON¡¯T WANT ANYONE TO EAT ME!! Am I a hypocrite? Eh who cares... wait if I¡¯m stuck as a mushroom are other people stuck as mushrooms as well? I mean before I reincarnated as one I snarfed em down like no ones business. Oh god was I eating other people?! Ew ew ew ew ew ew. Wait. Am I even in the same world? Are people being reincarnated in the same world as the one they were born into? Or are they taken to be reincarnated somewhere else? Because if it¡¯s the latter I¡¯d much rather have eaten random other people from different worlds than eat ones reborn into the same world, cuz¡¯ I mean just imagine! There¡¯s like a serious chance you¡¯d be eating a passed love one! That¡¯s fucked up. But this is only an assumption and one I can¡¯t really focus on because I need to focus on survival. Like not being eaten. If I¡¯m remembering correctly though mushrooms are like fruits off a tree. My main body is my mycelium, which means I can grow more than one mushroom. Wait if my mushrooms are basically fruit ... does that mean my mushrooms are basically a sexual organ? Heh. I need to grow like the biggest mushroom ever. I¡¯ll definitely have big dick energy then. Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Okay ruminating on it more, while funny, I don¡¯t think that would be the move. I need to survive so yes I¡¯ll have to grow more mushrooms to spread more of myself but I can¡¯t draw attention to myself right now. My main goal right now should be to reach the ground. If my mycelium reaches the ground I stand more of a chance to survive if there were ever a fire in this forest. Am I in a forest though? I mean I¡¯m just assuming I really don¡¯t know I could be in some farm of mushrooms specifically designed to be consumed by intelligent people. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Would that be bad though? Thinking about it logically, it would put me in a more advantageous position. Yeah my mushrooms would be regularly taken from me but I would be protected and encouraged to grow exponentially. I¡¯d be basically a food factory but I¡¯d get to live right? On second thought that sounds like a horrible place to be. Living at the whim of some unknowable creature is not a good time. Either way my first goal is clear. Whether I¡¯m in a farm or in a forest reaching the outer edges of my log should tell me whether it¡¯s soft loamy soil or a sturdy container of some kind. This is gunna take some time not that I can keep track of it. Mushrooms don¡¯t really keep track of time. However I think I can keep time in an unorthodox manner. Since I¡¯m doing it either way, I can keep track of time growing one mushroom and measure whatever task I¡¯m doing by that. This means I¡¯ll have to grow my mushrooms one by one while doing whatever else I¡¯m doing. This is gunna take some time to get used to but I¡¯m not doing anything else. I¡¯m totally growing a huge mushroom eventually though. Chapter 4 Chapter 4 It took me a while to get used to doing two things at once, but I¡¯m not human anymore so while some things were practically impossible to do ¡ª like walking ¡ª some things were incredibly easy to do. Like multitasking. All in all I made pretty good time finding the outer edges of my rotting log. In the time it took me to reach outside of my log I grew four mushrooms all along my log So great news! I¡¯m in a forest, not in a farm. How could I tell? Well see I asked myself the same thing and after successfully reaching the outer edges of my log I found soil. Now finding soil is fine and dandy but how would I specifically know I still wasn¡¯t in/on a farm and then it hit me. While all I could see as a human was what was above ground, as a mushroom and I guess a plant too, I could sense so much more. See underneath a forest there¡¯s a plethora of roots belonging to trees and plants but most importantly fungi networks! These fungi networks allow trees and plants to basically talk to each other! High school knowledge for the fucking win. Why? Because I wouldn¡¯t know how to make heads or tails of what I sensed, if it wasn¡¯t for those damn lessons about ecology, nature and whatnot I would have never known what I''m sensing was. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. The thing is though, while I am a mushroom through and through, I don¡¯t have many instincts a natural born mushroom woulda and should have. I don¡¯t know how to carry their messages. I didn¡¯t even know if I could. Some mushrooms don¡¯t do that at all. See in school we learned that some mushrooms in exchange for carrying and delivering messages and nutrients, mushrooms are repaid with carbons. This being a mutualistic relationship. Where each entity benefit from coexisting. Priorities though, while communicating with the other species and benefiting from these types of relationships I still needed to expand a bit so that if something were to destroy my log I would still survive in the soil. Growing was hard. In a normal human body we just let our bodies grow by themselves and go about our lives. Never giving it much thought. I however as a mushroom needed to consciously grow. Eating and consuming my log carrying the nutrients to the ends of my mycelium and encourage growth all the while trying to track time by growing my mushrooms. It was definitely harder growing as a mushroom than as a human. I am curious though if my mushrooms release my spawn will that spawn grow to be more of me or would it be another of my species? Will it have the same intelligence as me? Will it be a basic version of my species, one without intelligence? I don¡¯t know which I¡¯d rather have. On the one hand having someone to talk to would be nice. But creating other lifeforms as smart as me is a little disconcerting. Even as a human I was a little wary of making and raising babies. I''d much rather have a pet and leave the raising of children to other people. So lets hope its just more of me. In fact lets run an experiment. If I grow one of my mushrooms at the edge of the log and then cut it of from my nutrients until it detaches and falls to the ground, will it grow into more of me? Of course I''d have to produce spawn before I drop them, but that was luckily one thing I did have an instinct for. Also I can check the area if I also grow towards that point from the ground. I have time so why not? Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Great news! Its just more of me. Its kind of like finding a limb you never knew you had and reattaching it. So no offspring for me! Yay! I''m sure at some point I might want some companion that understands and appreciates me but now really isn¡¯t the time. Besides pets exist. Domesticating animals might be a little difficult being a mushroom and all so the equivalent would be ¡­mmmm A PLANT. A small plant that I can cozy up to whenever I¡¯m feeling sad. Finding another goal/experiment to accomplish in the future, I checked back in on my experiment. While I ran my experiment I was continuing to count time by growing my mushrooms. The whole experiment took 7 growths. And better yet once I was done with the mushrooms I let them fall to the ground just like the experiment. letting me grow even faster around my log. I was lucky most of the stuff around my fallen log was the trees dead roots. I basically had no competition in my growth while also having the dead tree and roots to consume. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. I felt one of my mushrooms disappear. While I was currently growing them along the log so they could fall easier I hadn¡¯t even started cutting off my nutrients to this mushroom yet. A PREDATOR! Okay, okay calm down. I¡¯m okay its just one of my mushrooms it was gunna fall off either way calm down. Another disappeared. Fuck me! I have to stop growing them. the second mushroom that disappeared was just about to fall off but I really don¡¯t want others to expect a free meal from me, they may want use me as a food source. And trap me, if they''re sapient! Can I tell anything by the way they took my mushrooms. I check the pathways I used to grow them. What I sense are jagged stems. Almost like what took my mushrooms didn¡¯t snap them off but bit them off. This might be good news. The thing that took them might be an unthinking animal. Who just bites random mushrooms willy nilly? Without even cleaning them or checking if they¡¯re poisonous. Heck even I don¡¯t know if I¡¯m poisonous. All I can do is wait. Hold one that''s a lie I can do something about this, if I am poisonous that creature might die. And that just might be in my favor. I can use their death consume more nutrients. Even if the animal doesn¡¯t die, information gathering doesn¡¯t seem like such a pointless endeavor even if the creature doesn¡¯t end up dying I can sense when an animal comes by if I grow on the surface and poke my mycelium out of the ground a bit. Then when I sense the mycelium die, I¡¯ll know theres a creature around. Heck I bet I can even get a sense of what they are by the impression of their feet. Thankfully I only had those two mushrooms growing on my log as I was getting used to dropping them on the ground to grow more of me. If this animal died because it ate my mushroom I''d soon find out. Chapter 6 Chapter 6 So the mycelium sensory network, which was what I was calling it, surprisingly worked. I could tell the creature wasn¡¯t dead in my vicinity and likely left once it couldn¡¯t find more, so my mushrooms weren¡¯t immediately deadly to living beings. But I wanted to gather more data so I grew two more mushrooms. As those mushrooms grew, I expanded my network. I could sense a lot of what I can only hypothesize were insects. The little insects didn¡¯t kill my mycelium as they walked they merely brushed by sending tingling sensations down. It felt fucking weird but it was a price I was willing to pay because the network allowed me to gather more information about surroundings. It was a bitch and a half to grow my little stalks of mycelium through the grasses though. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. While I expanded my sensory network I also worked on my big dick energy project, heh. I had to amuse myself somehow so why not start the damn thing. I mean yeah the predator but come on, I¡¯m dying of boredom. Besides I¡¯m just growing some mycelium in a straight line far from where I started. This was going to be costly for some joke that only amused me but this endeavor was a slow going thing. While I was giving my project about 3 percent of my nutrients, the rest of my energy and focus was spent on growing my network and consuming my wooden log. My wooden log wouldn¡¯t last long, though, at the rate I¡¯m growing so I really needed to find another source to live of off. Which was luckily enough an excuse to bump the percentage of nutrients I was devoting to my project. If I went far enough I might find something interesting. I know I said that I was lucky I wasn¡¯t consuming excrement but tough times call for very, very desperate measures. I was holding out for another fallen and rotting tree but what are the chances of that? No I needed to play this smart. If I could find a fruit producing plant that animals regularly stop by and eat at I can set up shop around the plant because those animals don¡¯t completely eat the whole fruit and simply discard them on the ground when they¡¯re full. Also like extremely gross but they also might poop nearby and I can subsist off that for a bit. If this endeavor worked I could find multiple fruiting plants to grow around. Chapter 7 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 find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. 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! Chapter 8 Chapter 8 As disgusting as this is I needed to make some decisions. Was it worth attracting the thing back so I could poop in my vicinity again. I needed to direct the nutrients I got from the poop directly into creating two new mushrooms. This would let me see if the nutrients I gained by consuming the ¡­ product¡­ would exceed the nutrients I lost by growing new mushrooms. While I did that I could also test the growth ratio between the big mushroom and little mushrooms. Also it just hit me the predator might not poop every time it comes to consume my mushrooms. If I wanted to condition the animal to behave this exact same way again later I needed to encourage this behavior. Basically train the animal to do that every time it came for a meal. So this time I needed to grow three of them. If next time it didn¡¯t poop I would reduce the number of mushrooms until it caught on onto what I wanted. But wait I¡¯m not in an enclose environment. I couldn¡¯t guarantee this same predator would come back and even if did who¡¯s to say some other predator couldn¡¯t come in and snatch them before the first predator came by. No I needed to think about this further. I stopped the growth of all except one of my regular mushrooms. I still wanted that growth ratio. If the first predator came by or any predator came by and snatched it before it completed its growth id be pissed but I wouldn¡¯t grow another one. I wanted the growth ratio but it wasn¡¯t the end of the world if didn¡¯t get it immediately. Besides I just realized who said they had to grow on the log? My mycelium were pretty spread out by now I didn¡¯t have to grow them on the log. I was just used to it because thats how I¡¯ve been doing things so far. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. What if I grew them along the branch that¡¯s meant to contact the root system. Yeah. That makes sense. But I¡¯m planning for a potentiality, lets hope nothing goes wrong. It was almost like Murphy¡¯s Law was just waiting for me to say something because about 59 mini growths later, just as the regular mushroom was about to mature fully the thing just disappeared. It caught me by complete surprise because none of my mycelium died yet, and alerted me to a predator. Then it hit me flying creatures are just as capable of swooping in and eating my mushrooms completely bypassing my sensory network. FUCK! Well there goes that endeavor. I mean I got a rough estimate of the ratio but not to be a perfection freak I just wanted the exact ratio. Man fuck birds. Fuck bats. And fuck this world. As much as this sucked, I couldn¡¯t let this get me down. Training the predator was a no go but that didn¡¯t mean it was a failure it just meant I needed to pick the right environment and the right circumstances to train a creature. Getting the exact ratio was not vital to my survival, it was just something I wanted to do to know exactly how I¡¯ve been doing things. I still have my tiny mushroom clock system going and I can find the exact ratio later on. Nothing but time and nutrients was lost. And even then with contacting the root network I might gain my some nutrients by taking part in the messages exchanged by the plants around me. Is the flying creature still here? the sensory network I have is only deployed on the ground not on my log so I don¡¯t really know if its still here or not. i don¡¯t even know if its possible to develop my sensory network up here. The one on the ground is camouflaged by the grasses I grow them throw, if I grow them on the log they won¡¯t be disguised and will be easily spotted and perhaps avoided. I¡¯ve been consumed by two creatures now, I think its safe to say that I¡¯m delicious, heh, and an active target for creatures in this place. Lets not advertise my presence anymore than I have to. Chapter 9 Chapter 9 The bde project I was working on was going swimmingly. I was dodging any root networks of course, that was the offshoots job to do. The offshoot was making some distance as well and it too dodged any of root system¡¯s networks I needed to make some distance before I contacted the system. I couldn¡¯t have them contacting the system too close to me. I mean shit, I heard theres some trees who actively kill anything intruding in their vicinity, including other trees of the same species. That was on earth but who says this place can¡¯t have similar flora? Avoiding these types of trees might be easy to do as they won¡¯t be connected to the mycorrhizal root system, but just in case I kept my metaphorical eye out. Dividing my attention between keeping track of time with my mini growths, Project b.d.e., and hmmm lets call it Project First Contact was a little taxing but I expected that if I was still a human I wouldn¡¯t be able to do this. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. I mean not that I could have, I wasn¡¯t a mushroom then, but even just dividing attention between reading and listening to music was a challenge for some. I could do it just fine, but I was an avid ¡­ escapist? ... I was proficient in escapism. Anyway you get it, I wasn¡¯t too focused on the real world. Which now that I think of it might have been what have truly done me in. I mean I was reading a book on my phone while crossing that street. It was cook book which wasn¡¯t usually my what I typically read and went for when I wanted to escape but I was getting hungry and I wanted to try something new. Yes I was on the page featuring a mushroom dish! Quite a simple one too it was a lobster mushroom recipe. I was dipping my toes in some vegan dishes recently. And I was craving sea food hard. These little mother fuckers were actually two species of fungi! One infecting the other. Woah Im getting way off topic but the point is, I was decent at multitasking, but not to the extent I was now. I mean I was even doing those three things at once, while also paying attention to my sensory network. Those damn creepy-crawly bugs were crawling all over the place and wouldn¡¯t allow me to forget about it. I¡¯m actually a little surprised none of the little bastards have taken a bite out of one of the stalks. I mean if two animals already came in and ate my mushrooms why wouldn¡¯t my mycelium taste just as good? I wonder if they¡¯re ignoring an easy food source cuz I¡¯m well camouflaged in between the grasses I¡¯m growing through. Hmm. Chapter 10 Chapter 10 You know I freaked out when I woke up and realized I was a mushroom? I don''t want to give off the impression that I am super cavalier about all this I practically gave myself a panic attack when I finally realized what I was. But the thing about panic attacks is that they really rely and depend on the physical human body to keep itself going, so no real panic attack but I was still left with very real existential dread. And truth be told I don¡¯t know how long I spent in that state. But when I finally snapped out of that funk I realized I needed to concentrate on something to keep myself going. Falling into dread every time I thought about my situation really puts a damper on the ambience, so humor: life¡¯s best medicine. Maybe I cracked mentally a bit too, but whats life without a little crazy eh? Mental health was something I really struggled with back on earth, it¡¯s actually where I was coming back from that ole faithful day I died, a therapy session. But focusing on my mental health now wasn¡¯t something I could really even focus on at the moment, cuz of the, you know, whole being a mushroom thing. But dealing with mental health at this point of my mushroom life seemed like a luxury. Was I avoiding my problems? You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Maybe but I heard that mushrooms can live a very long time. Upwards of a thousand years. So I can safely say I got time for all of this in the future, If I can just make smart decisions right now and avoid burrowing predators. You know I heard mushrooms like me are sometimes targeted by wild boars? And from where truffles came from back on earth, wild and sometimes even trained and domesticated boars dug and hunted for mushrooms. Wild boars: my ultimate enemy. I sure hope the predator that ate my mushrooms wasn¡¯t one! Cuz¡¯ if it was my vendetta starts now! I mean not really, still a mushroom. But wouldn¡¯t it be fun to have like a rivalry thing going on between me and an animal? I''m sure it¡¯ll purely be a one sided thing but it would be free motivation to improve my situation. I mean look at my sensory network, I would have never come up with something like that if it weren¡¯t for adversity. And I¡¯m sure no mushroom back on earth had something like it. Who woulda thunk it: adversity breeds ingenuity. Chapter 11 Chapter 11 I¡¯d done it. I made contact with the mycorrhizal root network. Was it what I had expected? In a word? No. The plants were exchanging nutrients all right, but they weren¡¯t really communicating like humans did. Not to detract from what I¡¯m saying but I think Im growing increasingly comfortable referring to my previous species like they¡¯re some sort of experiment I was carefully observing. Its freaking me out! There was no intelligent language I could perceive. Just basic exchange of nutrients. This tree had a surplus of water so it released its excess into the root network. This other tree needed some basic sugars so it grabbed some excess that was going around the root system. No real direction, no real communication. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. It was more like a hub of merchants who were all pooling their resources into a bin and each taking what they needed from it. I mean yay for working together thats great but honestly I was looking forward to talk to someone. I mean not that I wished for another sentient creature to get reborn into this world as a plant or something, but I mean is finding a sentient tree species too much to ask for? Not that I could tell the sentience of a plant offhand I mean I was just tapped into the mycorrhizal part of the system what if I tapped into the tree itself? Would something change? Would it attack me? Lets find out. I dedicated some of my resources towards that end, speaking of my log is getting kind of low on the nutrient department¡­ hmmmm listen I don¡¯t condone stealing but these mycorrhizal bastards aren¡¯t sentient could I steal a bit of carbon from them? I mean they couldn¡¯t be using all of it could they? Would they retaliate in some way? I don¡¯t see how they could. But would the plants around me object? Eh lets find out. While project first contact was a somewhat successful, my project bde was running into a bit of a snag. I ran into something that keeps destroying my mycelium. And I think its a river. Could I maybe carry a bit of the water into the mycorrhizal network? I don¡¯t want to be stealing. It would ease my conscious a bit. Also spreading my mycelium into one long dedicated branch was kind of a nutrient sink. The ends were not justifying the means. I was doing all this for a laugh not for anything that really merited all the nutrients I was putting into it. It would be funny though. Chapter 12 Chapter 12 And funny it was. Once this damn huge mushroom grew it was taking even longer to grow then my regular mushrooms, I mean why wouldn¡¯t it? But I was still getting anxious that some rude arrogant creature would snatch it before it fully grew. I was growing it far away from the river, I didn¡¯t want it so easily visible that any predator stopping by for a drink of water would eat it on their way for a drink. The exchange was complete too so that was something to be happy about. I was taking some of the carbons from the mycorrhizal network and I was bringing the water back from the river and grabbing some carbons while no one was metaphorically looking. I was basically acting the part of another tree. So it shouldn¡¯t raise too much attention. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. I also finished growing a regular mushroom, which I grew along the bde project mycelium pathway, and one of my smaller ones, which I grew along my sensory network, in conjunction and got that sweet, sweet ratio. I was growing them, as I suspected, at a 60:1 ratio. Meaning in the time I grew 1 regular mushroom I grew 60 mini mushrooms. I wonder what the ratio would be with the huge one. I wasn¡¯t doing jack shit else besides my other projects so I split my attention again and focused on growing some mini-mushrooms while paying attention to the huge one. Was I growing too accustomed to splitting my attention? Maybe but I was a mushroom with no one but me for company. Doing things the human way, one thing then another right after was less efficient. I still have my morals and ethics but pretending to be something I wasn¡¯t and limiting myself from growing in new and efficient ways was not something I could afford. i¡¯m in a pretty bonkers situation and although it may not look it I could die from something that I could not counter in the traditional human way. Burning and killing. I needed all the advantages I could get and not utilizing my full range of capabilities seems idiotic. Hmm I¡¯m so much more motivated as a mushroom and more dare I say it smarter than I ever was as a human. Is it because of my mycelium growth? And more importantly is this a good thing or a bad thing? Chapter 13 Chapter 13 Ive decided. The fact that I¡¯m seeming to grow more intellectual the more I grow more of myself is neither good nor bad. Its what I do from here on out that really counts. Knowledge is just a tool, its how its used that really matters. With that really morose thinking outa the way I focused on my bde project. What? Just because I¡¯m smarter and more motivated doesn¡¯t mean I don¡¯t have a sense of humor! Though not to go back to the maudlin topic, I was reading this fantastic novel by James Blake that dealt with a similar topic on this. Its not an exact one to one comparison, but in it the main character gains supernatural intelligence but loses something much more vital: his compassion. EHHHH. That sounds cheesy as hell, but what can I say? I like cheese. Besides I ain¡¯t in the same situation I have both. I just have to make sure I remember where my lines are. Like if its morally acceptable to kill this damn predator! Twice now I¡¯ve tried to grow my huge mushroom, in two very far and distant locations. I even grew a damn sensory network around the second one. Each damn time it was eaten before it could grow completely. Barely bigger than my regular mushrooms and wham! The predator swoops in and eats it! Well not swoop, more like swaggers. I can just tell its mocking me. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. The arrogant bastard. Ooooo the vendetta so starts now. Your whole species will rue the day it marked me as a food source! Woah, woah moral line. Moral line! Thankfully building that sensory network around the second one really helped me to determine if it was that flying pest who stole my mushroom or a walking one. Not to mention the bite marks. They almost feel like the same creature who ate my mushroom the first time. The death of my sensory mycelium even somewhat matches what I felt in my original sensory network. Oddly enough the one mushroom I grew along the bde pathway, to get the ratio, is still there. Hmph! Imma make some spawn and cut off my nutrients to it and use it to grow more of myself there before an arrogant predator consumes it. FUCK you predator. Now morally speaking is it okay to premeditate someone¡¯s death? Wiping out a species is so not cool, so that one is out. But on one hand yes these assholes are a threat to me and are causing me bodily harm but on the other hand I¡¯m just doing this for shits and giggles, these assholes are presumably just trying to survive. But is that enough to sway me off killing a predator? Hmm. Could I train one instead? It¡¯s clearly attracted to my mushrooms. I am in fact tasty to these things. the thing is I already dismissed this possibility before and all the reasons I didn¡¯t train it then, still apply now. I don¡¯t have the right environment to train it to do what I want, some other predator could come and snatch a mushroom before my main target even gets there. The feet impression from the first predator who ate me and this one do match but the stride is off and they¡¯re of a different size. So I can¡¯t even target the same one over and over. Mass train the whole species? I don¡¯t think so. Thats too much work and I don¡¯t have the patience. Wow I guess I really am still human if it seems death is the only way. Am I just trying to convince myself that this is the way to go? I¡¯m so spiraling right now but I do know that if I was still human, someone coming by and trying to take a bite outa me in a non sexual context and most importantly without consent would most positively get a violent response from me. Hmmmm. Man fuck moral quandaries! Chapter 14 Chapter 14 Could I make my mushrooms poisonous? I still haven¡¯t decided on a course of action yet but could I do that? Maybe. I mean I do have access to the root system hub. Right now all I¡¯m taking are carbons that would have gone to the mycorrhizal network, but who¡¯s to say I couldn¡¯t take something else? Something else that won¡¯t kill them but make them uncomfortable, something that won¡¯t really sit well with their stomachs ... like fucking laxatives! I wouldn¡¯t even have to kill the creature essentially completely side stepping the moral question of whether its permissible to kill the predators. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. I would still have to be careful though too much of the laxatives and they could end up dehydration and die anyway. So start off with small doses of it and up it every time they come? Pause. Do I even know if the hub has any laxatives? A quick check. Okay there are a lot of different compounds here that I don¡¯t know the effects of if consumed. So no, I don¡¯t know. Should I experiment? Pick out a compound and see what happens if I grow my mushrooms with it? Can I even do that? Wont hurt to try, I guess. As quick fire way to see results I take a specific compound from the hub and direct it back from the first contact mycelium pathways and direct it back to my original pathways where im going some mini mushrooms. Of course it hits me mid transfer that I could have just grown a mini mushroom from my mycelium near the hub network. Im such an idiot, but I guess I¡¯m still getting used to this whole mushroom thing. It just made sense to direct the chemical compound where I was already growing my mini-mushrooms. Some time later et voila, success. It¡¯s most definitely possible. Now to figure out which compound is the one I need. Hmmm. Chapter 15 Chapter 15 Project bde was really just turning into project dissuade-predators-from-eating-me and that doesn¡¯t really roll of the tongue. I just wanted a laugh but reality kept butting in. But I guess I could just call it phase one of the project? Yeah sure why not? Phase 1 of project bde: Fuck Off predators. Testing the different compounds would be a slog, if I just grew my mushrooms back to back from the same location, so I didn¡¯t. I checked the hub for a chemical and directed it to what would have been the site of project bde. And since I didn¡¯t have a sensory network there I started making one. I needed information. If what I had planned worked I needed different animals to target different mushrooms and only eat one. So I separated them, one would grow in the first failed location and the other at the second failed location. Doing this would let me narrow the compound that had a laxative effect, if there even is one. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. I wonder what other effects my chem mushrooms might reveal. Plenty of mushrooms back in my old world had many different effects. I mainly focused on the tasty ones, but even I heard of shrooms. Those had a hallucinative effects. But others could kill like the death cap. Nasty little buggers. But my chem mushrooms wouldn¡¯t be exactly this though. The compounds I get from the hub are plant derived. Hell some might not even do anything. But I¡¯m sure I could find a natural chemical laxative somewhere in there though. I hope. Plenty of plants have just as many useful effects as mushrooms do. Even if I don¡¯t find a compound with the effects I want I should be able to find useful effects when my chem mushrooms are consumed. Could even find the compound that makes caffeine. Though I suspect animals would be drawn to that mushroom instead of repel them. It would make them all wired and shit. Maybe even get them addicted to the caffeine mushroom. Which wouldn¡¯t be such a horrible idea if I still want to train them in the future. Hell I could even grow nicotine in my mushrooms get them REALLY addicted. But I¡¯m getting ahead of myself here. Would that even be ethical? Scientist tested on animals all the time back on earth. Makeup, drug and even food companies all tested on animals. I heard there were some experiments that actively made their lab rats addicted so they can test the efficacy of whoever the hell knew. i¡¯d be doing something similar here with phase one. But im in a survival situation¡­ which is an excuse but I mean come on! Im not a fucking saint. Shit i heard even vegans would eat meat in survival situations. I¡¯m still going through with phase one. This is too good of an opportunity to get caught up in hangups. Besides im using such small amounts of a given compound that it shouldn¡¯t even cause an addiction. Of course I will be upping the dose every time nothing happens but we¡¯ll cross that fucking bridge when we come to it won¡¯t we? Chapter 16 Chapter 16 At the moment my sensory network only spanned the size of a kiddie pool around my original location. And the same goes for the second location of phase 1. However right now information was key to understanding what effects the chem mushrooms were having to the animals who were eating them. I needed a larger sensory network to get the information I needed so I was dedicating some nutrients towards that goal. And since i was in a growing mood and information about who and what was around me was vital I started growing my sensory network around my original location as well. That first predator who ate my mushrooms only passed by once in the time I started fucking around with other projects. And I guess once the fucker saw I wasn¡¯t growing anymore mushrooms, they didn¡¯t come back. I mean why would they the only thing around me is my rotting log. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. I needed more sites to experiment with the chem mushrooms so I branched out from the second location and once I reached a good distance I would build a site with the accompanying sensory network. I was kinda getting numb to the tickle-y sensations of the bugs. But to be honest I hope I find a compound that repels the insects soon. Predators might just eat those but at least I might get a few moments of peace. But i think if I scare them off with my laxative chem mushrooms first from a location and then grow a repelling mushroom they¡¯ll start avoiding the mushrooms I grow based on coloring alone. You know in all my tinkering with mushrooms I wasn¡¯t dedicating much of my nutrients towards contacting a tree. But it was also slow going because I wanted a free and clear pathway of mycelium since if I grew the contact point from say the mycelium from the hub and this didn¡¯t work out a tree could easily decide to kill whatever was bothering its roots and kill that connection. Forcing me to grow another pathway towards the hub wasting some of my nutrients. So no I really couldn¡¯t do that. The hub was where I was getting some if not all of my nutrients. I was still getting some from the log but I was practically wringing it dry with all the projects I was running. Thank goodness I found a separate nutrient source. I¡¯d say maybe 80 more mini mushrooms and I¡¯d start to find a tree to contact. Lets hope I find a friendly one. Chapter 17 Chapter 17 So i''m a bit of a coward. I didn¡¯t contact a tree. I contacted just a plant that was still in its infancy. it wasn¡¯t a sprout or seedling, I think based on its roots it was barely budding its flowers? Anyways basically what I¡¯m trying to say is that even if the plant was sentient like me it wasn¡¯t exactly all there yet. It was basically a baby. I got cozy and starting attaching more of my mycelium to its roots. Hell I wanted a pet and if this sucker actually grows fruit some might even fall and be more nutrients I can consume. i could even direct more nutrients to it from the hub. It would be a bitch and half to direct all the nutrients here but hey who said owning a pet was easy? I¡¯d get around to talking to a tree once I established myself a bit more. Maybe once phase one was semi complete? I don¡¯t know. I guess I was afraid it wouldn''t be sentient? Like if I made contact and all I get was a base intelligence i''d have to face the fact that i''m really all alone. No one to talk to for years and years to come. Yeah I was loner back home but I still talked to the clerk while getting my groceries. I still talked to people online in comment sections or in forums. But if I was truly alone ¡­ A person with that much time alone could go crazy. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Sure I have my projects and my little ongoing ¡°feud¡± with the assholes who eat me. But that doesn¡¯t replace communication with sentient people. They¡¯re just a distraction from the inevitable fact that I¡¯m all alone. Who in their right mind even wanted that? So yeah I¡¯m afraid of making contact. God I hate psychoanalyzing myself and now that I¡¯m smarter it looks like I can narrow down the specifics of how I¡¯m such a complete wuss. Man intelligence can really be a curse sometimes ya know? Lets just check up on my other projects huh? Fuck all this whining. Looks like the hub pathway is really pumping all those nutrients towards my bde pathways. I really do hope the plants are okay with me taking those carbons. Well I guess I should really be hoping the mycorrhizal fungus is okay with me taking their nutrients, after all those nutrients should really be going towards it. But I don¡¯t see how they could. Like all fungi, except me I guess they aren¡¯t ones who can really be aggravated. Or have any emotions at all. My pathway to the river looks fine too nothing to really report back on that one. Its just chugging some water and taking it to the hub. The expansion of the sensory mycelium was going pretty okay too. Now instead of a kiddie pool size they were about the size of a small one room building. Of course they were bypassing obstacles like rocks, trees and roots. Geez I know I said growing through the grass here was difficult but its really starting to get on my nerves. Fuck you grass. I had the two sites already testing my different chem mushrooms and I was working on that third site, when I finally felt that fateful sensation. Some dumbass predator was finallyin the vicinity of that second location. Come on you fucker eat me! Weird thought. heh. just when I though it was just gunna leave it stopped and I think it was looking towards my chem mushroom cuz its feet were pointed vaguely towards it. I wonder if its actually gunna go for it. In what I felt was an eternity but was probably only like a couple seconds it started walking in the right direction. Hehehe eat it you asshole! It nabbed it. Based on the imprint of its feet I think It was from that same species who ate that first mushroom. I should really start naming these assholes. How about species a? Yeah lets go with that. Anyways it ate it and now for the wait. Chapter 18 Chapter 18 Absolutely. Nothing. Happened. I was so freaking ecstatic about these new chem mushrooms, that it slipped my mind that the compounds in them were at such low doses that it would have been more surprising if anything did happen. But nothing really outlandish happened. The predator walked up to my mushroom, ripped my chem mushroom from it stalk, leaving a jagged stem behind. That damn brute chewed the chem mushroom for a few moments and then stomped off. It didn¡¯t fall over and die and it didn¡¯t have any stomach issues. Just ate the damn thing and left. Im not saying im pissed, but I am saying im annoyed. More at myself than anything else. I should have tempered my expectations. All the half-remembered lab experiments from high school should have given me some idea that this wasn¡¯t going to be done in an instance. I guess I was so used to having my needs met almost immediately, as a human. Was I hungry? Order some pizza. Was I bored? Theres this new video on youtube. Sucks to suck I suppose. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. But I¡¯m getting off track, I need to up the dose on this next one. So I took even more of the same substance from the hub and directed it towards the same site. I tried my best to memorize the imprint pattern of this particular beast. That way I would know if the chem mushroom was something they would seek after or something they¡¯d rather avoid. Thought it did fully consume it as I didn¡¯t feel land on top of my mycelium sensory network other than its footsteps. And if it didn¡¯t enjoy it I couldn¡¯t see why it would swallow the chem mushroom. All this was preliminary information I wouldn¡¯t see some actual results for a while. Hmph, what a let down. In the mean time I was going to brainstorm some names for my pet plant. Lets see¡­ Timothy sounded cool. Or how about something less human? Like Spyro? It obviously wasn¡¯t a dragon but I absolutely loved those game growing up. Oh I know how about bud, since its actually budding? Too on the nose? Yeah maybe. I think I¡¯m just gunna settle for something inane. I¡¯ll go with Buttons, for now. if anyone touches my little guy they will rue the day! Huh I guess naming something really does make you more likely to get attached. I¡¯m still gunna fuck anyone up who messes with my buddy buttons. Maybe sic em with a few chem mushrooms. Though that only works if it eats it hmmm. Woah hey there¡¯s an idea can I bind the compounds I get from the hub to my spores? Ohohoho I¡¯m such a genius. Chapter 19 Chapter 19 To test if it was even possible to bind the compounds to my spores, I started growing a regular mushroom on my log. I really do hope it works. This would definitely add another layer of defense to my continued survival. Some 60 mini mushroom growths later and the experiment was just about to get started. I started first by taking some compounds from the hub and directing them to the mushroom and while they were on their way I started the process of growing my spores. I wanted the compound to bind itself to my spores while they grew so it was only in its preliminary stages, but I was a little anxious to get this process started. Why? Because not to geek out or anything but I was basically recreating the move stun spore from the Pokemon games! If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Ugh I loved those games so much growing up. I wonder if there were anything else I could replicate. Not even just from Pokemon but from other shows. Like could I become parasitic? Become like those cordyceps from the last of us tv show and take over human beings? I could become mobile. I mean Ideally it wouldn¡¯t be humans. That¡¯d be fucked up but taking over insects? Like normal cordyceps mushrooms. Oh yeah that¡¯d be the fucking move. Unfortunately I don¡¯t think thats something I could replicate. I¡¯m not a cordycep fungus id think I would have noticed. I would have to run into one, take over its mycelium and somehow replicate its ability and I don¡¯t even know if there are any in this world. I was getting a little ahead of myself thinking of all the possibilities. For now I focused on the project. I was using the same compound as the one I was using at the second site. This was just a test run to even see if it was possible to do this. And a couple of more mini growths later, a success. Hehehe. The compounds were successfully bound to my spores which were growing along the gills of my mushroom. I ejected them into the air as a proof of concept. When I finally found a compound that worked on the animals, I¡¯d release the spores as soon as I felt them approaching a nearby sporing mushroom. And with my sensory network expanding it¡¯d be a simple thing to detect. Chapter 20 Chapter 20 All was looking really optimistic truth be told. The spore side project was a resounding success. And the first phase of project bde was going splendidly. I had five sites already in place, just waiting for unsuspecting victi... er willing participants to eat them. The second site where the first ''participant'' ate the chem mushroom was already just about done growing another chem mushroom. I even had some desperately needed companionship in my pet buttons. Though feeding mr. buttons was beginning to be a chore. I wonder if I can tap into a mycorrhizal network nearby and take some much needed nutrients from there and gift them to buttons. Oh bonus! I wasnt even thinking about this when I started growing around buttons but considering the fact that the carbons I take from the hub to feed myself come from plants, I could just get them directly from buttons. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Hmmm you know an interesting tid bit I found out while regrowing the chem mushroom was that these mushrooms actually take a bit longer to grow than my regular mushrooms. They were completely the same size but they still took a bit longer, 30 mini mushroom growths more than the regular mushrooms to be exact. I mean it makes sense, the binding process really drags out the growth cycle its just basic common sense but its surprising to realize. You know i think i see a potential problem with the first phase and i dont think anything can really be done about it. Remember that mushroom that just vanished? I assumed it was just a flying predator who swooped in and ate my mushroom but who''s to say it won''t happen again with the first phase? I guess i would still be able to tell something happened if it suddely dies or passes out because it''ll just fall out of the sky but thats only asssuming that it falls on top of my sensory network. What if it just falls on top of a tree? Ugh the first phase might drag itself out longer than expected. Chapter 21 Chapter 21 Its a sunk cost going forward. My main purpose in growing the things though is so I can repel predators. So eventually flying predators won¡¯t be a problem. It¡¯ll just be an annoying process getting there. Seeing as my spore mushroom idea worked, one day ill just release the compounds into the air and have them repel both the flying predators and the walking ones. Though am I being dumb about this? I could vastly speed up phase 1 by growing spore mushrooms instead of my chem mushrooms. That way I can get more willing ¡®participants¡¯ to test the compounds, thus saving me from the eternal slog of waiting for a predator to stroll by, find my mushroom and eat it. But that would be dumb too because I wouldn¡¯t know how much a dose the subject breathed in. A compound could be absolutely fine at a small doses, even damn right beneficial, but be completely poisonous at a higher one. Which means sticking to the chem mushrooms and sticking to a long, long wait. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Ugh. Stupid moral values. But I mean technically it IS self defense, right? Yeah my original purpose was to just have a laugh and grow a huge ass mushroom but truthfully? I¡¯m also fighting to survive here. What if I genuinely come into contact with a dedicated asshole who specifically targets my species and more specifically me? As a human when someone comes at you, don¡¯t you have every right to come at them? Why would that be different as a mushroom? Thats the thing though I wouldn¡¯t be coming at some predator who intends me violence, in this instance. Using the spores during phase 1 would be grossly immoral because I wouldn¡¯t be causing harm to one who intends me harm. I could be causing harm to some defenseless animal casually walking by in the vicinity of my sites never having the slightest intention of consuming me. No. I won¡¯t grow the spore mushrooms. At least not right now. But what I will do is up the dose on all of the compounds to an absurd degree within the chem mushrooms. I was going to slowly increase the dose on my mushrooms but I was looking at this like this was an experiment and I was a human. And it really isn¡¯t. And I¡¯m really not human, not anymore. I''m not somewhere at the top of the food chain comfortably looking down at a lab rat. I¡¯m somewhere at the bottom looking up, waiting for some asshole to come by and experiment with their taste buds and consume a part of me. This really is self defense. Even if its a little premeditated. I''m just looking to survive. Chapter 22 Chapter 22 In order to up the doses on all the mushrooms I think I first need to grow new ones at each of the sites, since the mushrooms need to be bound to the compounds as they grow. Though I suppose I could just make them bigger¡­ I could continually bind the compounds as they grow into huge mushrooms. Which would make the chem mushrooms more visible and thus more likely to be ingested. Hmmm. I was just going to cut their nutrients off, like I used to do back when I was measuring time by growing my regular mushrooms on the log, and then I¡¯d grow their replacement with the higher dosed chem mushrooms, but now thinking about it¡­ Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Yeah. Making them huge will actually discourage predators from eating my huge mushrooms. Thus making it more likely that when finally project bde is all said and done, my big dick energy monument actually survives long enough to be viewed by all, instead of slowly being digested in some unappreciative and ungrateful predator¡¯s stomach. I gotta say this project turned out to have a lot of useful purposes than I ever could have imagined. I got started and began drawing lots of compounds from the hub, each matching the same compound the mushrooms were dosed with, obviously. Heh. I¡¯d have to be a massive idiot to mix up the compou¡­ Oh. No wait. I think I¡¯d be an idiot not to! Think about it if I actually mix the compounds I might come up with permutations of compounds that I wouldn¡¯t otherwise have direct access to. I would have a whole bunch more compounds to work with making it more likely I¡¯ll find one that has the affect I want. I have to slow down though, the creative brain juices are indeed flowing but I gotta prioritize. I¡¯ll save this idea for phase 2, but for now I have to continue doing what I¡¯m already doing. I¡¯ll experiment later when I found out what each base compound is and what affect it has on a predator. Time to grow some experimental huge chem mushrooms. Chapter 23 Chapter 23 Since I had nothing going other than phase one logistics I mentally took inventory. I could grow: mini mushrooms, regular mushrooms, and huge mushrooms. Each can be grown as a chem mushroom and each can release toxic spores. In total I had two projects going on, well more like just the one. Project bde was paying dividends in researching ways I could defend myself while project first contact was on hiatus it too was a worthwhile endeavor: I obtained a second food source. I had a pet plant in buttons which while on the surface wouldn¡¯t sound like much of a boon, being alone for what might be decades, maybe even centuries with no one to care for sounded like a horrible nightmare that might drive me into catatonia. It sounds fucking silly but when I was a human even though crowds and people drained my social batteries like no ones business, I still needed companionship. My dog, back when I was human, was that for me. ¡®Was¡¯ because he grew old and was in constant pain so I had to put him down. I got him from a shelter while I was still with my folks and I took him when I moved out. He was everything to me. And I say this with little to no exaggeration, he was sometimes the only reason I got out of bed some days. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. You remember where I was walking back from when the car hit me right? Yeah well let¡¯s just say I didn¡¯t take well to being alone and without him. So Buttons. My little buddy may not be an animal or sentient but taking care of it will let me avoid peering the abyss that is time... Well aren¡¯t we all morose and shit!? I was taking inventory in order to see if I could come up with anything else I could do with the resources I had at hand. All I ended up doing was going down memory lane and getting sideswiped by loss. Hmph. I focused on phase 1. The huge chem mushrooms were growing steadily. Actually they were all a bit bigger than when I initially attempted to grow my bde monument. Besides the mushroom at site two of course. That one was still roughly at the size of a regular mushroom. Which now that I think of it the predator that ate the mushroom there hasn¡¯t come back. I wonder if it just didn¡¯t find the flavor of the mushroom unsatisfactory and wasn¡¯t interested in coming back for more? Is it dead? Ugh. My sensory network didn¡¯t detect any creatures lying down. Oh that¡¯s something I forgot to mention when I was listing my resources: my sensory network. Perhaps one of my most vital resources in my endeavor to survive, information about the surface world. Hell some of my networks at the different sites have now even been connected. I wonder if I should expand it to the size of the whole forest. Maybe even beyond? Chapter 24 Chapter 24 With how big my network has expanded I now often feel tiny little imprints of small creatures. None however interested in my huge chem mushrooms. A good thing too, cuz¡¯ if a tiny little rabbit wound up eating them I¡¯d feel bad. I need further outwards. So far I¡¯ve been focusing on my little area and doing my little projects. But if I want to continue to innovate and thrive as I have been I can¡¯t be stagnate and stick to one area. I need new stimuli to grow. I don¡¯t think I would have grown at such a fast and unique rate as I have without the desire to interact and manipulate my surroundings. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. It just makes sense to grow outward. So I do so. Just like when I started project bde I grow a mycelium pathway straight and away from my log. Obviously in the opposite direction. If I grew that way id only find the stream again. About 480 mini mushroom growths and I run into to something fascinating. I think I found another mushroom. And not just like the fungi mycorrhizal that serves as the hub, but an actual honest to god mushroom. I grow bit of mycelium towards the ends of its mycelium. Is it sentient? Is it of the same species? Will it just be a dumb mushroom? I finally reach its mycelium tendrils and ¡­ Oh gosh what the hell do I do? Should I send it some nutrients? See if we can communicate through morse code? Not that I know morse code. But I can send some of nutrients its way in some sort of pattern. If its intelligent it¡¯ll send something back right? I draw some nutrients from the hub and start sending it all the way out towards the new mushroom contact. I¡¯ll go with a simple 1-2-3, then 1-2, then 1 pattern. Will it send something back? Chapter 25 It really is a bitch and a half to send all these nutrients outward. Could I find an easier route? Maybe if I find another network I can tap into? Whatever, thats not the point! Ive been waiting for a response. And nothing has happened! For the past 500 mini-growths nothing has happened. It hasn¡¯t signaled in any way and it hasn¡¯t grown more of itself in a new unique way to say something to me. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I don¡¯t know what I was expecting. I should not have gotten my hopes up. This is the exact reason why I didn¡¯t want to contact the trees. Theres no sign of intelligence here. Im all alone. Why am I all alone? If there truly is a god, why the hell did it have to damn me to this existence with no one but me, myself and I to talk to? Fuck god. If I ever get a whiff or smell of a higher bein¡­ Suddenly I get a signal, but not from the other mushroom. From one of my sensory networks. Its the third one. Well they¡¯re all pretty much connected by now but its coming from third site where the huge chem mushroom is located. A predator has come to play. Well isn¡¯t that kind of Mother Nature? I very much have some anger to release and what better way than to see a fucking would-be devourer get what¡¯s coming to em? chapter 26 As much as I wanted to take my anger out on some hapless predator, I couldn¡¯t really partake an active role in it. The chem mushroom was a static trap. While it was indeed a very real part of me and would, well might, take out the predator, it didn¡¯t really feel visceral. I wasn¡¯t beating it senseless, I wasn¡¯t kicking it while it was down, and lets face it wasn¡¯t the prick who sent me to this place. So after I calmed down some, I realized this wasn¡¯t something I wanted to take pleasure in. I can¡¯t kill in anger, well I could but I don¡¯t want to. Doing so would send me down a path that in the end would make me as much as a prick as the asshole who sent me here. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. i focused on the the predator¡¯s steps. It was in fact walking towards the mushroom. It stopped right in front of it, presumably sniffed it and didn¡¯t like what it found because it turned right around and hoofed it. Success. I don¡¯t know what that compound is or what it smells like, but apparently that predator doesn¡¯t like it. I could finally grow the bde monument ¡­ in fact if the mushroom at site 3 already repels the things I guess I actually succeeded in project bde. I would still continue growing the chem mushrooms though. I still have a whole bunch of compounds to experiment with. And I think I can grow the bde monument just a little bigger. chapter 27 Chapter 27 The huge chem mushroom was definitely earning its moniker. The thing was enormous. About the size of a sapling. Better yet animals were most definitely avoiding the area around it. I certainly don¡¯t know what it was but they were certainly avoiding the area. Hell I even think the little squirming bastard insects were even ditching the area. I couldn¡¯t feel their legs brushing against my mycelium sensory network as much anymore. Definitely hit the jackpot with this compound. I should grow some of these chem mushroom around my original location. I¡¯ve grown so much that my original location atop the log was just a small part of myself but I still felt most ¡­ at home? No. Not a home. A home has family and I have none now. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. It feels like the area around the log is kind of like my central location. Which yeah duh of course it is. But it feels like what I imagine an Artificial intelligence feels like. A whole bunch of routines carrying out its duties and a whole bunch of hardware its inhabiting but its main programming, what makes it tick, lies in a central location. Likewise I¡¯m carrying out various different tasks and my body spans a large expanse but my¡­ main thinking power, I guess, lies on and around my log. Weird. Never really thought about it like that. But I need to keep it safe and having couple of reprepelling chem mushrooms around it helps ease my mind a bit. So I do so. These mushrooms are going to be regular sized chem mushrooms, however. My huge mushrooms while definitively giving off bd energy aren¡¯t very practical. They just attract attention. While I grow a couple of the repelling mushrooms around the periphery of the log. I checked back on the other mushroom I found. Time had passed and still no signal. This was definitely just a dumb mushroom. I don¡¯t know what i¡¯ll do with it. Maybe keep it as another pet like buttons? Hmm. chapter 28 Chapter 28 What if I bind its¡¯ mycelium to mine and make it apart of me? Kind of like what I did when I was dropping the regular mushrooms off of the log and from there it grew into more of me. It felt like reconnecting a limb I never knew I had. But I think that only worked because it was of my species and I don¡¯t think this mushroom was the same as me. As much as I loved eating mushrooms and reading about them back when I was human, I don¡¯t think I ever read about a mushroom who assimilates other mushrooms. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. I did read however that the lobster mushroom was actually two fungi one infecting the other but that was a parasitic relationship. What I¡¯m trying to accomplish is different. I¡¯m trying to fuse our two mycelium branches, not take advantage of its resources or have it take advantage of me. I think it was called a mutualistic relationship? Whatever its called I think having a different type of mushroom bonded to me might have some undiscovered benefits. Like what if this mushroom is a puffball mushroom? I could encourage this mushroom to grow some chem spores. Ive read that these fuckers are great at releasing spores. Or what if its poisonous variety? I could encourage it to give over some of its deadly toxins and have a weapon in order to better protect myself. The more I thought about it the more I thought this was a brilliant idea. Heh heh. I¡¯m such a boss. chapter 29 Chapter 29 I hit a snag. While the idea of absorbing another mushroom sounded like it could work, I hit upon something I was too dumb to realize. Assimilating a mushroom and mycelium of my own kind was easy, but assimilating a mushroom of another kind was what I imagine getting used to a transplant organ feels like. You had to constantly keep reminding that new organ that being apart of a new organism was business as usual. People who had a new organ had to keep taking a pill so their bodies wouldn¡¯t attack the new organ. I on the other hand don¡¯t have the luxury of taking a simple little pill. I had to constantly keep the mushroom in line. Stolen story; please report. Well I had to keep both myself and it in line. I had easier time of it because I could control myself into not attacking what isn¡¯t me. But the other mushroom was non sentient it felt like it was being attacked and it continually tried to attack my mycelium. In the end I had to attack some of its own mycelium. I separated it from the rest of it and assimilated just that bit. Then I used that tiny assimilated bit to connect to the foreign mushroom¡¯s mycelium. That tiny assimilated bit basically kicked and screamed but at least I wasn¡¯t dealing with that with the whole mushroom. Once I got used to the sensation and the new mushroom i¡¯ve connected to, I tried figuring out what type of mushroom it was. Which was going to take me a bit to figure out how to do so. Cuz¡¯ It wasn¡¯t like I could just feel what type of mushroom it was like how I checked on my own mushrooms. This was just a separate entity I was now connected to. I wanted to assimilate it so I could do internally check out what it was, but it just kept rejecting me. And I know its just following its natural biological processes but it kind of stung. chapter 30 Chapter 30 I really am such an idiot sometimes. Attributing the mushroom¡¯s natural rejection of me as something willful? It¡¯s so fucking dumb. I really am worthle¡­. No. No remember what the therapist said. I can¡¯t give these thoughts any power. I have to acknowledge the thought and let it go. After a few moments, I calmed down. Intrusive thoughts, or so my therapist claimed, is the process of subconscious thoughts that is upsetting or distressing. They¡¯re a bitch and half to manage or get rid off. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. And I got it bad usually when this happened when I was human I would just spend time with my pup. After I didn¡¯t have him anymore and all I had myself ¡­ bad stuff happened. But my therapist eventually gave me some helpful tips to manage em more effectively. Did not think I would still have them as a mushroom. Glad I got that last tip before I died. Usually she would tell me about methods that simply snapped me back into the present. Like the rubber band trick. Put a rubber band around your wrist and snap it when you feel yourself losing yourself to the thoughts. But this last session she gave me, she told me about a technique that helps a bunch. Its called cognitive diffusion. it lets you look at a thought instead of looking through a thought. after I calmed down some, I focused my efforts on how to figure out what this mushroom I was now connected to, was and what it did. What if instead of using the connection I grow a sensory network on top? That way I could see other creatures reactions to it and figure out some its functions. If animals avoided the mushroom id see if it¡¯s poisonous. Or if creatures loved it they¡¯d eat it. Either way id find out something about it. While I was doing that could I also encourage it to send some of it¡¯s nutrients towards me? I don¡¯t know how¡¯d I do that but id give it a shot. chapter 31 Chapter 31 While I was working on a way to get at the mushroom from within and growing the sensory network around it, I checked up on phas¡­ well its not exactly phase one anymore is it? Project bde accomplished what I set out to do: repel predators and creatures from the bde monument. I used phase one to do that but it still has potentially valuable results it has yet to reveal. So¡­ new name? Yeah. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Its name shall henceforth be Project Compound Research. A little on the nose I know but I¡¯m not exactly a wizard at coming up with names. Maybe ill rename it later but its not exactly important right now. i checked on the newly named project and was surprised to find that there was little to no predators in the vicinity. The radius of my mycelium sensory network was huge by this point. And I would get a few hits here and there, now and again. None even remotely near the experimental mushrooms, so I would usually ignore them. But I wasn¡¯t getting anything. And looking back I haven¡¯t been getting anything for awhile now. Was my chem mushroom too effective? But no that couldn¡¯t be the case cuz like I said for awhile there I would still feel predators within my mycelium network. They would avoid the area where I had the repel mushrooms but I would still feel them moving just at the edge of what I guess was the mushrooms influence. So it couldn¡¯t be me. What could scare animals from an area at that scale? chapter 32 Chapter 32 Oh. Oh but fuck me, it¡¯s fucking fire. I was accustomed to hearing of fires on the news, as my state was no stranger to a brush fire or two. But this¡¯ll be the first where I¡¯m in the direct pathway of one. Uhhh okay, okay I have to to prepare myself for when it comes, which is somewhat difficult when moving out the way is off the table! My log will most definitely get burned down. It¡¯s rotten and dry as hell, but at least I won¡¯t die with it. This is one of the main reasons why I dug down and started growing on the ground. And while I¡¯m so fucking grateful I did, losing my birthplace along with my mycelium still in there is going to be a bitch to go through. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Should I disconnect from the log before the fire gets here? Will that disconnect part of me still feel and hurt? Or would it be just a non-sentient disconnected limb? Will it feel pain? All these questions plagued me but I had to start thinking of solutions and disconnecting from the log only made sense. As I disconnected myself from the log I couldn¡¯t help but feel dread. I also couldn¡¯t help but wonder what else will this asshole natural disaster take from me. My projects are done for thats for sure. Project compound research is done for, project first contact which turned into a resourcegoldmine through the hub will surely take a hit, it wasn¡¯t a project but im sure the mushroom I connected to will be burned down, though its mycelium will be fine. Oh fuck my mycelium network will be completely destroyed. That shit is huge! Ah fuck me but this fire will ruin everything. Oh ¡­ oh no the fucking bde monument!!!! I just got that fucking shit up. Fuck me. Chapter 33 Chapter 33 Maybe it¡¯s a silly fucking idea but I think I read about a person who put their sprinkler on while a fire was coming their way and somehow they came out with an intact and unburnt house, couldn¡¯t I do the same here? I¡¯m still connected to the water source I¡¯ve been siphoning from and transporting to the hub, I could transport it instead to all the mushrooms I have until they¡¯re practically bursting forth with how much water they contain. But no I don¡¯t know think that¡¯ll work, I need a controlled release like that sprinkler. If I just transport the water to my mushrooms until they burst that¡¯s just a one time release and then they¡¯ll just boil. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Boiling mushrooms is disgusting I tried it once, you know just to experiment ¡­ not important right now. Could I make spores that contain water? That way I¡¯d get that controlled release I¡¯m looking for and ¡­ but no that won¡¯t completely work either. I mainly rely on the wind to release my spores. And if the fire is coming my way that means the wind is pushing towards me. So yes my spores will release but they¡¯ll go the wrong way. Wait hang on if I release those spores ahead of the rest me that might discourage the fire from spreading. Oooo hang on what if I also use the sensory network to release water too! That shit is huge as hell and if I get it to release water as well along with the other two ideas I¡¯ve had it should more or less work to combat the fire. I¡¯ll still get burned but at least all of me won¡¯t. I got started on Project Fuck Fire. Heh, maybe I¡¯m enamored to naming things. chapter 34 Chapter 34 I first tried the spore idea obviously because if I tried to inject my mushrooms with water until they burst then I couldn¡¯t get it to spawn water-filled spores. And I tried that, filling my spores with water, but I had to strike a balance between filling the spore with just enough water to actually get it picked up by the wind and not filling it with so much it simply just dropped on the ground. While having a raining mushroom sounded bad ass and saturating the ground with water would definitely help with the fire, the main reason I was even doing this was to have the water-filled spores spread further away from me and saturate the ground there. But striking that balance, while that still felt possible, was also time intensive and I needed results quick as I didn¡¯t know when the fire would reach me. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. So I didn¡¯t. Saturating the ground with water around only the mushroom still felt like a solid plan. I would work on perfecting the method later on, when I survive ¡­ If. I couldn¡¯t think about that though I had to work on the plan. Water bursting mushrooms seemed like a stellar plan but it would interfere with the water filled spores. What if I still filled all my mushrooms with just enough water that they still functioned as normal but wouldn¡¯t take as long for it to burst when the fire was upon them? Yeah that¡¯s absolutely brilliant. I went forward with that. As for the final plan of having my mycelium sensory network release water, it was quite straight forward really. The whole sensory network was fairly large though so it would take a bit. In fact with all this much needed water I think growing several pathways to and from the water source was vital to get this done quickly. Hopefully all this effort will all be worth it in the end. chapter 35 Chapter 35 Really good call with building more pathways to and from the water. Without that I would¡¯ve had to draw from the source direct it towards back towards the log and then distribute it where it needed to go. Of course I still did that while the things were getting grown. But now I wouldn¡¯t have to. Though it¡¯s kind of weird the fire hasn¡¯t reached me yet. All this preparation, while great that it¡¯s getting within the time limit, took some time to get done. I half way expected to get maybe one of the plans done with by the time the fire came, but I¡¯m just about finished getting my first two ideas up and running. Has the wind changed direction? Am I just not in the direct path of the fire anymore? I think I can answer that first question at least. I¡¯ll grow a very thin and stalk-y mushroom that will easily bend in the direction the wind is blowing. As I got started on that, I finished getting the extra pathways set up and now water was now being efficiently distributed to my sensory network. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Within a couple of mushroom growths all of my preparations will be complete. Done. And still no fire¡­ ¡­ have I overreacting? Just because I¡¯m not sensing any animals within the vicinity, it¡¯s automatically fire? Couldn¡¯t it be a bigger and badder predator hunting? No. That wouldn¡¯t make sense. If a top predator was hunting wouldn¡¯t it roam, trying to find prey? And the prey itself would hide and then skedaddle when the predator left. And I¡¯m just not sensing that. That kind of behavior would be hard to miss with my sensory network. No, what I¡¯m sensing is a complete absence of animals. Heck even the bugs that brush up against the network while not completely absent are less in number. Let¡¯s not doubt ourselves. Even if a fire wasn¡¯t coming, these preparations are still badass. I don¡¯t think I would ever come up with stuff like a raining mushroom or heck a water-bursting mushroom. Those types of mushrooms can definitely be repurposed to accomplish other things if a fire really isn¡¯t coming. The wind detecting mushroom was done growing. Normally it would have taken not that long to get it done growing but I¡¯m not exactly under ideal conditions. The nutrients from the hub are fluctuating, the log¡¯s nutrients are flagging, and I¡¯m also focusing on a slew of different things. I waited for the mushroom to bend. Not that long into the wait, it bent and showed that the wind was blowing in a ¡­ well I can¡¯t use the cardinal directions now can I? I could find out in the future. Some plants like the sunflower follow the direction of the sun and if I could somehow detect their movement I¡¯d have the starting point. From there finding out the other directions would be cake. Thats not exactly important right now. Suffice to say I know where the wind is blowing and it isn¡¯t towards me. That must mean the fire is moving somewhat away from me. But that¡¯s the thing with wind you never know which way it¡¯ll blow. If this thing misses me great but it¡¯s not gunna catch me off guard. I settled in for waiting. chapter 36 Chapter 36 As I waited I kept feeling the stalky mushroom bend one way then the other. Time passed by and I started thinking over some things. After mulling over my situation a bit I think I was a tad naive to assume I knew where the fire is and the direction it¡¯s moving solely based on the direction the wind is blowing. Think about it, if the wind blows in a northerly direction the fire could also be coming from the north. Pushing the fire towards me. Same goes with all the cardinal directions. Why would I assume the fire was coming from opposite direction of where the wind blows? The fire could be coming from anywhere. Heck it could be coming from all sides, so that no matter where the wind blows the fire will burn me. The stalky mushroom is without a doubt gaining me valuable data but it won¡¯t do me a lick of good if I use it stupidly. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. I need to know where the fire is before relying on the wind for information. I thought I could be smart about it too and reinforce and saturate the area with more water before the fire makes its way towards me. No doubt my sensory network will detect the fire before it even reaches any one of my mushrooms. And it was. But not from where I was expecting. With how big the sensory network around my log and the testing sites was I just assumed I would feel the fire encroaching my territory from there. But the truth was the sensory network around the foreign mushroom I was connected to started to detect something. The temperature was rising there. Which was not something I thought mushrooms were actually capable of detecting. But it wasn¡¯t like how I remember sensing temperature back as a human. What I felt was the feeling that it was easier to grow more of myself there than back near and around my log. I did remember hearing that growing mushrooms did better under slightly higher temperatures. Actually I think I heard that mentioned in the last of us tv show. That growth trend has a steep decline after a certain point I¡¯m assuming because I think I¡¯m starting to approach it. What¡¯s worst? I wasn¡¯t even directing water towards this location. It was too far out and starting that now would be a lost cause. Remember how long it took to direct nutrients here? I guess I¡¯ll have to go through this portion of hardship without water to help discourage the fire from burning me up. This is gunna be a bitch to go through. chapter 37 Chapter 37 I was expecting pain. And pain I most certainly received. But surprisingly not from the fire. From the fire all I felt was my mycelium crumbling to pieces¡­ which made sense. I¡¯ve read somewhere that mushrooms like plants have the complete absence of a nervous system. Thus no pain from the fire. Which really should have clicked for me after the number of predators who have eaten my mushrooms. But no the pain I was feeling was coming from the bit of foreign mushroom mycelium I was integrated with. This was entirely weird. Why was this mushroom having such a tough time with the fire, when I¡¯m not? And how the fuck is it feeling pain? ¡­ Wait does this mushroom have a nervous system? But that¡¯s fucking insane. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Pain is what I¡¯m feeling from the foreign bit, though. Holy shit the whole mushroom must be going through pure agony. Thank fuck I didn¡¯t assimilate the whole thing into myself. Not that I could have in the first place. But this fucking confirms I¡¯m definitely not on earth. We sure as hell don¡¯t have mushrooms with nervous systems. At least none that I¡¯ve heard of and like I said I loved eating mushrooms I would have heard if some of the little fuckers I was eating felt pain. Most likely because vegans would have thrown a hissy fit over it. This¡­ I don¡¯t know how to feel about this. I¡¯m in another world. I mean I¡¯m a fucking mushroom, finding out I¡¯m not in the same universe, or at the very least on a different planet, shouldn¡¯t really phase me, but it really fucking does. I have to put the existential crises aside for a second since you know I had a very real actual crises going on. Though the incessant pain I was feeling was really helping me bring me back to the moment, so I guess pain really does have its uses. Speaking of how valuable pain is, I think integrating much more fully with this specific type of mushroom might be the move. I mean yeah obviously integrating with it right now would SO not be the move, but in the future maybe binding with it more completely might bring some as of yet unknown benefits. Something to keep in mind. But the fire. For the fire I think maybe growing some mycelium out on the surface and along the pathway to detect how far the fire is would be a smart thing to do so I did so. Spacing them apart would save on the nutrient expense as well. I would grow a wind detecting mushroom as that would get a better reading of where the fire is more likely to go than the one I have near my main area, but the mushroom would just get burned to a crisp. I¡¯d be basically throwing those nutrients into the garbage. The mycelium I¡¯d use to detect the fires approach would too be burned but at least I wouldn¡¯t lose as many nutrients. I settled into wait again, desperately focusing on my tasks instead of on the fact I wasn¡¯t on earth anymore. chapter 38 Chapter 38 I know using the pain I was feeling to distract me from the shocking revelation that I¡¯m not really on earth anymore wasn¡¯t the most healthiest of things to do when trying to avoid certain topics but to be honest it really isn¡¯t that different from the rubber band trick. I¡¯ll just ¡­ confront this later when I¡¯m not in the direct pathway of a fire. I was still growing my mycelium along the pathway I used to reach the foreign mushroom. I was about done when in the middle of growing the last one I felt footsteps along my sensory network back at site one of my experimental mushrooms. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Is this dude is seriously about to chomp down on my mushroom in the middle of an emergency? They must seriously have the munchies. I''ve been there. But to my surprise it doesn¡¯t eat the chem mushroom. It just collapses. The whole area is super damp too, so when it hits the ground the water splashes all around the area. I could tell cuz some of the mycelium bent a bit after the splatter. Was it exhausted after running away from the fire? The dude''s got time for a small break but I don¡¯t know if it''ll be safe here for long. Heck I don¡¯t even know ill survive with enough resources intact. I felt kind of bad for the little guy. I sent some water up the mycelium right around where I think it¡¯s mouth is. Hopefully its aware enough to drink some water. Come on little buddy drink up, if I have to live in this miserable world so do you. Chapter 39 Chapter 39 By the time I was done there was a little puddle around its face, I¡¯m assuming. My mycelium sensory network was a primitive detection system. It wasn¡¯t a precise thing. Heck I could be growing the puddle near its butt for all I knew. Still I made sure to disperse the water just far enough away from its body. I did not want to accidentally drown it. Killing through the chem mushrooms was all fine and dandy but I didn¡¯t want an exhausted animal to drown under my watch? This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Very consist morals, I have. But its not exactly the same situation is it? The bastards who I was experimenting on had choice whether to eat my mushrooms or not and walk past. This poor animal found a relatively safe spot and collapsed, it had no desire to eat my mushrooms. Besides its not like I was perfectly consist in my morals when I was a human. Sure I tried my best to do good wherever I could back then but I still had my shitty days where i was a shit person to those around me. Why is being ethical so important to me now? Was it an ego thing? As a human I did get a nice feeling after having done it. But I never felt like I was better than someone else. So that couldn¡¯t be it. Maybe its cuz I had so much time and no one to talk to I had no choice but to reflect on my decisions and actions? Yeah that sounds likely. As I was musing on my morality and actions, the winds were pushing so hard that that long and stalky mushroom I grew completely snapped in half. And it fell away from the direction of the fire meaning that it was just that much closer to my location and spreading fast. Gotta get my head in the game and leave the philosophizing for another day. Chapter 40 Chapter 40 The fire was fast approaching. And as much as I was concerned for myself I was also growing more and more concerned for the collapsed animal. I didn¡¯t even know if the damn thing was breathing. And I know its not the most wise decision to direct some of my nutrients towards figuring out its condition, especially when the fire was fast approaching, but I couldn¡¯t help it. I grew a few mycelium stalks that gently pushed against the poor thing. The ones from the sensory network were all crushed. I made those particularly fragile so that I would definitely know when an animal was there. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The ones I was making now were more like the wind detecting mushroom. Not big obviously but they were a bit more flexible and sturdy. I wanted to see if the downed animal was still breathing. Which in retrospect should have been my first step instead of growing a puddle nearby. If it was breathing than great it¡¯d have some water to drink to regain a bit of strength, if it wasn¡¯t and it died from its exhaustion then all I was doing was wasting my time. The mycelium grew a lot quicker than my regular mushrooms and I was able to check they¡¯re status. ... There. It is breathing, its alive. I need to wake this thing up before the fire reaches us. Got to get it up and moving. I could use the repelling compound I found in the hub to move it along but I don¡¯t know if it¡¯ll register the smell while asleep. The water I¡¯m dispersing will help deter the fire from catching things on fire and thus not kill the animal, but the fire CAN eventually evaporate the water and then easily set everything on fire. i remember from camping that wet wood doesn¡¯t catch on fire but it can after drying. I would have to constantly disperse water for it not to kill everything in my territory, including the animal. Fun times. ... AND the fire just reached the fifth to last mycelium stalk on the pathway. Alright little guy lets see who has the most endurance me or a damn forest fire. chapter 41 Chapter 41 Now that I realized that I wouldn¡¯t feel pain at the coming destruction, I wasn¡¯t as worried as I was when I found out that there was a fire coming my way. i wouldn¡¯t thank any god in this world for anything at all but I am grateful my consciousness wasn¡¯t placed in a mushroom that felt pain like the foreign mushroom I was attached to. That fucker was still writhing in pain. The fire reached the periphery of my sensory network that was now serving as a delivery system for my project fuck fire plan. I waited a few moments expecting it to still sweep over my area despite all my precautions. But despite all my misgivings its was sorta working I think. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. some of my mycelium were being slowly damaged but not like they were back at the foreign mushroom. There they just crumbled into ash, here it was being slowly being made less efficient. It was still pumping water although at a less efficient capacity than the rest of my mycelium. I can¡¯t help but think the fire was still spreading though. The only reason i wasn¡¯t being affected by the fire was because of the water I was distributing, but I wasn¡¯t distributing water on the trees and plants around me. They¡¯ll for sure get burned to a crisp¡­ Oh holy shit, Buttons!!! i was using the sensory network I grew there to send water, but the same logic applied here as there. Buttons was going to burned alive. ¡­ unless. Unless I work on perfecting the water dispersing mushroom! Right now I wasn¡¯t bothering hitting that sweet spot of filling the spores with just enough water they wouldn¡¯t just plop to the ground, but I can focus on troubleshooting that. Especially now that I have sufficient motivation. Theres no mushroom I was growing there either, I only had the sensory network set up there. I started growing a ring of mushrooms around the poor hapless plant. Don¡¯t worry buttons I¡¯m on my way! Chapter 42 Chapter 42 Was I being ridiculous in striving to save my pet plant when I had a collapsed animal barely breathing practically in front of my metaphorical feet? Maybe. But no judging! Of course I want the little bugger to survive but buttons is my tiny adorable buddy. I¡¯ve known em a lot longer than the poor sap who collapsed within my sensory network. Not to say I won¡¯t do anything. The water I¡¯ve been dispersing on the ground will keep the area mostly non crispy and I¡¯ll grow a couple mushrooms around the trees near the animal to keep them from hopefully burning and falling on the fallen animal. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Side note should I call these mushrooms mist mushrooms? Its not actually mist I know they¡¯re spores but its kinda like mist. Im not really attempting to propagate, merely dampen the place. Well not like I have a committee to deny the name. Its done they¡¯re mist mushroom. The fire is still being held back but the sensory network is slowly being degraded. I¡¯m practically being slowly boiled alive¡­ now I know what lobsters feel like, except I¡¯m not feeling pain and they do. Thats dark¡­ hmm well on the bright side it is giving me enough time to grow the mist mushrooms around button and the animal. I hope the wind changes directions and pushes the fire elsewhere. It¡¯ll give me more time and a breather¡­ fucking dammit I should have remembered about buttons sooner instead of just waiting for the fire to come. ¡­ hey wait speaking of remembering, couldn¡¯t I use the bde monument to disperse water filled spores? Holy shit I¡¯m a genius. Its huge as hell and has more surface area to grow more spores. Ugh I should have been doing this ages ago. Well might as well get started now. Chapter 43 Chapter 43 Theres a reason I gave up half way when trying this idea out. I mean sure I ended up with the raining mushroom but god damn is finding the right balance to have the spore be picked up by the wind a bitch and a half. All of my failed attempts to hit that balance did end up just falling to the ground, adding to the boggy-ness of the area, so it wasn¡¯t a total waste. But as a I attempted to slowly fill another spore with water I sensed movement. Not another terrified animal about to collapse, no it was the exhausted animal. It was waking up. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. It was seriously about fucking time. Time get a fucking move on, little dude. Hopefully it¡¯ll go in the direction of the water source and cross it, that way it¡¯ll have at least have that between it and the fire. I feel it stand up but then immediately collapse. At least I assume thats what happens because the mycelium I used to check its breathing is suddenly folds and snaps in half. It should drink some of the water I moved there to regain its strength. ... I think by the time the animal flees the area the mushrooms I grew around buttons should be fully developed. The mushrooms I was growing around the animal should be done as well, but I mean now that its woken up I don¡¯t have to prioritize those as much. Right? As I was contemplating my next moves, I was still trying to get one of the spores filled with just enough water for it to be blown by the wind but not so little that it was basically fuel for the fire to come. Now that I think of it that wind detecting mushroom I had would really be useful right now. The previous one was snapped in half by the wind but the base of it was still there, could I just grow another one from there? Hmm. Chapter 44 Chapter 44 Being slowly boiled alive while not feeling pain was a very weird experience. I was continually and slowly losing my ability to facilitate water to the affected areas. But I felt like I should be panicking more than I was, honestly. The fire was step by step destroying more and more of myself but i found myself not really caring as much as I should have. And I don¡¯t think this was shock either. I think its because I know for certain that ill find a way to survive and move past this. I was a mushroom but most of my substance and most of my being was squirrel-ed away underground. Sure my birthplace/log along with my original mycelium I was born into would inevitably be burned to char but that was exactly why I grew more of myself beyond that log. I¡¯m sure that bit of me still in that log, if it was still sentient, would be slowly rocking back and forth and weeping, but in between growing the the mushrooms around buttons and the animal, I briefly connected to my mycelium still in that log and it just felt like when I used to drop spore-filled mushrooms at the edge of my log to grow more of myself in the ground: like a limb I was reattaching to myself. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. There were no memories of being alone and being in despair. Which raised some very interesting questions about what exactly makes me, me. As I mused about my very nature, I finally hit that water balance sweet spot in one of my spores. I knew because the wind picked up and hit the bde monument in just the right way that it detached from the mushroom and carried it elsewhere. There were a lot of factors here that I had to consider and some of them I couldn¡¯t really control like the wind and weather and how it affected that balance. How much a spore could be filled with water was easy to find out as that was basically the whole premise with the raining mushroom. So I couldn¡¯t fill them up past a certain point and I couldn¡¯t find a generic sweet spot to hit with every single spore. It was annoying. Too little and while it does detach in the wind it would basically be just more fodder for the fire. Too much and while the damn thing also detaches it doesn¡¯t go too far and lands within spitting distance of the mushroom. I knew because the damn spores impact the sensory mycelium. But this last one was perfect the wind picked up in just the right way that the spore detached and I¡¯m assuming landed on a plant or tree. Despite the success here I found myself losing hope. So many factors had to be just right for even one of my water filled spores to do any good. The wind detecting mushroom I was attempting to grow from the detached stem would help determining at least one factor but I don¡¯t know¡­ I was losing hope fast. My poor buttons was doomed. Chapter 45 Chapter 45 The animal too was doomed if it didn¡¯t get its ass into gear and run away. It was still there conscious im assuming and possibly drinking the water I left it but it hasn¡¯t moved since its first attempt. Has it given up? Resigned to being burned alive? I don¡¯t know how long its been running and how fast its been running. Hell I don¡¯t know if it was doing alright psychologically. I know for a fact animals can get traumatized. I spent a year volunteering at an animal shelter, my therapist suggested I do so after my dog passed. ¡°Helping others in need is sometimes easier than helping ourselves and along the way you¡¯ll start feeling a bit better,¡± she said. its basically a coping mechanism but sometimes coping is all one can do. During my time there I realized animals can be just as traumatized as humans. The loss of their previous owner, the loss of its siblings, the loss of its children. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. My point is this animal could be going through much the same. Maybe it lost its family. Its certainly lost its home. After its initial struggle to stand up, it must have decided to just give up. Seeing as I was feeling much the same. I decided to once again take my therapist¡¯s advice, I had to keep trying to save both it and my pet plant. Attempting to do something is always better than not trying at all. So I gave it another think. My primary goal is to stop the fire from spreading further into my territory. The main resource I have in order to stop it is water. What I was attempting to do was have my mushrooms¡¯ spores carry water to a destination further than its immediate surroundings. Like I¡¯ve said filling them too much and they just fall, too little and they¡¯re basically fodder for the fire. That last part though, filling them with minor amounts of water, was just a theory it just sounded like it wouldn¡¯t work. Ive clearly never faced a problem quiet like this before, so who was I to say it wouldn¡¯t work? Given a direction of where to start, I began wondering where I should place the mushroom. Clearly somewhere near the border of the fire, which was still encroaching bit by bit inwards. It was slowed down by efforts to deliver more and more water to the affected areas. I had to be smart about my placement of it. Too near and the mushroom will burn before it even has a chance to grow its spores. Too far and my efforts to spread the barely water filled spores won¡¯t have any affect. I still had my doubts about this but what other option did I have? chapter 46 Chapter 46 i decided on a location. It was just far enough away that I suspected it would allow me to grow the mushrooms to full adulthood and even develop its spores. Besides, however distant the location is to the frontline won¡¯t matter as much, I suspect. The fire is still steadily crawling ever onwards. The frontline and thus the fire will definitely be within the mushrooms range. it wasn¡¯t a matter of if it¡¯ll be in range just a matter of when. i still tried to grow that perfect spore on the monument. To see if I could repeat my one success. But the variables kept changing. I suspect even with the help of the wind detecting mushroom it would still take me ages to perfect. That one saying kept repeating in my mind, ¡°insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.¡± This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. That saying is typically attributed to Albert Einstein but it really doesn¡¯t apply here. I¡¯m not insane and I know it can be done. i just did it. It¡¯ll just take time, time I don¡¯t exactly have. I concentrated on funneling more nutrients towards the wind detecting mushroom. It was slow going the nutrients were fluctuating in the hub. I think the trees knew what was coming and were using the hub¡¯s nutrients to prepare somewhat. But I don¡¯t think this meant they were intelligent though. Plenty of plants responded to outside stimuli. Venus fly traps famously responded to insects landing on their surfaces. But considering the two events here: the fire and the fluctuating hub were happening simultaneously it definitely suggested that they were related. In fact I remember watching a nature documentary about the relationship plants have with their environment and it mentioned something called Mother Trees. These trees were old as all hell and helped other trees in the area. However in the case it was chopped down it released a fuckton of nutrients into it¡¯s mycorrhizal network. This sounded like a good thing but it was actually the opposite. Forests without one will have a tough time getting back to snuff. I kept one eye on the hub for a flood of nutrients. As shit it would be in the future for the general environment there might not be one if I don¡¯t finish all my preparations. Those nutrients could help me grow all I need in the short term. chapter 47 Chapter 47 As I was carefully kept an eye on the hub for a massive release of nutrients, I realized I was being stupid. The thing I¡¯m attempting to do, releasing minimally water filled spores near the fire won¡¯t have much of a significant impact in such small quantities. But if I released a mass of them they¡¯ll essentially function as mist and will make it harder for the fire to spread. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Its what I was trying to do with the damn ¡°perfectly water filled spore,¡± but what I was actually doing was making the mushroom function as a sprinkler. Using the wind to send big globules of water to hit and impact the mushrooms surroundings. That thing I said earlier about getting smart? Yeah, definitely not true. Maybe I was thinking a bit faster than I was as a human but being more intelligent? Not a damn chance. I started growing the minimally water filled spores on all my mushrooms. i still needed the raining mushrooms to function as normal so those got a pass but other than those every single mushroom I had started growing these spores. Even the wind detecting mushroom that just finished reaching full maturity started growing the spores. This place was about to get wet as all hell. chapter 48 Chapter 48 For a wonder it worked. The fire wasn¡¯t as spreading as quickly as before. All the spore I released were actually helping. Now I just had to wait and hope the fire went out or the wind encouraged it to go in a different direction before it hit the animal and buttons. My territory was a bit expansive. Most of it consisted of the sensory mycelium with the occasional mushroom here and there. Before I was aware of the fire I even managed to connect the mycelium with the one I grew around buttons. buttons was far, far out because I wanted to contact a tree but chickened out and used the fact that some trees kill anything it¡¯s root touches and I didn¡¯t want anything in my immediate area. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. It was definitely a concern but one I could easily avoided by following the mycorrhizal roots back to their original trees. It stood to reason those trees wouldn¡¯t harm me if it clearly connected to the mycorrhizal roots. Anyways the point is buttons was maybe a mile or two apart from the rest of me. Most of my assets and most of my attention where devoted to my immediate surroundings so I didn¡¯t really disperse that much around buttons. A small mycelium network and now the ring of mushrooms I was growing. The plan was, was that once I figured out how to release water like a sprinkler I would do that there and drench the plant so that it couldn¡¯t be caught on fire. But while I was releasing water through the network around button I would now also do the same as I was doing back in my territory releasing the minimally water filled spores. Ugh thats a mouthful, lets just call them mist spores. It was a bitch to deliver all this water all the way here though. I hope to in the future I find a water source near here. cuz its like drinking water from a really long straw. Its exhausting. Chapter 49 Chapter 49 The animal ¡­ I¡¯m getting kind of sick of calling it that. Shit I don¡¯t even know it¡¯s gender or if it even has one. This a foreign world biology here could work in a vastly different way than it did back on earth. Whatever I¡¯ll just call it jade. Jade as in that animal is jaded. Shitty name and kind of on the nose, but at least its gender neutral. oh no, naming things is the first sign of getting attached¡­ Is it even wise to be naming something that could die brutally in a fire? If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Ugh. Anyways I brought up¡­ Jade, because they haven¡¯t moved at all after collapsing. I hope it drank some of the water. Who knows how depressed it is. When I was in a bad way the last thing on my mind was water or heavens forbid food. Thank god ¡­ which is a phrase I should consider dropping, that the fire has slowed down its crawl. All I really needed was a strong wind to blow that bitch some other direction and all, well most, of my extremities and resources will go un-scorched. Even if the fire doesn¡¯t, with the extra time the mist spores buy me I might figure something out that¡¯ll help me keep both Jade and Buttons alive. Speaking of keeping jade alive¡­ if I leave a trail of water puddles towards the water source I could keep the little bugger alive for a while longer. I went ahead with it. This unfortunately couldn''t be replicated with Buttons cuz obviously the damn thing was rooted. As a human I could have uprooted the thing easily and moved it out of the way before the fire could make its way their but why would I in thousand years ever want to do that as a human? I had to find some other way to save my little buttons. chapter 50 Chapter 50 I¡¯m not feeling steps towards the water source. Maybe the water isn¡¯t staying above ground and is instead seeping underground? I can¡¯t imagine that¡¯s it though most of my territory has been inundated with water and thus is muddy. I have been releasing water nonstop since the beginning with the sensory network which of course includes the direction of the water source¡­ Why am I assuming the water source reaches aboveground though? I just assumed since iv¡¯e only seen rivers on the surface but who¡¯s to say it isn¡¯t subterranean? How would I even know for sure? This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Grow more of myself layer by layer until I reach the surface and see if it I can continue to siphon off water? Not the most horrible idea I¡¯ve had but the whole hub is fucked right now with how its fluctuating, my log is nearly exhausted, and has a slight problem ofstill being disconnected from the rest of me. intermittent nutrient sources means no more fast grown mushrooms. Could I squeeze some nutrients from the log? Yes, but then it¡¯d be completely tapped out and should I even devote the last of those nutrients to finding out whether the river is aboveground or not? The direction of the water source lies on the opposite side of the fire so even if its not aboveground it¡¯ll at least get it moving in the direction¡­ I just need the little bugger to move! Wait. i know I checked whether it was breathing and it was but what if after it collapsed the second time it stopped breathing? Figures the second I give it a name the damn thing might be dead. Fuck me. Chapter 51 Chapter 51 Mulling it over some reconnecting to the log and depleting its resources is a must. If I don¡¯t, it¡¯s resources will just go to waste. Where I should direct those resources is the question now. I can maybe grow another stalky tendril to rest upon Jade¡¯s body to see if it breathing but then thats it for quick and easy nutrients. I do this though and I won¡¯t be able to rapidly help buttons. But I don¡¯t even know how to help it beyond what I am already doing. Thankfully the mist spores don¡¯t require many nutrients so despite the fluctuating hub I¡¯m still able to grow and release them consistently. As I decide on what to do, I wonder if Jade really isn¡¯t dead but just mesmerized by whats happening around it. Most likely if this world is anything even remotely like mine then nothing like what I¡¯m doing to the environment is a common sight. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. This world definitely has a lot of similarities to earth like trees, animals, water, prey and predator dynamics. But I don¡¯t think a mushroom affecting nature at this level of impact is an ordinary thing. Or maybe it is and thats why Jade felt comfortable enough to collapse here? Holy shit has it met one of my kind before? Pause. Thats an assumption based on weak evidence¡­ but if true wherever it came from has one thats capable of greatly affecting the environment. Which means I might not be the only intelligent mushroom out there capable of such feats. Like I said an assumption, I can¡¯t dwell on this too much. I might get obsessed with finding out where this hypothetical intelligent mushroom is and not dedicate myself to the immediacy of the fire. So for right now I¡¯ll just go ahead tap into the near depleted log and actually deplete it and use those nutrients to figure out if Jade is breathing¡­ Wait if¡­ and this might be crazy but what if I find out how exactly big this fire, surround it with my mycelium and then drench the surroundings with water? The fire won¡¯t easily spread outside the perimeter and it¡¯ll eventually deplete the fuel in area within. Except and I mentioned this before but most of what I can do impacts only the ground floor. The fire could spread from above and thus circumvent anything I do below. The mist mushroom spores help expand my range to keep everything moist but that would mean id have grow mushrooms in addition to the mycelium ill have delivering water to the area. This plan could work but there was only one slight problem. I don¡¯t have enough nutrients for a project this big. Chapter 52 Chapter 52 Somehow I don¡¯t think waiting and hoping for the nutrients of a dying mother tree is the call here. I need to do something about the incoming tide of death right now. The fire is riding my ass, metaphorically speaking of course. Where would I even have an ass¡­ not important. The point I¡¯m trying to make is that the fire is here, invading my space, if I wait for the wind to blow it elsewhere and away from me well yippee good for me but wind is a fickle thing and it might just come back. And come back swinging. So I need to confront it and fix it now. Two reasons, besides it coming back with a vengeance, jump out to me. One, If the fire is too far away I¡¯ll have to spend more nutrients trying to combat it elsewhere. And, more importantly, two if allowed to run rampant the fire will damage the ecology of the forest beyond repair. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Living in a state where fires were a staple of life you hear that they can have a devastating affect on the local flora and fauna. And seeing as how I¡¯m now definitely apart of that ecology it kind of makes me just a tiny bit interested in keeping the forest mostly intact. I just don¡¯t know how it can get done with the resources I ha¡­ Hold on, can I¡­ cannibalize myself? Oh hell no! How the fuck have I found myself contemplating that shit as an option. uh uh fuck that. I need to find some other way. ¡­ Waiting for the death of a mother tree is not the right call here as I''ve said but I¡¯m fresh out of ideas here and this seems like a viable option. Fuuuuuuuuck me. And fuck viable. Holy shit I don''t think i''ve ever desired the death of tree more in my entire life but I find myself hoping a mother tree dies soon. I seriously don¡¯t like this. ... I know this one thing though, my bde monument is not being cannibilized. Fuck everything else that shit stays. chapter 53 Chapter 53 Something about this situation reminded me of that hiker who got caught in between two rocks and had to cut off his own arm to escape. At least he didn¡¯t have to self cannibalize. Lucky bastard. They even made a movie about him. Obviously I¡¯m not getting that; there¡¯s no ¡®they¡¯ to make one. I put my self lament to the side for a moment, realistically speaking? I¡¯m in a way better position than he was. I don¡¯t feel any pain here. Not a mushroom growth goes by where I don¡¯t thank my lucky stars I don¡¯t have a nervous system like that foreign mushroom. Well I have a bit of it assimilated into me but that ain¡¯t the point. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Viscerally speaking, having to saw through your own hand as a human trumps whatever the fuck I got going on. Self cannibalizing is a perfect way to repurpose what resources I have and use them to combat and hopefully stop the fire which would have completely eradicated the resources I¡¯m trying to repurpose anyways. But there¡¯s just something about self cannibalizing that puts me off. I¡¯m still going through with it but I¡¯m not happy about it and my metaphorical eye is fucking glued to the hub waiting for the influx of nutrients that indicates the death of the mother tree. First things first I need to know if this thing is even possible. By now the log¡¯s nutrients are tapped out. Which was just enough to grow that long tendril to check jade¡¯s breathing. They in fact were breathing. Thank fuck. My guess that it was in shock and depressed might be on the money with this one. Anyway, all that¡¯s left in the log is my mycelium which makes it a worthwhile target to experiment and see if self cannibalism can even be done. In all honesty, targeting the log felt like the most comfortable choice. I¡¯ve disconnected from it multiple times that at this point it just felt like a prosthetic limb. All this was new territory for me though. I¡¯ve never not once heard of a mushroom that could do this. To be fair half the shit I get up to is something never been done before. Sure Ive heard that two different species fungi could parasitize one another but never outright a mushroom that consumes itself. But I guess I need to add this to the list of shit mushrooms could do cuz for a fucking wonder it worked. Chapter 54 Chapter 54 Having confirmed the possibility didn¡¯t suddenly make me enthusiastic about all this. Still I knew it was in my best interest to do so. And if I was seriously doing this I had to think about which of my mushrooms, mycelium, and appendages were on the metaphorical chopping block. The rest of the log obviously. I consumed merely a portion of my mycelium in there to prove that it could be done and it still had a bit left in there. Several of the pathway mycelium could be trimmed down a bit. The pathway to buttons, in particular, was originally meant to contact a tree far away from me but I ended up ditching that plan and meandered a bit before finally contacting Buttons. Point is, I can trim that mycelium way down. Obviously buttons was still hella far away from most of myself but I figure I could get perhaps a several mushroom¡¯s worth of nutrients. i could also target the pathway to that foreign mushroom¡­ well more like foreign mycelium since thats all it is right now. That whole pathway could be cannibalized. Well mostly I still wanted to reattach to it in the future and in particular I wanted to leave that assimilated foreign bit of myself alone. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Which was frustrating because that assimilated bit still ¡®violently¡¯ didn¡¯t want anything to do with me. I kept it in under control, but the act was a conscious one. My fear was that once I disconnected from it, it would overrun whatever mycelium I have left there to control it. I suppose I could always just completely write it off and decide to assimilate more of it once the fire was dealt with. Not exactly ideal but hey none of this shit was. I also grew that sensory network around there which was now mostly ash but the mycelium leading up to it was still viable. I also explored and meandered a bit before finding the foreign mushroom so that should net in some added nutrients as well. The experimental chem mushrooms were a prime targets too. So four targets for cannibalization¡­ not a lot to work with. The way the fire is affecting just the edge of my territory is indicative of its size. I needed more nutrients. The hub offers but a fraction of what it used to, but there is some. Even with that I was predicting I would still find myself short. Could I encourage the fire to enter the area within my territory and entrap it that way? The thinking here being that it¡¯ll allow me to not expend as much nutrients. Several problems with that idea though. The fire would burn away my expansive sensory mycelium and the various mushroom I have laying around including the ones releasing the mist spores. Though I suppose I could cannibalize them before the fire reaches them¡­ The more I though about it the more the idea had merit, but there was one last glaring flaw with this plan. Jade would be killed if I went through with it. The little bastard has completely given up and will not move. That didn¡¯t mean I was inclined to give up on it though¡­ I just didn¡¯t know what I could do. Whatever I ended up doing I would need nutrients, so I went ahead and got started on the self cannibalization targets. Chapter 55 Chapter 55 Trimming down the pathway to Buttons went pretty smoothy. I disconnected from my mycelium a bit away from Buttons leaving the sensory network, mushrooms and mycelium I used to contact the little guy intact. Once I detached myself I started consuming my mycelium and using the pathway itself to funnel those nutrients back to my main body. I wanted to reach buttons relatively quickly though ¡®cuz while the fire was not even remotely in the area I still wanted to send water there and disperse as much water and mist spores as possible. With the pathway being cannibalized and all it¡¯d be kinda hard to facilitate that so as I consumed the old pathway I grew the new one. Then when I reached buttons I¡¯d reattach my new mycelium pathway to the bit of mycelium I¡¯d left there and keep the water flowing. The cannibalization of the experimental chem mushrooms went without a hitch as well. They were a bit different from consuming my mycelium but it could still be done. They did have those compounds in them though and I couldn¡¯t very well consume those so I directed those compounds out through the sensory network which was pretty easy since it was still releasing water. Stolen story; please report. The last target was where I had a bit of trouble.The pathway towards the foreign mushroom. It was a lengthy pathway so I would definitely get more nutrients than I was getting from the pathway to buttons. I started off by consuming the leftover sensory network I had and then I started cannibalizing the exploratory mycelium I had in the area. All that went fine. The trouble came when I started detaching myself from the mycelium there. It was as I feared, after I disconnected I waited a few and then reconnected and found that assimilated bit in my mycelium turned rogue without my active attention keeping it in line. It violently attacked my mycelium. I wanted to do the same as I had with buttons and leave some of my mycelium intact in the hopes of reestablishing contacting in the future, but seeing as how that failed... It wasn¡¯t a huge issue, I could just do what I did the first time and assimilate another piece of it when I came back to the area. Unlike with buttons though I would only do so after the fire had come and gone. Too many nutrients went into making that pathway and I would need them if I wanted to stop the fire. All these nutrients would go a long way to entrap the fire and extinguish it. I just couldn¡¯t help but think i''d still need more though. Chapter 56 Chapter 56 An idea hit me so hard it left me stupid for what I was sure had to be at least a couple huge mushroom growths. I even quickly checked the proximity of the fire just to see if a significant amount of time had passed but it was only a short distance closer than I remember it being. The idea that hit me was this: couldn¡¯t I just release some of that compound I had in the bde monument? You know the one that FUCKING REPELS animals? If I grew some it would encourage jade to get the fuck away. Even better I could disperse the compound strategically in certain locations to encourage it to run in a straight enough path away from the fire. Hot damn I¡¯m such a fool it astounds me at times. If it didn¡¯t want to move out the way of the fire I¡¯d very well make it. I didn¡¯t know what that compound is or how it does what it does but it might just damn well help me save a life. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Geez, crazy to think I was initially trying to find a compound that actually mildly poisons those who dare to eat me and now those same efforts would let me keep this damn depressed animal alive. Several things jumped out at me if I did this though. Those nutrients I was cannibalizing from myself would have to be used here in order to accomplish this. Since this allowed me to enclose the fire around my territory, which would let me spend less nutrients I otherwise would have used to minimal effect if I had to do it in any other way, I was willing to do it. But I also had to stop watering the surroundings to entice the fire within. Everything within my area was boggy with the water I was pumping out, which made it kinda difficult. It was what I wanted at the time but it wouldn¡¯t help me out any now. I¡¯d keep as much as I could closest to the border intact and non-cannibalized and still pumping water as I still needed some time to grow and do what I needed to do to get jade the fuck out. But anything beyond a certain point was fair game for cannibalizin¡¯. That would let me acquire more much-needed nutrients I could use to disperse that repellant compound. To minimize costs I could also repurpose some of the mushrooms I had strewn about the place and grow some spores filled with the compound. Even better I think I could even release some through the sensory network. I got started on the new plan. Ugh I¡¯m glad I found a solution that seems like it could work but all this was such a pain. Couldnt I just be left alone in peace to live my mushroom life? chapter 57 Chapter 57 Apparently the answer was no I couldn¡¯t have a peaceful mushroom life. Cuz as soon as I decided on my course of action, a strong and consistent gust of wind drove the fire and caused it to increase it¡¯s pace. I¡¯d have to double time it if I wanted to go through with the plan. I know this really isn¡¯t the time and I know I already called this Project Fuck Fire, but I¡¯m seriously considering renaming it Project Fuck Wind. I mean here I was hoping a gale just like this one would push the fire away from me maybe even push the bitch backwards buuuuut nooooo. Man fuck this world. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Okay whatever hate the world later, save the forest now. I have to disperse the compound as soon as possible so I can¡¯t really wait around for a mushroom to achieve maturity and then have it release chem spores. I could use the ones i¡¯ve already have in the area like I said but¡­ now that I think about it releasing chem spores would be an imprecise thing, much better to just release the compound with the sensory mycelium. I¡¯ll start by building a corridor like pathway of the stuff and release droplets of the stuff. Oh shit¡­ hang on what if¡­ ? Oh, thank fuck! Here I was willy nilly deciding I was gunna use the repelling compound when the fucking hub was compromised, but no for some reason that compound is still there in spades. Hmmm weird. Anyways I¡¯ve stopped pumping water to the area around jade which made it that much more likely for the compound to stay and linger instead of being washed away. The corridor was built fairly fast and luckily enough I remembered I had that ring of mushrooms I had grown around jade cannibalized by the time I was done which was a good thing cuz when I started to release the compound behind jade it woke up and flat out ran off. Heh, no resignation to death on my watch Jade! I could get on with the rest of the project now that I didn¡¯t have to worry about little jade. Watch out fire your days are numbered. Chapter 58 Chapter 58 Seems the old adage of ¡°adversity breeds success¡± had some truth to it afterall cuz the brilliant ideas seem to just keep fucking coming. This one, thank fuck, didn¡¯t leave me as dumbfounded as the last one. One quick check of the fire and it had barely advanced. Anyway some mushrooms make an explicit habit of making trees their habitat, so who the fuck said I couldn¡¯t do the same? Ugh what a time to fucking realize that, huh? This would have been suuuuuper freakin¡¯ useful when the plan was to only save the forest within my area. It would have made the current plan obsolete though, so it ain¡¯t all bad. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Growing them on any of the trees within my area and then having them release water would have been a complete waste of resources as well. Sure it would have a better effect than the one my mist spores have but this would only serve to slow the fire¡¯s advance, it wouldn¡¯t have completely stopped it so eventually all the mushrooms would have gone up in smoke. Basically it would have been like throwing them into the garbage. This idea could still work for the current plan though if I started growing mushrooms on the trees around the perimeter of my area and then have them release water. Hell if I could get my mycelium to grow all over on the trees I could practically bathe them in water. Giddy with the fresh new idea i got started, but I started to wonder about jade, by now the little bugger was free and clear of my area and the last step i felt them take was in the direction of the water source, i only hoped the tiny adorable bastard didnt double back and head straight for the fire. Unfortunately I could only wonder and hope as I had no way to check. Chapter 59 Chapter 59 If I wanted to encourage the fire within my territory and entrap it I had to also grow mushrooms and mycelium on the other side of the fire. Figuring out where to grow would be tricky though. I¡¯d have to grow a pathway of mycelium and grow a strand every so often above the surface and hope it doesn¡¯t immediately get turned into ash. I would just be wasting nutrients if I didn¡¯t make sure to space them out correctly so I had to really make sure I put enough distance between them. Since nutrients were at a premium at the moment, I had little to waste. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. I¡¯d especially needed to keep nutrient costs low with my idea to grow on the surface of trees. Seeing as that was the case instead of growing mushrooms, which were rather costly, I was inclined to grow solely mycelium on the trees. At least for right now. The cannibalism of my various appendages was going well enough and while definitely netting me nutrients they weren¡¯t infinite. I got started on growing the mycelium pathway to find the outer edge of the fire while simultaneously I started on growing on top of a tree I choose. I was little wary about doing this but I didn¡¯t have much of a choice here, saving the forest was my only option. I didn¡¯t want to survive the fire only to find out that the rest of the ecology was doomed and THEN wither away because I couldn¡¯t find any nutrients to subsist off of. As I grew and extended a strand on top of the tree I picked my mycelium made contact with something. Hmmm ¡­ that¡¯s fucking weird. I think ¡­ there¡¯s a fungus already growing here. Wait what the hell? chapter 60 Chapter 60 You know I keep calling myself dumb or a moron and I know my therapist said I should stop calling myself names but ¡­ sometimes the truth is really hard to deny. I am irrefutably an idiot. That fungus on the tree? Yeah its not just a fungus. That thing has a mutualistic relationship with a fucking photosynthetic organism, an algae. Otherwise known as fucking lichen. Why am I pissed at myself? That little mutualistic relationship they have going on could practically solve all if not most of my problems right now. The one thing I really need right now is nutrients so I can help stop this fire, and this lichen? Just might be the solution I needed all along. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. And thats why I¡¯m mad at myself. The solution to my problem was there all along, I was just too blind to see it. I am actually quite literally blind but thats not the ¡­ whatever. See the fungus provides this algae a place to call home and the algae provides the fungus with nutrients it gets from the sun. All I would have to do is integrate myself into their relationship to benefit from it. If this thing was intelligent I would offer it a treaty or contract for its help but from what I can see its just a mindless lifeform. I don¡¯t want to just rip its nutrients out from it without somehow helping them grow though¡­ Could I provide it water like I have been doing with the hub? I try to direct some into the tendril I have growing on the tree and something spooky happens. Typically when I send water into the hub it feels like I¡¯m the one who gives it and nothing else happens, but here¡­ just before I introduce the water to the fungus¡¯ I feel it greedily take it. Which scared the hell out of me. Even when I was directing nutrients to the foreign mushroom to check for intelligence I never felt something like this. I still don¡¯t think its intelligent but whatever that was¡­ ill be keeping an eye on it from now on. Maybe I¡¯m not so alone after all? chapter 61 Chapter 61 I can¡¯t help but ask myself how desperate I really am for company that such a small act like the lichen actively taking the water from me gives me hope I¡¯m not alone? Its kinda sad to think about really. When I was human talking and hanging out with other people wasn¡¯t exactly my idea of fun, but now that I find myself all alone¡­ I mean I have buttons and possibly jade if the little bugger is even alive and decides to stick around after the fire is gone but¡­ it just isn¡¯t the same. I guess having the option of actually talking to someone completely stripped from me puts things into perspective. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Ugh. One tiny action by one damn lichen and its given me all this hope and so much more anguish. Fact is i need to come to terms with the reality that just because that thing actively takes the water I give it, doesn¡¯t automatically make it intelligent or even sapient for that matter, plenty of flora and fungi have an active impact in the environment. But I need to focus on my tasks or there weren¡¯t be any environment for those organisms to even exist. Now that I¡¯m an active participant in this three-way symbiosis I won¡¯t really feel any remorse taking some of its nutrients. Besides come to think of it I¡¯m also quite literally saving it from a fiery death, thats gotta be worth some generosity. Using the nutrients from the lichen actually made building the mycelium on the tree quite easy. Which made sense honestly since the nutrients were coming from close proximity to where I was growing mycelium. i needed to replicate this for all the trees around the border of my area, though, and depending on how wide of an area the fire is I might even have to go further. And not every tree will have lichen growing on it as well which will most definitely be a pain. Eventually I could maybe find a way to make the lichen to grow on another tree but thats far into the future. Something to think about though. Chapter 62 Chapter 62 The fire was quite expansive. The pathway I was growing in order to determine the fire¡¯s size was about maybe 2/3¡¯s the size of the mycelium pathway it took me to reach buttons. Growing tendrils of mycelium only for them to be immediately turned to ash was not a fun experience let me tell you. There was no pain obviously, but after the 6th tendril I was getting nervous at how large of an area this thing had. I eventually reached the opposite end though. Thank fuck I found that lichen. Obtaining a stable ongoing nutrient source is really gunna come through if this is how large of an area the fire is affecting. Also the fact that I can now tell when its day or night through the amount of nutrients the lichen produces really sets my former human sensibilities at ease. Its day now, at least so I think. The amount the nutrients I¡¯m getting seems excessive for it to be night. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Thing is, and this really isn¡¯t important but, I can stop growing the mini mushrooms to measure time now. Of course I immediately stopped growing them the moment I realized I needed to manage my nutrients better, but the fact that I effectively have a diurnal rhythm again makes me really happy. Amazing, the things you miss when you don¡¯t have them anymore¡­ Anyways thus far, I''ve measured the fire from where its at near my border to it¡¯s opposing side but there are still other measurements I have to make in order to get an exact picture of its size. To get those measurements I grew two tendrils from the middle of the pathway and grew them outward in opposite directions. Then just like before every so often I¡¯ll grow a tendril aboveground just like before. In the meantime I was growing as much mycelium on trees and on the ground as I possibly could. Hopefully i''ll find more colonies of lichen on these trees I can tap into. chapter 63 Chapter 63 Despair Even as she ran for her life, it was all she could feel. Not self preservation, not hope, not optimism. She was running on instinct, not caring where she ran. After running for what felt like forever, she collapsed in exhaustion and slipped into slumber. And for a long while she was blissfully unconscious. She didn¡¯t feel anything, she didn¡¯t remember anything and she wanted to stay like this forever. Until something rudely poked her in her side. And in a half delirious state she dismissed it thinking it was just her mate coming back from foraging. Would it kill him to not poke me? She suddenly remembered. He¡¯s dead. They all were. She instinctually tried to stand up and run thinking it was a predator, but she immediately collapsed. It wasn¡¯t even the exhaustion¡¯s fault. The memories hit her. And they hit her hard. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. She cried. She cried for a long while. Mewling, screaming, whining. There was no need for quiet. If a predator found her and decided she looked appetizing she welcomed it. She just wanted these feelings to go away. When she finally stopped she looked around through her aching eyes. She had no idea where she was. There were no birds chirping, no insects buzzing. They must have all ran away like she did. Curiously there was water all over. Rain? She looked up. No clouds in sight. Where was all this water coming from? She looked down and noticed mushrooms surrounding her. Then she noticed the white stuff barely poking out of the ground in between the grasses. They were all releasing water. She blinked. Nothing in the world made sense anymore. So she closed her eyes and fell into unconsciousness once again. Then. A poke in her ribs again. This time she didn¡¯t even bother to open her eyes. What was the point? The poking was annoying but she could ignore it. Until it got so annoying it wouldn¡¯t let her go back to sleep, she opened her eyes and looked at the spot where the thing was poking her. It was ¡­ a white thing poking out from the ground, kind of like the other ones she saw scattered around the area. This one was long and felt stiffer than those looked though. She found herself contentedly apathetic to the world, but a flicker of curiosity got the better of her. Must be a plant. But why was it poking her? She looked around once more¡­ the mushrooms where gone. Even the other white stuff she saw poking above ground was gone. Tension creeped into her muscles. Until she remembered it didn¡¯t matter. Nothing mattered. She looked down intending to find another comfortable spot but was surprised to find a puddle of water right by her mouth. That definitely wasn¡¯t there before. She took a sniff. Definitely water. She took a drink, long past caring what was even happening anymore and drifted off into sleep again, white thing poking her be damned. Chapter 64 Chapter 64 Unfortunately, I did not find many more colonies of lichen. The number of trees I grew on counted in the 20¡¯s so far. But I¡¯ve only found 4 in total. Counting the one I originally found, I had 5 colonies of lichen that I was connected with. These would definitely help in completing my plan but ¡­ I guess I was just hoping for more. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. I was mostly done cannibalizing my mycelium and mushrooms though. I still had about the size of half a neighborhood block of mycelium and mushrooms left in front of the fire to slow its advance. Once the mycelium bulwark, which I was what I was now calling it, was burned through the fire would advance quickly and the fire would continue on its destructive path before I had a chance to contain it. I had water pumping on all the trees I¡¯ve successfully grown on now but I feared that without a proper blockade the fire would just skirt around them and carry on its destructive path through the forest. in order to build that blockade I needed to find out the fires current complete size and then find the appropriate trees to spread my mycelium on. I was already on that but I was worried the fire¡¯s length was going to be even larger than how long it took me to reach the fire¡¯s opposite side¡­ The fire couldn¡¯t back track and burn what was already burnt though so that was one less worry. And while I seriously doubt I had to grow on its opposite side, I was still going to build a mycelium network and maybe a couple mist mushrooms and pump water there. Just to be safe. Chapter 65 Chapter 65 Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. they did win at the end. Chapter 66 This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Chapter 67 Chapter 67 With little to no fanfare, not really but¡­ the fire simply flickered itself out. Project fuck fire was successful. Bonus! Because I managed to come up with the mycelium carapace idea the fire quickly lost its¡¯ intensity and didn¡¯t completely burn everything within the enclosure. So the bde monument didn¡¯t go crispy. Well mostly. It was a little smoky around the edges but it wasn¡¯t anything I couldn¡¯t repair. Plus out of the 27 lichen colonies I connected with 18 survived. I had plenty of nutrients left to play with. And now without the fire breathing down my neck, I could even attempt to encourage more colonies of lichen to spread to trees that never had them to begin with. Buttons hadn¡¯t even been touched by the fire so the tiny mycelium carapace I grew on it was completely futile. That was fine though, I would have grew one on it eventually. It was just a matter of time and nutrients. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. I was still periodically checking the hub just to see if the hub had stopped fluctuating. And while fortunately it had stopped being so volatile, the hub was still a mess. I was panicked for a second thinking that the fire was still going on somewhere else where I couldn¡¯t sense, but that just wasn¡¯t the case. See I figure the only reason the hub would go crazy like that was because the trees somehow sensed the fire coming. I remember a line from some documentary stating that sometimes animals react to things before major events happen. Like earthquakes or tornadoes. Animals can in some strange way sense it and get the hell out of dodge. In fact this could very well have happened to the animals when the fire started. Anyways it stood to reason that much like animals the trees could have sensed the fire approaching as well. Since they weren¡¯t mobile they were preparing in the only way they could the nutrients that lay in the hub. ¡­ wait. Hmmm. You know, with all the preparations I had to do, I don¡¯t think I ever realized it but I never stopped providing the hub with water. It had become almost second nature for me. And I was only checking the hub occasionally if it received an influx of nutrients from a dead mother tree. That never came to be unfortunately and I was reduced to cannibalizing myself but I never really bothered to check the hub thoroughly. I just now checked and I found the water that I¡¯ve been delivering through all this was nonexistent. Usually, before the fire, when I checked the hub it would contain a pool of water that would slowly trickle out to whichever plant wanted some. But right now the only water there, was the water I was only just now delivering. And that was practically disappearing before it even fully settled. The only reason I can think this was happening was because the plants were trying to defend themselves. And it just happened that the only way they knew how they were embedding themselves with water. That couldn¡¯t have been pleasant. I remember my mom gardening occasionally growing up and I remember her telling my dad that sometimes plants would do this but it would result in burst cells. Basically, these bastards were harming themselves in order to stave of complete annihilation. Chapter 68 This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. caused her to mildly stumble somewhat but she picked up her pace. Chapter 69 Chapter 68 To intentionally make your cells burst with water in order to ward off death ¡­ fuuucking hell, Mother Nature got nerve. I practically did the equivalent in that I had to cannibalize myself in order to combat the fire but I consciously made the decision, these plants did it instinctively. Something about that fact just speaks to me. Unless these trees really are sentient. I mean I was a little bitch and took the coward¡¯s way out and never contacted them so who¡¯s to say if they actually were and all this was intentional. Maybe I¡¯ll find out one day but right now I had to focus on rebuilding and reconstructing. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Cuz¡¯ I gotta say this oval shape I got going on? It ain¡¯t doing it for me. i want a more square-like shape, like I use to have. Some of, if not all, the mycelium carapaces have got to go to as well¡­ Listen to me, heh, willing to cannibalize my mycelium and mushrooms for mere aesthetics. ... It wasn¡¯t all just aesthetics though. If some sentient animal found my mushrooms and mycelium visibly occupying and dominating the local area they might see me as some kind of threat and exterminate me. If humanity is anything to go by, these hypothetical people attacking and annihilating an unknown prolific species is a mere inevitability. Just look at what people used to do to kudzu back on earth. Kudzu was a fucking menace though, that little bastard visibly grew right in front of you. Left alone it would strangle the life of a forest within days. I wasn¡¯t like that of course but people sometimes act impulsively, I couldn¡¯t take the chance. And as much as adversity breeds strength, I really don¡¯t want a war. I just want to live in peace, is that so much to ask for? Chapter 70 Chapter 70 i started cannibalizing the carapaces. The idea was a great one and I would keep it in mind the next time another fire comes along. I¡¯m happy that multiple new ideas and inventions came out of it, but I cant help but think of all the destruction it caused. I¡¯m sure if I grew in the direction of where the fire came from I would find many dead animals in my path. Not to mention all the dead trees and plants. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I even had to leave behind that foreign mushroom. Im sure its still there¡­ in fact I should really find out how it¡¯s doing. Maybe provide it with nutrients to get it back to health. I mean If I wanted to reconnect with it I¡¯d practically have to. Last time I checked the mushroom was in massive pain. While the fire had long since moved on from its¡¯ vicinity chances were high it was still experiencing pain. I can¡¯t help but think what evolution was thinking when it created this one. What sort of biological incentive did this mushroom have in order to develop a nervous system? Sadly I might never know. I started growing a new pathway in it¡¯s direction. The old pathway left the soil a bit loose so it was pretty easy to get started. While I started on that I had to mull over how I was going to spread the lichen to other trees. Chapter 71 Chapter 71 Spreading lichen to other trees was a difficult proposition. I don¡¯t even know how they propagate in the first place. I mean I watched a lot of nature programs and documentaries while I was depressed, but I don¡¯t have perfect recall. Yes I knew enough to recognize that a fungus bonded with an algae meant the organism was a lichen but i couldn¡¯t even begin to¡­ Hold on its a fungus¡­ yeah duh I knew that but I¡¯m a fungus too wouldn¡¯t they produce spores just like I could? Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Yeah that tracks, but then how could I induce that process in another fungus? With the foreign ¡­ honestly I should just give the thing a name instead of calling it a foreign mushroom all the time. How about ¡­ just pain mushroom for now. Kind of a basic name but hey I cant come up with brilliant names all the time. As i was saying with the pain mushroom I ripped a piece of mycelium from it and integrated it into my mycelium and it worked but that resulted in me fighting it constantly to get it to work with me. Im assuming that if I did the same to the lichen it would result in the same thing ¡­ but wait what if I ¡­ What if I rip some of its mycelium out and try to cultivate some of the algae in me? Holy shit I am a genius! I wouldn¡¯t have to keep the fungus in line at all! The fungus provides the algae a safe place to live in, who the fuck said I couldn¡¯t take its place!? Chapter 72 This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Chapter 73 Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Chapter 74 The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Chapter 75 Chapter 75 The lichen nutrients I absorbed were minuscule so I directed them to a place a bit further from the originating tree. I hoped to have the mushroom in direct sunlight. Doing so should net me more nutrients than if I were to just grow them in the shade. Unfortunately, for all my varying and odd abilities, finding an ideal spot of unshaded space will be difficult. Growing the mushroom away from the tree was a start but there was the overall canopy to consider. With the fire having destroyed a portion of it, I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be much easier to find the perfect place to grow it but it wasn¡¯t a guaranteed thing. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I suppose if the first one doesn¡¯t work out, I could always find a different location. Though it¡¯ll be a pain to cannibalize and then regrow elsewhere. On the upside I can use the algae itself to check if the area I have it in is optimal or not. I would need multiple mushrooms to better compare and contrast where the best unshaded spot was, though. Something to consider as well was the fact that the lichen mushroom I have at the moment was basically a prototype at the moment, it wasn¡¯t a fully realized thing yet. Growing multiple completelichen mushrooms would result in me completely consuming multiple colonies and that was not something i was comfortable with. I could snatch a few cells here and there from the surviving 17 lichen colonies, but outright consuming even one colony was out of the question. Waiting for the algae to replicate within me was the move here I just had to wait patiently. Wait a minute ¡­I got it. Growing them in an ideal location will no doubt increase its replication rate and I think I know just the place. Right next to the pain mushroom. Chapter 76 Chapter 76 Well not exactly next to it. Eventually I will want some there cuz growing them there would let me have readily available nutrients ready to assist the pain mushroom, but I¡¯m getting way ahead of myself. Like I said this type of mushroom is still in its development phase. Even if I did grow a couple there, as they are now, they would produce next to nothing in nutrients. This current iteration of the mushroom has what like a couple of algae cells embedded in there? Not nearly enough to produce the nutrients needed to assist the pain mushroom. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The whole experiment is about to be put on pause anyway cuz the nutrients the lichen I¡¯m getting from colonies are steadily declining. Meaning its night time. Any results from the one proto-lichen mushroom I do have will have to wait until tomorrow. The idea to have them grow in a shade less area like the one the pain mushroom is in right now was still a brilliant idea. I mean why bother trying to figure out the perfect placement for the lichen mushrooms when the whole forest over there is burnt to ash, making it the ideal place to grow them. The mycelium pathway I have making its way towards the pain mushroom is most likely already under the burnt forest. Ill just have it grow an offshoot towards the surface and grow a couple of proto-lichen shrooms there. Once I get these mushrooms perfected, I¡¯ll be rolling in nutrients. Chapter 77 Chapter 77 I finally reach the pain mushroom. It¡¯s alive but it¡¯s in a really bad way. That thing is suffering just as much if not more than when I left it. That plan to eventually somehow completely integrate it into myself and obtain a nervous system? Yeah, no. This is seriously making me reconsider. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Im sure there are ways to mitigate the pain, like keeping the nervous system solely contained within my mycelium below ground as well as keeping any of my mushrooms disconnected to it and without one, but I can¡¯t help but think that some burrowing creature out there would inevitably target my mycelium specifically and I¡¯ll suffer just as horribly for it. My concerns aside it was time to help the pain mushroom as best I could. I try to connect to the nearby hub and see what¡¯s up but it takes a while to find the local mycorrhizal network but when I do make contact I find myself surprised. I expected to find some nutrients to work with, enough so that I could heal the pain mushroom back to full health and not much else. What i actually find is an over abundance of nutrients to work with. With no living trees connected to it the nutrients were just sitting there. And I suddenly find myself somewhat angry. With access to this amount of nutrients, stopping the fire would have been reeeeeaaaally simple. Chapter 78 A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Chapter 79 Chapter 79 My anger aside, I was glad I didn¡¯t have to wait for my lichen mushrooms to prove successful in order to help the poor pain mushroom. I quickly transferred some nutrients from the hub to the pain mushroom. It felt weird not having to give anything to the hub. Usually I gave my hub water in exchange for some nutrients but since there were no trees connected to this hub to speak of it made things a bit simpler. It still felt kind of wrong to not give anything back though so I made the decision to grab some water from my source and lug it all the way to the second hub but only after I had the mushroom back to full health. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Waiting for the lichen mushrooms to provide all the nutrients I need would take a stupendous amount of time, but time I had in spades. I¡¯m sure I could speed things up by going full cannibal but that isn¡¯t my style. I already had multiple lichen mushrooms growing on the burnt section of the forest, hopefully the algae cells successfully reproduce. If they don¡¯t I¡¯ll cannibalize all of the mushrooms and grow one new lichen mushroom with all of the nutrients from those I cannibalized¡­ That¡¯ll force me to nibble from the lichen colonies every now and again for the algae cells, if I want to produce more lichen mushrooms though. ¡­ speaking of nibbling I wonder when the animals will come back. If and when they do those little bastards need to back off better stay away from my lichen mushrooms, I worked hard for them! Okay not really but I should take some of the repelling compound and incorporate it into the lichen mushrooms. Just in case. Chapter 80 Chapter 80 I couldn¡¯t just willy nilly interweave some of the repelling compound into the already mature proto lichen mushrooms. They were already done growing. I could however grow some repelling chem spores on the proto lichen mushrooms but those were meant for aerial dispersal. If I did did that I would have to continuously release them. What I needed was to have the mushrooms themselves repel animals. This would be so simple if I could just grow the mushrooms like an inch more and incorporate the chemical compound that way. Wait I¡¯m dumb why don¡¯t I just do that? This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. I can¡¯t interweave the compound within the already grown mushrooms but I can grow the stalk of the mushroom and interweave the chemical there. I got that started and checked in on the pain mushroom. The nutrients I was feeding it was really helping out. I could tell because the pain I was feeling from the assimilated bit I had within me was gradually lessening. ¡­ hmmm. You know ¡­ doing something beneficial for the pain mushroom like this was really rewarding. Even back when I was human, doing something as simple as picking up trash while on my way to wherever I was going would really give me a good feeling for the rest of the day. And ¡­ well, I was just thinking why couldn¡¯t I do the same here? I mean there¡¯s a whole bunch of nutrients at the second hub just laying there doing nothing. And I¡¯m not really doing anything, I mean I have my various projects going on but what if I helped some more? Chapter 81 Chapter 81 The more I thought about it the more I wanted to do something. What if I ¡­ huh. Yeah what if I direct nutrients to the shrubs and saplings on the border of the burnt forest. It would encourage growth and will eventually lead to those shrubs¡¯ and saplings¡¯ spreading their seeds and offspring into the burnt clearing. Also I¡¯m just assuming there aren¡¯t any living flora within the clearing, when I really shouldn¡¯t. Yes the hub¡¯s nutrients are stagnant meaning no trees are connected to the hub but not all plants have to be connected to the mycorrhizal network in order to survive. Just look at buttons I found it completely disconnected from it and it was doing decently enough on its own. I¡¯ll need to spread into the clearing and explore if I want to find surviving plants or even better buried seeds, Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Oooh boy that¡¯ll be a lot of work. Better yet the first plan alone will take years if not decades for the plan to come into fruition. Sure the ash leftover from the burnt flora will act as fertilizer and will speed things along but I¡¯ll still be looking at a long time. I got started on the first plan and started looking for shrubs and saplings along the border. Spreading into the clearing will take some be a bit rough going but it¡¯s all just part of the process. Who ever said doing a good thing would be simple huh? Chapter 82 Chapter 82 You know for a burnt clearing, I would expect there to be no FUCKING GRASS. But there fucking is. I suppose I just lucked out in finding a place with no grass roots where I grew my proto lichen mushrooms but come the fuck on. You¡¯d think that, here where a fire has recently passed through, I would find some solace in growing in peace. I always have to crawl through their fucking roots, and they always get in my way wherever I expand into except i guess the one place I grew my proto lichen mushrooms. That actually gave me hope the fire actually did burn their grassy little fucking roots. It¡¯s always a damn pain to grow my mycelium above ground and it¡¯s always because of the god fucking grass. And I know I¡¯ve said it multiple times before. But it bears repeating. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. It would have felt real refreshing not having to compete for space. ¡­ wait I¡¯m trying to do a good thing here why am I getting mad ¡­? Hmm you know I¡¯m not a therapist but I was actually listening to mine when I was in my sessions with her. She would say something like¡­ I might be displacing my emotions in this case anger and redirecting it onto something else. That something being my grassy fucking nemesis. Ha, still doing it. Uhh let¡¯s see if that¡¯s true and I¡¯m displacing my anger, why would I be angry in the first place. Mmmm, why would I be angr¡­ Oh wasn¡¯t I peeved when I found the nutrients in the hub¡­ but why would I be¡­ ? Ah, i see I¡¯m pissed at myself. if I had checked in on the local underground ecosystem and found the nutrients I could have saved some of the above ground ecosystem. Making this whole process easier. And I¡¯m taking out my anger on a defenseless organism that has done nothing but survive. ¡­ survive and made my self given mission to revive the clearing a living hell. Stupid grass. WHAT?! I¡¯m not a saint. I understand why I¡¯m angry now but just cuz I know what my therapist would say doesn¡¯t mean I still can¡¯t be mad. Taking it out on my nemesis is cathartic. No judgement. Chapter 83 Chapter 83 Odd occurrence after odd occurrence. Where has the fire gone? What is happening? She was on edge and everything felt wrong. When¡­ when she was little her mother taught her and her siblings to always remember that If she felt like that to: run, hide, or stay very still. But she honestly wanted to do none of those things. She felt a something within. She wanted to know what was going on. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Fires don¡¯t just stop like that. And¡­ where did the water come from? When she collapsed, she remembered clearly that there was water on every surface. Even a small puddle in front of her. Why? How? Where did that smell come from? She wasn¡¯t familiar with this location at all but she was familiar with that smell and the flower responsible for it long ago. She made sure to memorize it, but she saw no flower in her sprint away. She had many questions and no answers. Well there¡­ there was no danger in going back now that the fire was gone. And surely even the predators were long gone by now. But even if there were she ¡­ she didn¡¯t care much if they got her. There was no one left. She felt hollow. She closed her eyes and looked within. She stayed like that for a long while and she found a flicker of something. Curiosity. She dwelled on that for a while. She had nothing and no one but right now that flicker of curiosity was all she was. She opened her eyes, decision made she began her climb down the tree Chapter 84 If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Chapter 85 Chapter 85 Instead of directing all the nutrients I pilfered from the hub towards growing a new mycelium network, I used about half of them to start growing some mini mushrooms. I wouldn¡¯t get the exact time of when I arrived here as I didn¡¯t start growing the time keeping mushrooms until later but I¡¯ll get an estimate. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I could even reuse the nutrients I invest from growing a mini mushroom. I used to just wait for the mushrooms to decompose and retrieve the nutrients that way but now that cannibalism is on the table¡­ that¡¯s a fucked sentence if I ever heard one. The point is I can retrieve the nutrients directly and more importantly quickly and efficiently. I won¡¯t have to dip into the hub¡¯s resources. ¡­ it would be so much simpler if I could have an independent hub of my own where I could store ¡­ ohh shit now there¡¯s an idea! But could I even cultivate my own mycorrhizal network to begin with? I¡¯d have to make sure it¡¯s cut off from the rest of the plants and ecology in the forest. Either way it¡¯s worth a try. This is gunna be awesome Chapter 86 The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Chapter 87 Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Chapter 88 A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Chapter 89 The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Chapter 90 I will usher in a growth period like no other.¡± This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. feels Chapter 91 A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Chapter 92 Chapter 92 The area around where the chem mushrooms were, was sown and scattered with my mycelium poking above the surface. From there I expanded the network towards the path I grew the repellent mycelium stalks to encourage jade to leave. It was a dumb hope I know but I just wanted to know if they were okay. If they ever came back having the network to notify me would help put my mind at ease. By the time night was over, I had the majority of that path covered. And now I knew exactly how long a day was on this planet in mushroom growths. In a complete day, from sunrise to sunset to sunrise again, I¡¯ve grown exactly 1,104 mini mushrooms. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Which means I¡¯ve been on this planet for roughly about and at least 42 days. ¡­ I feel so conflicted, i mean I wanted to know something concrete about this world for awhile now, like how long I¡¯ve been here, but now that I do¡­ it just, It feels too real? I¡¯ve been actually living here as a mushroom for more than a month. Fuuuck. And then I suddenly feel something. Something clicks and unexpectedly I get: ¡°Hello there, young one.¡± Oh holy shit. ¡°I would have expected us to be already acquainted by the time you achieved sapience, but you have yet to connect to any tree and so I was never notified of your existence. But I have been watching your actions and I¡¯m so pleased you¡¯re taking care of the area around you. Usually when I find your kind the area around I find them in has been completely depleted of nutrients leaving nothing in their wake. I was forced into eradicate them of course. I¡¯m glad I don¡¯t have to eradicate you, it would have been a shame to destroy you.¡± Chapter 93 Stolen novel; please report. Chapter 94 Chapter 94 Silence. If I don¡¯t communicate, maybe it¡¯ll go away. I almost laugh at the absurd thought of meeting the equivalent of a T-Rex, but I¡¯m too freaked out for me to find it funny. Its an apt comparison too cuz this thing just threatened me. ¡°Your actions have been too precise and thought out for you to be anything other than sapient. Perhaps the language nodule didn¡¯t take? No, I¡¯m looking at it now and it seems perfectly fine. Which means you just aren¡¯t talking. Come now don¡¯t be afraid. Communicate with me.¡± Don¡¯t be afraid. Don¡¯t be afraid. The rat bastard threatens me and wants me not to be afraid. Fuck you dude. Go away. I was feeling lonely and I wanted someone to talk to but this ain¡¯t the fuck it chief. Who the fuck starts of a conversation with a damn threat? The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. And apparently this thing¡¯s not done with the threats because then I get this: ¡°If you cant prove your sapience I will be forced to destroy you. Your kinds¡¯ tendency to wreak havoc on the local ecosystem is too large a threat to leave unchecked. Please speak to me.¡± There¡¯s no choice here, this asshole might actually kill me¡­ I cant help myself and bitterly say, ¡°first intelligent thing I come across in this damn place and you open with threats, how fucking charming.¡± ¡°Finally you speak child. I apologize for my behavior but I had to make sure. Like I said I¡¯ve come across your kind from time to time but the very first time I came across one of you I dismissed it as a non-threat, it took out half the forest before I could eliminate it.¡± Woah. Yeah I remember it saying that it¡¯s met my kind before but I couldn¡¯t help but be overcome with panic, so not much of anything it said has fully clicked. Wait hold on, didn¡¯t it also say that its been watching my actions? I can¡¯t help but say as much, ¡°Yeah but you said you¡¯ve been taking note of my actions. Well all I¡¯ve done so far is try to protect the forest. Why then did you think it appropriate to initiate a conversation with threats?¡° ¡°Please, child, understand where I¡¯m coming from.¡± Noooooo I understand where its coming from and, ¡±for fuck¡¯s sake stop calling me a child.¡± ¡°Then what would you like me to call you?¡± At that I stop the tirade that was about to come forth. ¡­ Oh shit. Hold on. What the fuck is my name?! Chapter 95 Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. me Chapter 96 Chapter 96 I keep concentrating on remembering what my name was, all the while having to keep putting my conversation with the homicidal asshole behind me and out of my head. Suddenly I feel something skitter across my newly rebuilt mycelium network. I pause my panicked ruminating for a moment. I haven¡¯t felt anything since the fire came and effectively decimated my network. I¡¯ve only just finished rebuilding portions of it and was not expecting anything to come back this quickly so this catches me by complete surprise. I try to find out what it is by the general imprint I get from the bent and dying mycelium. However I don¡¯t exactly have each strand growing side by side each other because that would just make them too obvious to an outside observer so i never really get an accurate impression of any creature¡¯s feet. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. But having said all that ¡­ for some reason they strike me as familiar¡­ hold on. Ah no fucking way! I think this might be jade. Im truly glad they survived but ¡­ its just one thing after another! A lot of bullshit has been piling on my metaphorical shoulders back to back out of nowhere. And its getting damn frustrating. I mean first I find out how long I¡¯ve been here, then the threatening asshole shows up and communicates with me ¡ª never mind how we can understand one another, it then asks for what it should call me which inevitably leads to me realizing i don¡¯t actually know my fucking name, and now jade has come back! Fuck all this I need a vacation. Chapter 97 Chapter 97 A vacation for me wouldn¡¯t even be remotely possible. I¡¯d love one don¡¯t get me wrong but even disregarding the fact that I¡¯m basically a static entity, I¡¯m still bound by the fact that I need nutrients. Most of which are found exclusively in a forest. Yeah I¡¯d have the lichen mushrooms but those aren¡¯t exactly fully realized yet. And as perfect as a vacation sounds right about now, I cant just ignore my problems and get drunk. And not just cuz I can¡¯t get drunk anymore, and fuck me if that realization doesn¡¯t sting, I actually need to figure all this emotional garbage out before I just shut down completely. Its happened before and I¡¯m scared it might happen again. Especially because i don¡¯t exactly have the resources or emotional support to get back up and keep doing shit. I have to break these things down into manageable pieces, like my therapist recommended. The easy shit first then the hard. None of this is really easy though. But lets start with the emotional shit first I guess. I¡¯ve been here nearly two months. And that makes me feel ¡­lost and alone. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Or should I have said made me feel alone cuz not a day went by before I realized i¡¯m not really alone out here. I thought I was going to be alone for the rest of my mushroom existence and that made me kind of miserable but now something, or someone I suppose, has reached out and has spoken to me. And while on the one hand I¡¯m not as alone anymore, I think id much rather prefer being alone cuz the first thing it choose to do was threaten me, I mean who does that?! Then the bastard makes me realize i don¡¯t know my own name. From sad to pissed to just plain ole confused. And no matter how hard I try I just can¡¯t seem to remember it. I need to something to call myself though, if only to keep the asshole from calling me a child or young one. I mean who the fuck does it think it is? Its demeaning to call someone child! I was nearly 27 years old when I died. A full grown adult, thank you very much. ¡­ huh I remember my age but not my name, that blows. I¡¯m mad about it but I try to come up with a name anyway. All the names that come to me are all so basic though. I mean its not like this is just another nameless project that I can offhandedly assign a funny name to, this is my name. Its important. Dwelling on it some ¡­ if ¡­ if the asshole still doubts my sincerity, having it constantly call me something that¡¯s synonymous for caretaker might get it through its thick metaphorical skull that I actually want to help the forest not harm it. Anything like that would be more a title than a name. Though¡­ I find I don¡¯t mind much. My true name, whatever it is, could still remain true, I¡¯ll just have a title as well. I can even say I earned it since I actually stopped the fire from decimating the forest. It admittedly comes from a petty place, not wanting it to forget that the first thing it choose to say to me was basically, ¡°hi please prove you¡¯re Intelligent cuz if you don¡¯t I¡¯ll kill you,¡± but I like it. It speaks to my spiteful, spiteful heart. Next time it deigns to communicate with me it can just call me Guardian. Heh. Now, finally Jade. The fuck should I do with them? Chapter 98 The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Chapter 99 If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ash can block out the smell. Chapter 100 This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. was completely harmless! Chapter 101 never the pranking type back on earth but something about being trapped as a mushroom for days, being under threat from natural disasters, and being threatened specifically from an asshole entity really brought it out of me. still Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Chapter 102 This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Chapter 103 Chapter 103 I suspect I wasn¡¯t as careful as I thought I was and a spore dropped onto the animal. They jumped a bit before I released all the water. And the second I felt the animal sprint away I knew it had worked. Ha! Prank successful. What¡¯s more, the impression I get from their pace suggests a similar gate to the one I felt when jade ran away when I release repelling chemicals from the mycelium stalks. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. More and more im convinced this is jade. And that somehow the water dropped on them removed whatever protection they used to get close to the monument. It makes sense. However the more I think about it the more I think that im completely ignoring the fact that It could have just been scared. It was a prank after all. And this specific prank would scare the fuck out of any wild animal not used to human activity. I remember some real cavalier squirrels hanging on to spinning bird feeders and being thrown off only to nonchalantly walk away as if it was any other day. If this animal, who I seriously think is jade, gets scared off this easily this strongly suggests that there aren¡¯t an intelligent civilization somewhere close by. That was ¡­ a good point. But it kind of felt like a reach, based off of shady evidence. I could always just ask the Asshole if they knew if intelligent and sapient species lived nearby, but I was wary of having any conversation with them. Conversation didn¡¯t seem to be their strong suit. Chapter 104 Chapter 104 Eventually I¡¯m certain it¡¯ll reach out at some point. Or I would. I remember it saying that it would have been in contact sooner if I contacted a local tree. If thats true connecting to a tree will alert it somehow, making it reach out to me eventually. I was really freaked out and not at all having a good time even before it reached out so although it wasn¡¯t the wisest of decisions I did my best to ignore the looming problem and focus on other things. But now after having amused myself a bit and calming down some I¡¯m starting to think a little more rationally and clearly. There¡¯s some vitally important information I want answered next time we talk. Like how many of ¡®my kind¡¯ has it met? How was it even talking to me? It said something about a translator nodule but when I checked the pathway it spoke from I found no nodule nor a node connected to my mycelium. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I think it took my suggestion to leave me alone to heart, but did it have to withdraw its communication nodule? I told it I wanted some space not that I wanted it gone completely. Annoying. I also wanted to know if ¡­ well if there were any other thinking beings like us. It stood to reason there were, I mean if there¡¯s two why not more? Asking that question however threatened to put me into a weird space and I wasn¡¯t sure I was ready for that. If the answer was yes, there were other beings I could talk to, great! I¡¯d be really grateful for some company who hopefully weren¡¯t assholes. But if the answer was no ¡­ I¡¯d be forced into eternity with only it for companionship. And the thought was horrifying. There was also one question I was neglecting to even consider asking. But not knowing was creeping me the fuck out, so I just had to ask it. What the hell kind of creature was i talking to in the first place? Chapter 105 If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. my Chapter 106 Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Chapter 107 Chapter 107 Was the being I talked to another type of mushroom? Was it a plant? And the truly bizarre but potentially paramount question: was this thing an animal? Everything so far has been mostly familiar to things back on earth. There are plants and animals, there¡¯s a day and night cycle, there are even other mushrooms and fungi. But that¡¯s just the thing, If a mushroom that feels pain was an actual species here then anything was possible. I can¡¯t make any assumptions about this new place Ive found myself in. So while asking if the entity I talked to was really an animal sounded like a bit of an out-there question it was still a valid and important question to ask. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. One I¡¯ll gladly put on the list of questions when the thing deigns to talk to me again¡­ or I contact it. But¡­ truth be told I wasn¡¯t exactly jazzed about making contact. I mean duh who would want to talk to an asshole? But even beyond that, contacting it¡­ meant I¡¯ll actually get some answers. Answers about everything. And that ¡­ was terrifying. This feeling of being on the precipice of finally discovering where and what this place actually is, was nerve wracking. But I think what I was feeling exceeded even that. And I remember feeling this exact same way when I tried and failed to connect to any tree root to see if I could find out if they were sapient or not. I was afraid. I was afraid that if I got those answers¡­ I would finally have to confront the fact this was all real. That I wasn¡¯t imagining things. That I wasn¡¯t really just stuck in a coma vividly living a life as a small pitiful mushroom. Chapter 108 helping the sapling live, giving it nutrients and water when it needed them. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Chapter 109 itme, I ended up branching and connecting one of my mycelium tendrils towards a nearby tree root. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! it is Chapter 110 and The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Silence is all get back. Chapter 111 was Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Chapter 112 Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Chapter 113 smelled like the gross flowers she memorized. The mushroom that somehow conjured water out of thin air. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Chapter 114 The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Chapter 115 This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Chapter 116 Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. its question but a question of my own hits me and I can¡¯t help but ask it something. Chapter 117 Chapter 117 ¡°¡­ Why are you so different?¡± The way in which Guardian will answer will help me put my fears to rest. But it instead asks if I ever spoke to them. Which just raises the trepidation I feel. I contemplate for just a moment on whether or not I want to answer the question at all before ultimately deciding I want it to know. Deceiving it into believing a lie in this moment now will only make it distrustful in the future. And having an especially intelligent devouring mushroom, one capable of truly extraordinary acts, bent on this forests destruction is not something I desire. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Hopefully my measure of its integrity so far is correct, because the answer to this question might make it upset. ¡°By the time I was notified of their existence my colony were all suffering or dying. I did not bother to communicate.¡± The mushroom grew quiet and it did not speak. I grew increasingly concerned and quickly asked my colony to report if they felt anything amiss. I prepared to also send a message to all elders in my vicinity as well. I should not have bothered as it responded some time later. ¡°I ¡­ don¡¯t blame you they were killing your family after all. Just ¡­ can you please tell me if another one of my kind shows up?¡± Fam¡­ily? That specific word is one I never came across. The translation nodule is an invention an elder came up with in order to speak to other sapient and speaking individuals but it is one very seldom used and one I never had the chance to use at all. The translation nodule did its job properly and gave me the most accurate rendition of Guardian¡¯s sentences but it had difficulty with that one word. The word I received closely resembles colony but it had a nuance that I could not fully grasp. More importantly guardian has proven to be a well intentioned individual so I quickly decided to answer guardian. ¡°Of course, Guardian.¡± Chapter 118 The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Chapter 119 Chapter 119 not If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. birthplace. Whenever I needed nutrients I would cannibalize them and use them for what I need. own?¡¯ I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it killed me right then and there. that attached to my species seeing, I¡¯ve only been a mushroom for the past month or so, it¡¯d be illogical for me to feel so conflicted about it but I can¡¯t help but feel that those that elder killed might have been humans too. humans nonetheless. Chapter 120 Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Chapter 121 Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Chapter 122 investigated, she determined this place to be an appropriate locale for her burrow. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Chapter 123 elders were confused. Why would we ever desire to talk to other life forms? Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. nutrients so that it can repair itself. I hesitate in sending anything else. If this were a tree within my colony I would send it a chemical that would encourage the creature to leave but this particular shrub would not even know what to do with the chemical. resolutely stand aside and hope no other danger befalls it. Chapter 124 Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Chapter 125 Chapter 125 Then again it might not go so well. Elder could hate the idea. It might see me trying to take over an area like those other mushrooms he¡¯s had to kill. They dominated an area and so would I. Potentially. Of course the argument there would be to tell elder that unlike them I am helping the area flourish. Hell I could even tell it that I was not taking an iota of nutrients from the hub, simply directing the nutrients already there effectively and efficiently. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. When elder inevitably asks how exactly I was subsisting without partaking of the hub¡¯s nutrients I¡¯d have to tell it that I was getting my nutrients a different way. The curious bastard would then ask if I could tell it in what way exactly and I¡¯d just have to tell it the truth. I was stealing nutrients and lichen cells from the local lichen colonies. And I¡¯m not sure I wanna tell it about that. I¡¯m tempted into just lying but ¡­ it just doesn¡¯t feel right for some reason. ¡­ and besides it¡¯s not stealing. It¡¯s bartering. The lichen are getting something perfectly acceptable in return for their contribution. Water. Oh fuck I definitely can¡¯t tell elder all this. It¡¯ll kill me on principle. Chapter 126 Chapter 126 I did it. I asked elder if I could take over the terrain And surprisingly I¡¯m still alive. After my whole minor meltdown about how I wasn¡¯t being fair in the trade with the lichen colonies, I realized I was looking at the situation with human sensibilities. And I shouldn¡¯t have. Things were different. I was different. I was a mushroom. I was apart of the forest. This forest. There was a give and take here the hub proved as much as long as I was giving and receiving something in return it was all in balance, no? Yes ¡°my kind¡± were dangerous but if elder really has been stalkin¡ª I mean keeping an eye out on my activities, then I more than proved myself as an honest individual. I took care of that fire from causing too much destruction after all. Which yes I did more out of an act of self preservation seeing as how I knew if the surroundings were damaged it would spell disaster for me eventually but¡­ well elder didn¡¯t know that. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. After the sun dipped and daylight hours were over, I had to shift to my primitive bank for nutrients. I was mostly trying to create more of my sensory network. I just wanted to ¡°see¡± if Jade was still in the area. Of course I was also restoring the vitality into the burnt territory. Though I realized halfway through that expanding the sensory network was a no go. If I actually wanted to spread myself into the vacant and burnt area the pain mushroom was in, then I really shouldn¡¯t even be spreading out into the area. If I was going to be an ¡°elder¡± in the sense that I was taking care of an area then growing into someone else¡¯s territory was a big no no. Then I thought about it some more and¡­ well shit I was born here. I was already familiar with the area. Hell even Buttons was still here. I could never abandon my little plant pet. I put a stop into increasing the size of the sensory network just in case though and I focused on the recovery project until daylight where I finally talked to Elder. I was jittery at first but I sent a pulse of nutrients to the tree I connected to last time and eventually got a response. ¡°Guardian, hello.¡± ¡°Morning elder. I was pondering something and I wanted to get your opinion if that¡¯s alight.¡± I wanted to get it over with fast I was gunna die I wasn¡¯t going to waffle about. ¡°What a curious greeting. But yes of course Guardian.¡± What? Do these people not greet each other like that? Before I could get sidetracked I asked it, ¡°I wanted to know if it¡¯s okay if I expanded into an area most affected by the fire.¡± I quickly added this too, ¡°I noticed that most of the various plant life there was largely decimated and I wanted to see if could help. If i was there more physically I feel I could help more efficiently.¡± It sounded nice and it made for a compelling argument. It was quiet for an alarmingly long time but eventually it responded. ¡°Help how?¡± Fucking hallelujah. A positive response. No automatic death. I was alive. It almost made me believe there was a benevolent god somewhere. Almost. Chapter 127 If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. where I¡¯m Chapter 128 Chapter 128 She was frozen in fear for what felt like days. Until finally she heard steps. To her utter relief they were getting softer. She didn¡¯t want to know what it was she just wanted to her burrow and sleep until she couldn¡¯t sleep anymore. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. So she carefully made it back to her burrow. Making sure not to step on anything that might draw attention. When she made it there she was relieved to find it still there. She didn¡¯t know why she felt that way, her burrow wouldn¡¯t suddenly just disappear, but that¡¯s how she felt. Her hackles were still raised though and she carefully made her way into her home. Nothing should have claimed it as she only just made it and wasn¡¯t gone for too long but she wasn¡¯t feeling safe at all anymore. Finding nothing in her burrow she carefully made her way in and lay down for some much deserved rest. Tomorrow she would investigate the land more thoroughly. She wouldn¡¯t go near the strange part of the forest but she wanted to know where she was and get used to her surroundings. But that was for tomorrow, she let her thoughts drift and she slowly bade farewell to the world. Chapter 129 If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Chapter 130 Chapter Having someone hyper aware of your every action isn¡¯t fucking fun at all. When I said Elder was stalking me before? I said it cuz I thought it was funny. This? What it¡¯s doing right now? Is not funny. I want some damn privacy. The asshole is literally breathing down my neck. The second after it said it would be keeping an eye on me i felt more than creeped out but I never expected for it to instruct every tree still alive and around my territory to connect to the new mycorrhizal network. How¡¯d I find out? The fucking meddlers are sending nutrients every now and again. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Okay so it¡¯s actually a nice thing that they¡¯re doing but the fact is it¡¯s quite obvious they were instructed to keep an eye on my behavior and report to Elder. I shouldn¡¯t have ever told elder what I was doing. I just wanted to get its opinion, see if I could do something nice, you know? Instead I have what feels like vultures circling around me waiting until I fuck up. It¡¯s so unfair. I mean I personally haven¡¯t done anything unacceptable but just cuz most if not all my kind were heartless fuckheads doesn¡¯t mean I am. I haven¡¯t done nothing except good work since I got here. Such bullshit. After elder told me it would turbo stalk me I broke communication with it and wanted to focus and work on my chem mushrooms but then I realized elder would be upset if I took something without asking it first. And I don¡¯t really want to talk to it right now. So instead I work on trying to find more lichen colonies. More nutrients for the bank I¡¯m still working on could never hurt. Through it all I couldn¡¯t help but feel watched and stalked. Chapter 131 The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Chapter 132 Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Chapter 133 This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Chapter 134 Chapter 134 Practically speaking? I saved jade¡¯s life without expecting reward or kindness but all of a sudden the little cretin decides that I¡¯m a happy meal after it¡¯s been saved by yours truly? Such utter bullshit from all sides. First elder ramps up his stalking game getting all his other fucking buddies to join and now the fucker I saved chooses to eat my mycelium. Mycelium I was using to obtain nutrients! I mean yes I was just about to train whatever it was into doing my bidding but that was before I found out it was jade. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. What kind of dick gets saved by someone and then decides to take advantage of that someone. ¡­ maybe I¡¯m being just the tiniest bit unfair. The asshole probably doesn¡¯t even know I¡¯m the one that saved its life. Or that I even am someone for that matter. Not to mention the way I saved em¡¯ was in all likelihood not a pleasant experience for them. As I¡¯m talking myself down from the emotional betrayal, I feel the bit of mycelium jade is standing on top of snap of. I¡¯ve been making the mycelium strands that peak above ground a bit tougher so that a casual step on top of them won¡¯t break them unless sufficient force is applied. This feature lets me get extra information about an animal. Such as an estimate on how much they way. But in Jade¡¯s case since they¡¯re too small this means they are applying more force on their two front limbs than their back ones. Meaning? They¡¯re bending over. Don¡¯t know why they would the only thing down there is grass and my ¡­ oh. My tiny sensory network. The one that grew super fast around them. The very same one that I¡¯ve grown visibly tougher in order to get more informations. Jade books it and I lose sight of them. Well if jade didn¡¯t know I was someone, they definitely suspect something now. Chapter 135 Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Chapter 136 Chapter I am beginning to regret ever telling the other elders about the young mushroom. I was lulled into thinking that the others would in actuality take my word that I would keep an eye on Guardian¡¯s actions. The constant communication, the incessant paranoia, the unrelenting non-issue updates from every tree within the perimeter of the burnt clearing were all beginning to grate on my patience. Yes the others inevitably needed to be notified of guardians existence, but it was not a joyful and relaxing experience. Novel as its existence was the uproar that it brought to the forest as a whole was monumental. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Every succeeding moment a message from a worried elder on the other side of the forest reached my roots and what felt like every moment of my existence was filled with fielding answers and sending reassuring messages that this mushroom was a kind sapient and intelligent individual with no designs on abusing this forest¡¯s nutrients and welfare. It was unending. But all that paled in comparison to the number of non-elder trees that reached out for reassurance. The reassurance their own personal elder was not enough apparently. It needed to come from me. That they preferred to direct their messages to me instead of contacting Guardian itself was logically sound but was wholly and entirely vexing. I was fast approaching the point of telling them all to kindly quiet themselves and leave me alone in my vigilance. I was on the verge of doing just that when a particular message finally got to me. An elder from far away found the cause of the fire. The cause? A devouring mushroom. Chapter 137 If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Chapter 138 expanding the sensory network. Maybe even use the thinner mycelium strands to do it but before I let my impulses get away from me I remember that idea I had when I realized I could train whatever creature was eating my tendrils. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. and still threaten Chapter 139 Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Chapter 140 Chapter 140 And I wasn¡¯t exactly at that point yet. Even in the before I was completely averse to conflict so the prospect of picking up and avoiding all of no doubt impending conflict was extremely tempting but I¡¯m reasonably sure I can come up with other options before I¡¯m forced to enact ¡­ plan fuck everything and run. Oh god I¡¯m naming shit again I must be losing hope. The PLAN would be to reclaim and cannibalize all of myself, pick a direction and grow outward. Continually growing and cannibalizing as I make my way forward. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Who the fuck said you need legs to move? HA! When I inevitably reach a place significantly far FAR away from here I¡¯ll stop and I¡¯ll quietly expand once again. Free from all this drama. Again extremely tempting. But I really wanna see and contact that mushroom see if it¡¯s at all sentient. Then again I doubt it¡¯s still alive. if someone or something threatened and carried out that threat on my home and my wellbeing I would not be pleasant towards that someone or something. And considering the fire wiped out a significant portion of the forest? Also how in the hell was that something a mushroom could do? A mushroom starting a fire? ¡­ not that I would ever start one I¡¯m just curious is all... Elder was iffy on the details but considering that the first thing it thought to do was alert me when it got the message was kinda nice to see. If I do end up ditching this joint though I need to make sure to ask elder for that translation module design he always uses. Might just come in handy. Chapter 141 also prove fatal for her. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. and water predators were all something her mom drilled into her and her siblings¡¯ heads when they were younger to be wary of. this Chapter 142 Chapter 142 I told guardian what was happening as I am almost positive that none of my cohort and fellow elders were kind enough to inform it. They were too busy pestering me I suppose. After the message finally reached my roots, I expected immediate and incessant chattering about the situation and I was not far off on the mark. They were chattering about it, but instead of it being among themselves, they were directing their messages and attention to me. If I thought my announcement caused an uproar¡­ this far surpassed that. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. And I was fast approaching my limit. Until finally, one message managed to push me past the edge. Multiple members of my colony reported they were being pestered and harassed by other elders seeking answers. ¡°ENOUGH!¡± The message was filled with such vitriol that it managed to stop the messages from nattering away at my roots. ¡°Elders if you wish to ask ME questions or even have members of your colonies ask ME questions that is acceptable but DO. NOT. HARASS. MY. COLONY. MEMBERS. ¡°To answer all of your questions. No, guardian was not responsible for commencing the fire. It was born within my lands and was the one responsible for stopping the fire from wiping this forest completely and irrevocably. I have only just received the message just as you all have. Yes this fire was caused by A devouring mushroom but NOT Guardian. It¡¯s mycelium is confined within my land and the fallen grounds. THIS devouring mushroom is not responsible for the destruction the fire has caused.¡± ¡°Elder please understand. We were only trying to ascertain if this mushroom you call guardian was res¡ª¡° ¡°DO. NOT. HARASS. MY. COLONY. MEMBERS. Cease the constant bombardment of messages. I will repeat the answers I have just spoken every few moments from now on. I wish to be left alone.¡± Chapter 143 This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. An eternal pause later elder finally answered Chapter 144 Chapter 144 Luckily enough I had a good answer to respond to elders question. While true I did want the translation nodule for¡­ somewhat selfish reasons¡ªhaving the ability to talk to the native habitants when and if I cut and run¡ªthe answer I came up with was true enough. ¡°I came across a mushroom species that I want to talk to. It¡¯s not one of me but it does have some peculiarities that make me want to communicate with it.¡± Silence again. Fuuuuuuck. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Elder kept doing this; going silent when I really need answers. Especially right fucking now. If I do end up getting the secret formula to the krabby¡­ wait I¡¯m not plankton and this isn¡¯t SpongeBob. Oh god I¡¯m losing it! He he, nah not really. Well maybe but that¡¯s not the point. If I get the translation nodule from elder I¡¯m free to communicate to whoever and whenever I can without going through elder. But the silence was deafening. Therapists and psychiatrists had the same fucking M.O. and it pisses me off. They stay silent until you just can¡¯t handle it anymore and then wham! You tell them your whole damn life story before you even know and that just ain¡¯t fucking fair. Not that I was ever arrested but from what I hear cop¡¯s had the same habit of going silent to make a suspect confess. It¡¯s hell. And in this particular case? If I do end up speaking elder¡¯ll only get angry. And angering something that¡¯s threatened you with bodily harm? Who notified everyone and their fucking momma about you? Who will also gut you at the slightest provocation? Yeah not the wisest thing to do. But before I could spiral even more about it elder speaks up. Chapter 145 always a positive sign that the day is going well. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. again. Chapter 146 The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. MY KIND first exposure to humor might be puns and its my fault might be the most egregious crime I¡¯ve ever committed. even Chapter 147 not was Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. all Chapter 148 Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Chapter 149 This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Chapter 150 was something. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. it said it not me but having someone repeat exactly what I was about to say was fucking freaky. Chapter 151 Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Chapter 152 Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Chapter 153 This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Chapter 154 This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. something. she did that I¡¯m sure elder has learned something since he was born. Chapter 155 The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Chapter 156 This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Chapter 157 how it actually worked. I, being an idiot, hadn¡¯t realized it until just now. Apparently the translation nodule works by having it interpret the information it receives and renders it into this emotional type language that it then sends back to the user. Inversely when information is being sent from the user into the nodule and then out to another it translates it back into whatever language the other uses. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. meaning, in the truest and literalist sense. Chapter 158 Chapter 158 My work on my various projects, aside from restoring the burnt clearing, was on a momentary hiatus while I worked out how in the hell the nodule work. Now that it did though I wanted to check in. The pain mushroom was doing fine. I had long past stopped giving it nutrients to bring it back into full health. Strangely enough the bit I had incorporated into myself wasn¡¯t fighting as hard as it once had, which alluded to it ¡­ maybe having some kind of limited intelligence. Which meant the pain mushroom itself was intelligent. Once I contact the by pain mushroom and it hopefully says something I¡¯ll immediately disconnect that tiny bit of mycelium from myself and apologize. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I can¡¯t imagine what the hell it thought was happening when I first did that but I¡¯m sure it would have freaked the fuck out, I would have. Hopefully I earned back some karma points for giving it nutrients and saving its life. Actually I could contact it now but right now I want to check on the rest of my things before I contact it or buttons. Deciding what to check up on next was kind of hard but eventually I decided to check up on the lichen mushrooms which were doing really well actually. The algae were reproducing faster than what I expected and while still not reaching the same amount of nutrients I was getting from the lichen themselves it was still more than what I expected. I was expecting a long drawn out reproduction period but I guess not. Turns out my cells were an ideal environment in which to grow. Maybe it had to do with the abundant water I put in the mushrooms. Hm. Speaking of the lichen, I had a number of mycelium tendrils connected to a lot of them and was siphoning a respectable amount of nutrients in a short amount of time. It had to be said, this lichen idea of mine was brilliant! Chapter 151 could reorganize it all now but I was eager to contact the pain mushroom and buttons so as soon as I was done with checking in on my projects I would create a nodule at the base of my connection to both buttons and the pain mushroom. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. could but I was already in a delicate spot with it and the whole forest. Chapter 160 Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. would worry over leaving any of myself there in case it developed into the devouring mushroom they all feared, but in that scenario they just tried to kill me. At some point pacifism would only result in my death. Chapter 161 Chapter 161 Going over all my various projects made me realize even though i might be in a shit situation, I¡¯ve come far in my journey. It made me happy. That said, it was time. I couldn¡¯t be a chicken shit and not talk to buttons and the pain mushroom when I had the translation nodule all figured out. Well mostly figured out. It was nice that it gave me the complete MEANING of the words or intentions but a simple conversation appealed. In any case, I quickly fashioned translation nodules at the end of my mycelium to both buttons and the pain mushroom. I froze for just a moment on deciding on who to talk to first. I couldn¡¯t decide for the longest while but eventually i just went in the same order I found them in which meant, buttons. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. That decided, I hesitated for just a moment, this time, on what exactly I would say but I quickly determined that a simple greeting would do. ¡°Hello tree I am guardian.¡± A pause. Then an influx of emotions hit me. Confusion, hesitation, reserved gratitude. And beneath them indignation. Confusion was the easiest to grasp. It was confused that I was talking to it. It knew that I was attached and closely bonded with its roots but didn¡¯t expect to be contacted through them. Hesitation was obvious as well. It was hesitant to talk to me. I was the same way back as a human, I took no offense. The reserved gratitude and the indignation beneath all the other emotions hit me like an uppercut though. The first one was not great to receive but understandable. It didn¡¯t ask for my help. I simply came in and while helpful intruded on its space. Something it cherished apparently. Autonomy was something I understood and while it hurt to be sort of told off I took it for what it was. I looked at my connection with it to mean as something like a pet when it was never like that for it. While a cat could fit this description to a T, that was besides the point. The point was that it deserved its space if that¡¯s what it wanted. The last one, the one it didn¡¯t intend to send hit me the most and fully made me feel and realize that what I had done was wrong. Indignation. It did not need to be coddled, It never asked for this, it did not need assistance. Chapter 162 Chapter 162 All at once I wanted to disconnect and leave buttons alone. The emotion was so visceral and deep. It reminded me of ¡­ well me. When I was depressed my family took notice. They pestered me and annoyed me and surrounded me. While they were doing me the favor of being there and sticking by me through a hard time I just wanted them all to leave me alone. I didn¡¯t need to be coddled, I never asked for this and I did not need assistance. Where my family had the benefit of being related to me and practically having no choice but to help me, me and buttons never had that connection. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. So I stopped myself from disconnecting with it long enough to carry out the rest of the conversation and apologize. I sent, ¡°I am sorry for not introducing myself right when we met I¡¯ve only recently learned how to communicate with others.¡± A long pause but not long enough for it to begin speaking. ¡°I am also sorry for helping you when it wasn¡¯t asked for. I¡¯ve been in your position before and I didn¡¯t enjoy the feeling. I was alone and wanted some company but that¡¯s no excuse to take away someone¡¯s choice in the matter. I¡¯ll leave you alone if that what you¡¯d like.¡± A longer pause. A long enough one for me to question if it even got the message. For a moment I was worried the nodule malfunctioned but I suddenly got a message. Surprise. Gratitude. Mellowing anger. And understanding. Then almost shyly hesitancy. No other underneath emotions as far as I could tell. It was bearing its full emotions on the matter. Surprise at my sincerity I think. Gratitude for the apology. The mellowing anger and understanding were intertwined. It seemingly understood why I had done what I had done and it assuaged it¡¯s anger. It¡¯s last emotion however was really surprising but after receiving the two before I understood. While it did want me to remove myself from it, it wouldn¡¯t be opposed to conversation now and again. Chapter 164 This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Chapter 164 A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.