Chương 194: Psilocybin Nine

I really wanted to explore what I could do with that [Purelight Gill] some more. How long would one of them work? Could I grow them fast enough to make it economical? There had been lessons on that kind of thing at the academy. Most of it was pretty straightforward, logical stuff, but as with every other logical thing, it was also the kind of thing that you didn't think about until it was pointed out. If I wanted to sell pure, clean water, then I'd need bottling and storage, and a few other ways to distribute it.

Then there was the amount of purification a single [Purelight Gill] could do. How many of the mushrooms could I grow in a day? Or a week, for that matter? Could I grow enough to keep a large supply of water clean? The expense on the mushrooms was very low, which was the only thing that made the potential venture plausible. I hummed to myself, twisting the little [Purelight Gill] this way and that as I thought. It was... an option. For now, it'd be a side-project.

I could at least produce enough clean water for my own personal use. The farm would probably run a bit better with cleaner water, and I was pretty sure the lead pipes that ran all over didn't deliver the cleanest drinking water. The [Dawnwatcher Cap] was a nice upgrade to some of the other vision-assisting mushrooms I already had. So I'd slot in a small amount of those for frequent production. Gosh, I needed to invent the refrigerator. Or find someone who had and buy one.

As it was, I was keeping a stockpile of 'useful' mushrooms, but they'd rot and get tossed into the fertilizer every few days, only they took more than a few days to grow. So my solutions were either to have spaces where I had none available, or to grow multiple concurrent but off-set batches. I was currently doing the first option and hoping that I wouldn't suddenly need night vision one day and not have anything for it on hand.

I'd need a much larger facility if I wanted to make enough to have a constant fresh supply. Or a way to keep my current supply fresher for longer. I made a note on a pad to ask around. Someone had to have invented the fridge already, right? It was just compressing steam, and I knew several factories had steam engines, and compressors were a thing. Or maybe there was a magical solution? Ice magic, or something? Actually, couldn't I just buy blocks of ice and an ice-box?

I'd seen some of those at some grocers and butcher's shops. I wanted to smack myself for missing such an obvious solution. I had two more new mushrooms that had survived sitting on the tray before me. One of them was the only surviving combo with the Veil of Sighs. So I picked up the other mushroom, putting that off for a moment longer. Hollow Drumcap / Lumbershroom [Echo Stalk] – Common A tall, woody fungus that resonates in the wind. Its rhythmic echo repels certain insects and small predators.

The stalk was a strangely tall mushroom, with an almost woody-appearance to it. I suspected that given another month, it would grow past its current nine-inch height, and might even continue to grow. The stalk was covered in holes with bevelled edges leading into a sort of hollow cavity in the middle. Blowing a bit of air at it made a very faint whistley noise that had Sir Nibbles perking up. I was pretty sure this wouldn't repel him, though it might annoy. Like a dog whistle.

I wasn't sure what to do with this one. I wasn't living out in the woods. Cockroaches and fleas and lice, not to mention flies, were an issue, but I had other, more deadly, means of pest control that worked just fine for me so far. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. Oh well. I'd keep this one growing to see how tall it got, mostly out of curiosity, but it wasn't going to become a frequent growth. And that was enough putting off my dessert.

Rubbing my hands together, I turned towards the grand prize of the day. Not that it was grand, by any means. The mushrooms had come in as a series of small buttons on the side of the log I'd used as a base for its mycellium. Each button was no bigger than the end of my thumb, and coloured a faint purple-ish colour. Veil of Sighs / Blue Gilled Sleeper [Dreamveil Button] – Uncommon A soft, lilac mushroom whose spores induce vivid, pleasant dreams instead of sleep.

Alchemists use it to treat trauma, though it is highly addictive. I was salivating. Not at the sleep part. I didn't much care for that. Soporifics were interesting, and I was pretty sure I didn't have any poisons that used sleep as a means of attack, but... yeah, when I poisoned someone, it wasn't to give them a good snooze. It was that last bit that had me excited. Highly addictive. That was perfect! Not this mushroom in particular, of course, but the potential of it.

I plucked one of them, gave it a sniff, then popped it into my mouth and chewed. It had a sort of jelly-like texture, and kind of stuck to the teeth. Not altogether pleasant, but I'd put worse in my mouth before. The actual taste wasn't bad. A sort of sweet, earthy flavour. I immediately got to work while cataloguing any physical changes I noticed. I had to prep new trays to start looking for any potential combinations with this [Dreamveil Button]. I was hoping for something with a minor positive benefit.

Maybe a stimulant or relaxant... that would be ideal. Most of all, however, it needed to keep that addictive property. About an hour later I snapped out of a slight daze. I'd been checking some rotten old logs and then... did nothing for a solid minute or two. Oh boy. I stifled a yawn. Yeah, that was potent. Was the addictive quality mental or purely physical? I was suspecting that it might be a bit of both. Could I leave work early to go sleep it off at home? Probably best not to.

I wanted to push through the effects, otherwise I'd never had a good idea of what they all were.

"Right, so the implications," I said aloud. Sir Nibbles looked up.

"Sorry, you're going to have to listen to me, I need to stay awake. So, this one makes you tired. But the description says that it makes you dream instead of sleeping. There's some implications there. Maybe it's more of a... vivid daydream state without the REM stages?" I smacked my cheeks. Wow, I was feeling a little distractible at the moment, and that was with a few stacked poison resistance skills. This was fantastic!

"How should we do this one? Sell it as it is? No... I'm sure we can sell it in a different format. Maybe bottled in small containers, or as a powder. Too bad no one has invented the plastic baggy yet." How I was going to get this onto the market was another question. I could rely on the union a little bit. I'd come to an agreement with them. But first, I needed to ramp up production.

I blinked and realized that I'd been standing there for a solid few minutes again, working through the steps of production without actually doing any work myself. Holy crap, this stuff was great. I could feel a loosening in some of my muscles as well. Like waking up from a long rest under warm blankets and refusing to move just yet. What would happen if we gave a dozen factory workers just a tiny dose of this? Would they fall asleep at their station?

Hmm, if we priced it right, and sold it from the right places, it might be easier to target the slightly higher echelons of the city. The richer sorts already had laudanum available here and there, and kracktom as well. Actually, how was that distributed? There was a level of commercialization for both, but I couldn't quite tap into that. I jumped as something bit me on the leg.

"God dam--" I swore, then cut myself off. I'd been dozing off, standing up, in front of the still unprepared tray for the stock that I wanted to start on. Rubbing at my face, I glanced down to see Sir Nubbles giving me a smug look.

"What time is it?" I asked. The pandadger made a grumbly noise that often meant that he was hungry. I stepped over to the door, then checked outside. It was nearly dark. I'd lost a solid hour at some point. Worse, I felt fine about it.

"Okay. Ground rules. I'm never touching my stock of that again. It's too dangerous. I have too much to do to afford losing a day like that. And... second, we need to get this out and producing as quick as possible." If I couldn't burn the city down, then who was to say I couldn't just grind it to a halt? 🍄︎🍄️🍄︎