Chương 7: Black Mould - Four - Barriers Crumbling

My patience lasted… I think it might have been a week? Six days? … Okay, so I lasted maybe a day, but it was a very long and boring day, with not much happening. My parents picked me up from the old crone's house, then we had a small, sparse dinner where my father taught me what I suspect was the equivalent of "shit". He was bouncing me on his lap when my mom handed him a bowl full of some hastily-made stew.

On reaching for the bowl, he spilled a little, shifted to the side so that it wouldn't land on me, then swore when the hot stew splashed on his leg.

"Shit," I repeated. My dad paused, carefully put the bowl down, then finally looked over to Mom. I glanced over to her to find the woman standing with her hands on hips, looking utterly unimpressed.

"Shit," I repeated.

"Shit," he agreed. I also learned the words for "You idiot", and what I think is "baby". It could also be my name, but I suspect it isn't. After a thorough scolding, we ate, my mom taking me away from the bad influence that is my father to spoon-feed me some mashed vegetables. My vocabulary was growing in little increments. I listened to my parents speak, trying to pick out the accent and vocabulary, but it was all too fast to really study.

I memorised some sounds for later, but without context clues, it would be hard to piece the language together. I'd repeat more things in the future, and hopefully they'd start properly teaching me to say more than just a word or two a day. After being burped—which was somehow more humiliating than being changed—I was carefully laid back down into my box. I was exhausted, and before I could really protest, I fell asleep once more.

When I woke up, I wasn't even home, but back at the old lady's place, on a pile of blankets on the floor, with no idea how I'd gone from my box to here. Had I really slept through the entire morning? The old lady had set her knitting aside and was currently slurping from a bowl. I pouted but didn't move from my spot, mostly because I was swaddled in blankets and couldn't. So, stuck there, wide-awake, with literally nothing to do… [Do you want to accept the [Agaric Cleric {Rare}] Class? You can reject a Class at any time.] I considered the second half of the message. I could reject a class? Would that give me more class options? Was there a limit to the number of class options I had available at any given time? So far I'd been given five. If I removed one… After frowning, blubbering, and squirming a bit, I failed to reject either [Factory Bound {Common}] or [Child of Labour {Common}]. So no, I couldn't reject a class I hadn't taken. Well, whatever.

I brought the prompt back up, then, with bored determination, accepted. [Congratulations! You have unlocked the [Agaric Cleric] Class!] [The following Skills have been added to your repertoire:] [Mycologic Growth {Uncommon}] [Druid Sight {Uncommon}] [Mushroom Magic {Rare}] [The General Skill [Mycologic Harvester {Uncommon}] has Transformed into [Mycologic Growth {Uncommon}] and is now a Class Skill!] I looked around and past the multiple text boxes cluttering my vision.

No noticeable changes, so whatever my skills did, they weren't terribly flashy. I noticed that focusing on a skill would open a box with a description of it. That was going to be handy. With a stray thought, I shut all the notifications off and opened my main character screen. Name: N/A Race: Human {Common} Age:.

6 Years Mana: 08/10 Primary Class: [Agaric Cleric {Rare}] - Level Three Afflictions - Black Lung {Common} - Child of Poverty {Common} Blessings - Blessing of Feronie {Unique} Agaric Cleric Class Skills - Level Three - Mycologic Growth {Uncommon} - Level 1 - Druid Sight {Uncommon} - Level 1 - Mushroom Magic {Rare} - Level 1 - - General Skills - - - - - No growth there, but I do note that I'm at level one. No experience bars or whatever other game-like doohickey I might expect.

I have no idea how I'm supposed to progress with my class and such. Two slots are open under my Class Skills. The obvious thing is to assume that it means that two more skills are available under there. Mycologic Growth {Uncommon} - Level One You are able to nurture and encourage the growth of all fungi from spore to mushroom. Further growth of this skill will allow you to influence the direction of fungal growth, picking out the most desirable traits and expanding upon them.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Category: Nature Magic Druid Sight {Uncommon} - Level One Your sight alone will allow you to better understand nature itself, its whims and desires, as well as its many dangers and threats. As this skill grows, your senses will sharpen faster, helping you identify and learn from nature.

Category: Body Enhancement - Vision Mushroom Magic {Rare} - Level One You can infuse any fungi you find with your magic, either to transform and help with its growth, to give it magical properties, or to turn it into a deadly weapon. As this skill grows, you will learn new methods to use your magic, and its use will become more efficient. Category: Nature Magic I couldn't wait to try all three, which was why I started wiggling with more ferocity to get unstuck.

Once I was freed from my blankety prison, I searched around, then zeroed in on that old lady's pantry. That mushroom I'd picked last time was still going to be there, I bet. It wasn't like she cleaned up all that often. I crawled over to the cupboard and paused by the edge of it. The dank darkness within seemed like the perfect kind of place for most mushrooms to grow. The mushroom I'd picked was lying on its side, so I grabbed it with grubby hands and brought it closer to my face.

[Brown Chanterelle] - Common An edible mushroom frequently picked and eaten by small mammals. I stared at the text box, moderately annoyed. Really, it was just going to give me the answer? I flipped the mushroom over carefully, then, with a stubby-fat finger, pressed into the gills at its base. I could make out the little spores on the bottom of the cap. Planting mushrooms and growing them was a chore. First, you couldn't actually plant them.

Fungi belonged to a different category than plants, even if they were frequently mistaken. The mushroom itself was more of an organ growing out of the main fungal body than it was the fungi itself. The mushroom worked to spread its spores around, which were—at least superficially—similar to seeds. It was easy for the layperson to confuse spores and seeds, as they essentially did something very similar. Spores were asexual reproductive cells, and they were microscopic.

I couldn't see the spores the same way someone couldn't see a tiny particle of sand, but the underside of the brown chanterelle had a fine dusting of what were unmistakably billions of spores. I hadn't picked it too soon, then. Growing more mushrooms required taking a sampling of spores and putting them in an exact and perfect environment for their growth. Unlike seeds, spores didn't have food stores on them. That was why there were so many. When it came to quantity versus quality, fungi went all-in on quantity.

I scooted closer to the pantry. The underside still had some decomposing plant matter. If it had been good enough for one mushroom to grow out of it, then it was likely still able to support a few more. Ideally, I'd mix in some fertiliser in there, aerate it a little, and have better humidity control. Shrugging my tiny shoulders, I scratched the bottom of the mushroom with the end of a nail, then rubbed my nail off on the compost. It was nice and squishy, though maybe a bit dry.

I gave the fungi one in ten odds of regrowing, minus any sort of system-based shenanigans. Staring at the brown chanterelle, I considered my next options. I was supposed to have some sort of mushroom magic, wasn't I? I sat back and stared at it. Then I tried frowning. I even added some pouting for good measure. Re-checking my skill message, I found nothing that showed me how to use the skill. No help menu either.

Well, I had time to figure it all out, and unfortunately, without refrigeration, my poor little mushroom wasn't going to last forever. I brushed off the mushroom as best I could, blew on it a bit even if I knew it wouldn't help, then popped it into my mouth. If it was supposed to be edible by small mammals, then I had nothing to worry about. I was a mammal, and for the moment, I certainly counted as small. Also, I was hungry.

With nothing better to do, I got back to practising my crawling and trying to think of ways to get my magic working until my parents arrived, picked me up (and the bowl the old lady had. Was that supposed to be my breakfast? … Did the old bitch eat my breakfast?!) then we were heading back home. Maybe I could practise on the black mould on the walls!