Chương 152: Chapter 151 – Druid Bros

"You boys have, uh, found some friends," said Cole. The brothers looked up from their chemical stove at his voice, with Ari half-standing and reaching for the axes at his side before relaxing. Fasil leaned on what looked like a knobby, gnarled shepherd's crook and looked over at him.

"Airborne!" Shouted Ari, settling back down onto the fallen log—a log, Cole realized, that had been knocked over during his fight with Bessie.

"You about scared the shit out of me, man," he said. He waved Cole over.

"Come on in, I promise it's safe." Cole approached. The two hadn't linked up with any of the other tryouts, but they weren't alone in the clearing. Flanking Fasil to either side, a pair of wood ogres towered over the tryout. They weren't attacking and his own innate IFF had painted them the bruised purple of not being sure whether to consider them friends or foes. They were definitely alive and aware. Both ogres tracked Cole's movement through the clearing. One growled at him as he approached.

Cole eyed the creatures up and down. The creatures weren't any prettier up close and standing at attention than they were when angry and trying to throw him through a tree.

"How's this work?" asked Cole.

"My class gives me the ability to modify and control fungus," said Fasil. He laughed, putting a hand against one of the ogres and pushing it a step away.

"Probably the only planet in existence where it's useful."

"I told you, you should have taken swimming instead of botany as your elective."

"Counterpoint: Rebecca Alderson," said Fasil.

"Ah, true," said Ari, rubbing his chin.

"Botany was the way to go." Cole rubbed the tip of his chin.

"Fasil, let me see your class." Fasil pulled out his analyzer, holding it against his palm for a moment before handing it to Cole. Cole took it, careful not to touch the back of the device and replace the class details with his own. <LF Class Detected: Domineering Fungalmancer. No secondary class detected. Fungalmancer is classified as a bio-simulacra proxy class with an emphasis on creating, empowering, and controlling fungal life forms through ethereal spells.

Active Ability: Mycelium Domain: Force a nearby fungal-infested creature to obey your commands as a minion. Each creature bonded this way draws power from a discrete charge that cannot be used for other abilities. Active Ability: Spore Cloud: Spray a cloud of fungal spores unique to the user, capable of empowering minions or debilitating enemies. Heavily-infested creatures of low Resilience, extremely low Intelligence, or recent corpses may be added to the Mycelium Domain.

Passive Ability: Fungal Forest: A portion of the damage you take is distributed among your minions. Passive Ability: Minion Master: A portion of your enhancement metrics apply to your minions. > Cole tapped his foot for a moment.

"Be right back." Walking up a nearby rise until he could see the radio relay drone, Cole keyed his radio.

"Morganstern, you up?"" What is it, Airborne?"

"One of our tryouts, Fasil Attila. He, uh, got the Spore Druid's class." There was a pause on the net." You're shitting me," said Morganstern. Ketchup chimed in as well." Are you sure?" Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"Pretty sure," said Cole.

"The analyzer calls it a Domineering Fungalmancer, but it lets him spray out spores and then take control of weak creatures and corpses infected by them. He's got two wood ogre bodyguards hanging out at his camp." Holy hell," said Arley.

"Is this an instant disqual?" asked Cole.

"Want me to pull him out? Considering, you know, Curahee?" Several seconds of dead air followed before Morganstern answered." Negative. Not yet, anyway, but I'll discuss with Bricker. Curahee happened from that druid intentionally building his class around creating a virulent, invasive strain over decades because he wanted this to happen."" That's true,"said Ketchup." Maybe Fasil can bring this place back someday, yeah?"

"I hadn't considered that," admitted Cole. Using one spore druid to undo the damage of the previous one sounded like fighting fire with fire, to Cole. But there was merit to the logic." One thing's for sure, Airborne," said Morganstern." That kid cannot, under any circumstances, get close to Last Fall Hold. They will kill him if they even get a whiff of his class. He's going to have to find one of the other ways up the mountain. Let him know, but don't tell him more than he needs."

"Good copy," said Cole. Continue as planned. Morganstern was right about Curahee being weird as hell. He paced back to the clearing with the two brothers.

"Fasil, I've got updated orders from Mean Mama Morganstern. You are forbidden from following the river path up the mountain."

"Why's that?"

"Need to know. All you need to know is don't do it. It's for your safety." He looked at Ari.

"This order doesn't apply to you, but I'm guessing you're planning to stick together anyway. Am I right?"

"Yep," said Ari.

"Is this fuss because of his class, and, well…" he gestured broadly to the fugus-infested woods on all sides and raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," said Cole. He looked at Fasil.

"Other than that condition, you can continue as normal." Fasil gave him the okay sign. Cole looked up at the ogres again.

"I'm kind of surprised your ability works on these guys. Their resilience must be pretty high."

"Yeah but they don't have much of a brain to fight the commands. Doesn't work on everything. Those little red hounds have a natural immunity to fungal infection, I think. And there was a monster last night that wandered through our camp and resisted it. But it didn't attack us, or these two."

"Are you sure it wasn't Morganstern?" asked Cole. Fasil went pale.

"Shit. Not really, it was dark. Moved quick as hell." Cole turned to leave.

"She's pretty fast when she wants to be. Has a time dilation ability. Positive ID from now on, gents. I don't want you accidentally turning a fellow tryout into a zombie."

"Hey," Ari called after him.

"Don't you want to know about my class?" he asked. Cole looked over his shoulder.

"What is it?"

"Pyromantic Berserker. I hit things with axes and start fires," said the smoke jumper, shit-eating grin wide across his face. Cole shook his head and melted back into the forest. Well, if Morganstern said it was okay, then it was okay. For now. The class was obviously powerful. If it could be put to good use through extractions and kept from evolving virulent properties, then who was to say the kid should be disqualified from being a Kicker? Cole left the brothers and continued his rounds.

An hour later and a few klicks north, he found Akira amid a field of ablating zombies and scale hounds. She sat on a stump and wiped the gunk from an otherworld samurai sword that Howie probably knew the actual name of. The JIRF recruit looked up as Cole approached.

"Hello, again," she said.

"Hey," said Cole.

"Busy morning?"

"I have lost my naginata. Curahee gives me an alternative." Cole nodded to the sword.

"You practice with that thing?" Akira hefted the sword and looked at the steel blade running with blue veins along its wavy pattern.

"My school did not have a Kendo club. But only one side is sharp, so I can figure it out. I have seen three flares, how do the others fare?"

"Can't tell you that," said Cole. He considered, pursing his lips.

"Can tell you no one has died. How does this compare to trying out to be a Kicker in Japan?" Akira sat for a few seconds with the sword laying across her knees.

"It is the reverse. We bring the monsters to Earth. There are realms which brush across parts of the islands and techniques to induce what you call a 'crossover event'. We are placed in the center of it and must self-rescue. But it is less about combat and navigation and more about analyzing a given situation or encounter and applying knowledge." Cole shrugged.

"' Murica. What kind of knowledge if not combat and navigation?"

"Spiritual knowledge, senses, and lore. Many of Japan's occult myths of creatures and spirits originate from these realms and can be defeated by placating them instead of slaying them. The JIRF sometimes… does not sanction approaches of a violent, less spiritual nature." Akira gestured to herself.

"I was encouraged to take part in this exchange program. Though I have felt as though I sensed a powerful spirit pass near me in these woods."

"That something your class lets you detect?" Akira shook her head.

"It is a practice all recruits must learn. But interpreting those sensations would be better suited to a spiritualist—what DOR calls a deific caster." She leaned slightly over.

"May I ask where you obtained your rifle? It appears to be waving at me."

"Tennessee," said Cole.

"It reminds me of a tsukumogami—a haunted object born from 100 years of neglect."

"I'm not that old, and I take good care of it." He patted the gun.

"Feed it every day, give it some exercise." Cole gazed around at the ground.

"Looks like your less spiritual nature has left you some loot. I'll leave you to it."