Wraithwood Botanist

I sat on the steps of the alchemy station gazebo, watching the leaves of the trees above me wave back and forth like tides, shifting light into the forest. It was so calm and peaceful, and I wanted to enjoy that before I chose which suicidal mission to take.

I guess I should figure out what I’m gettin’ myself into first, I thought, sighing. Information request. Tell me how I can regain access to the Diktyo River without… you know… sacrificing my cat or limbs or… something equally devastating.

The whole order was in my thoughts but the screen popped up anyway.

—---

Information Request: How do I provide recompense for stealing a water sack plant without making a sacrifice?

Summary: Just as there are things that are useful for many, there are things that are pests for all. Get rid of the lignan bugs plaguing the Diktyo River, and then offer humility to the local guardian.

The locations of the following items have been added to your Map:

Lignan bug Nests

Offer humility to the local guardian.

—---

I bit the nail of my ring finger. It was a bad habit, but if there was ever a time to be genuinely nervous, it was the present. Without delay or regret, I opened my library to research the bug I was up against.

I went into my library and opened a book: Killer Animals in Areswood Forest (Vol. 1-3) | Grade: Platinum. It was massive—10,000 pages-type massive.

Luckily, just as Lithco claimed, there was a feature that allowed me to request information from the book like a search engine. So I decided to bug him. I opened it up and sat down on a log.

"Give me information on the lignan bugs," I requested. A page popped up.

—---

Name: Lignan Bugs

Type: Flying Insect, Soul Eater

Summary: If you’re looking to die this week, mosey on off to a lignan nest, where swarming bugs will murder you faster than the River Guardian you’re trying to appease. Lignans are the soul-sucking equivalent of mosquitos—and are the size of murder hornets. These things fear nothing. They swarm third evolution beasts with no concern for their future, and the ones who survive keep increasing in size until they’re the size of a small corgi. But don’t worry, you definitely won’t run into one of those around a river that’s literally covered in souls. Definitely.

Description: Translucent Bugs in the general shape of a submarine. They have six legs and vibrant blue eyes.

Key Facts:

Like all soul eaters, they feed on the souls of sentient animals.

Like most creatures, they cannot drink from the Diktyo River, so they post up next to it and wait for prey.

The nests require decades to grow, rooting the colony in place for long periods. Lignans must, therefore, move to their prey.

They cling to the skin like a tick and suck blood through their six legs like straws.

Warning: Getting bitten by one releases pheromones that mark you as an enemy for the swarm. It is best to avoid them at all costs or prepare to fight all of them.

—---

"Yeah, sure," I said with a nervous, high-pitched voice. "This is totally fair. Give me your plant, and I’ll wipe out a colony of soul-eating bugs…. Seriously?" I almost screamed at the sheer injustice of it. It felt like I was getting robbed in a foreign market where I couldn’t read the prices. "Does it have weaknesses?" I asked.

It gave me a general answer. Fire. Cold. Natural predators. But it was all general information but I needed specialized information.

"Is there a book that specializes in pesticides and mycopesticides in the Areswood Forest?" I asked.

—---

Would you like to purchase Pesticides and Mycopesticides in the Areswood Forest (Rings 1-5) for (1) Platinum Request?

—---

I sighed and looked up at the sky beyond the canopies. It had a light purple tint that made the sky feel dreamlike. The sound of the symphony bugs only increased that feeling.

"Does that detail behavior between mycopesticides and animals that aren’t directly affected?" I asked. "Research?"

The answer was plain: "Yes."

"Does it provide highlighting?"

"Yes. But it only highlights fungi which are parasitic fungi, which are relatively rare."

"I see… Can I get a mycopesticide recipe for taking care of the lignan bug if I obtain the platinum fundamentals of mycopesticides skill using a platinum request?"

"Yes."

"Thank~you," I said, pulling up my Guide. I went into skills and purchased the course.

—---

Book: Fundamental of Mycopesticides (Grades 1-3) has been added to your shelf.

Book: Spirit Fungi (Grades 1-2) has been added to your shelf

Book: Fundamentals of Fungi Handling Techniques (Grades 1-2) has been added to your shelf.

Book: Transporting lethal spores (Grades 1-2) has been added to your shelf.

Book: Spreading Spores (Grades 1-2) has been added to your shelf.

Tutorial: Identifying Spirit Fungi has been added to your tutorials.

Tutorial: Identifying Soul Fungi has been added to your tutorials.

Tutorial: Spore barriers has been added to your tutorials.

Tutorial: Blending mycelium with magic has been added to your spells.

Tutorial: Inoculation with magic has been added to your spells.

Tutorial: Sealing objects with magic has been added to your spells.

Spell: Spore barrier (basic) has been added to your spells.

Spell: Blend (basic) has been added to your spells.

Spell: Injection (Second Tier) has been added to your spells.

Spell: Seal (basic) has been added to your spells.

Spell: Gentle pull (basic) has been added to your spells.

—---

God, I loved the feeling of getting absurd amounts of prerequisite spells, books, tutorials, and recipes flowing in.

I probably shouldn’t have been so excited about getting mycopesticides, though. There has never been nor will there even be a more murderous way to kill bugs than parasitic mycopesticies.

The HBO show and game The Last of Us popularized parasitic fungi with their portrayal of ophiocordyceps, or "zombie ant fungus," which takes over ant brains and forces them to move back to the colony where they release their spores, but if we were honest—that is the least brutal parasitic fungi in existence. The worst I’ve found in either world was Metarhizium anisopliae, an Earthian fungus that infects adult beetles and forces the males to mimic female mating calls. When the men show up to mate, the infected beetles attempt to mate until their abdomens fall off, releasing spores. Yeah… parasitic fungi aren’t just brutal—they’re nightmare fuel.

My grim fascination was rudely interrupted by a rude request.

—---

A wind spell of Silver Grade or higher is required to use the spreading spores. Spell Pervasive Breeze | Grade: Silver is recommended for spreading spores at a distance. Would you like to use a Silver Request to purchase it?

—---

"Hey, it’s another spell…" I sighed. "Yeah, I want it." Tnen, my eyebrow twitched when I got another request.

—---

It is recommended that you purchase Levisphere | Grade: Silver for levitating spores before using your wind spell. Would you like to use a Silver Request to purchase it?

—---

"Fine!" I hissed.

I got the notification.

—---

Spell: Compact (basic) has been added to your spells.

Spell: Levisphere (basic) has been added to your spells.

—-

It was good to get more spells, but I was kind of salty that one of them was basically just a prerequisite for another. This was a reminder that I couldn’t just buy spells. If anything, buying a spell in the spell tab could require a dozen prerequisites. That told me that the spell tab was primarily for upgrading skills or getting minor yet useful skills. The only way to learn magic was by doing it right: buying skills and practicing them.

That was an important revelation, but what was more shocking was that, at no point during this period did I consider how much effort I was going through to commit mass genocide on a creature without provocation.

How times change.

2.

Brindle watched Mira with sharp eyes, sitting in a chair made of the roots of the tree he was sitting under. Telgan and the other gods who saw it called it a throne, but Brindle had no such desire to rule. He was finding it difficult to keep focused on Mira for any amount of time. If Hapsel didn’t foolishly try to convince her to kill the Fourth Ring’s River Guardian, he would have Telgan sum it up to him. The dryad was sitting on his shoulder.

"How long will you take that form?" Brindle asked.

"Would you rather sit on me?" Telgan asked dryly. She was a shapeshifter that moved between trees and root networks, melding with trees and then extending her body frthem it. Yet if she melded into the tree in her full form and still watched the Oracle screen with him, she would effectively become his chair.

"You know I don’t care about such things," Brindle said.

"Then I’ll sit here," Telgan said. "It feels nice to be out of a tree." Usually, she would need a root connection, like a bonsai tree at a minimum, but Brindle’s body was covered in roots, so she could move about him freely in a nymph-like form.

"If you must." He looked back at the screen, watching Mira hiking back to the alchemy station. "Is she going back to make a poison?" he asked. Mira spent requests on how to accomplish his legacy quest—but she was going back to the station that would allow her to fight for Hapsel’s.

"I doubt it. That one’s rather tenacious. I think that’ll only get more pronounced as she obtains power."

"I see." Brindle watched the cat leading the way. "Do you think that she’ll rely on her spirit companion?"

"No. I bet you that she’ll learn attack magic."

"There’s no time," Brindle said decisively. He was confident that, given enough time, she would use Yakana’s mana manipulation teachings to become a powerful mage; she wouldn’t do it that afternoon.

"She’ll figure that out," Telgan said. "But then she’ll learn something else, instead. Just watch."

Telgan’s words proved prophetic. The moment Mira got back to the alchemy station, she stood with her fingers on her lips as she stared into dead space, a clear sign of buying a skill. The next moment, she was using a light green barrier as if it were only natural, followed by picking up grass and twigs with wind magic, compacting it into a sphere, and blowing it into the trees. Brindle and Telgan knew what she was doing—she was preparing to pick up fungi spores and then blow them at the lignans. Trying to figure out which spores she would use was a fun mystery, but both were surprised by the ease at which she learned the low-level spells.

"Yakana taught her well," Telgan remarked.

"Indeed," Brindle said.

They watched Mira practice her spells for around an hour before she stopped, presumably to buy another spell. A moment later, she started physically speaking to her guide. Whatever the guide said, they didn’t communicate effectively, as Mira immediately threw a fit, stomping around like a child until she kicked a stump. It exploded in a rain of splinters, startling Mira and putting her on guard for ten minutes. It all seemed foolish—

—but then things came together. In an eerie display, Mira stopped, sat down, spoke to her guide, and then fell deathly still and composed for the next three hours. The shift was so pronounced, decisive, and concentrated that it even captivated Brindle’s attention. He couldn’t wait to figure out what she was learning.