Myconid Patch

In the South-West, a long Myconid suffering from the ravages of time opened it's eyes yawning and shaking himself awake before turning ever so slowly to the sproutlings which had yet to wake up. It was yet another day and it was just about the time that the young Myconids who had been spored would gain consciousness after feeding on the nutrient rich soil they'd been given when they'd first been planted. Each one had some, but it was a finite amount and it came at quite the cost as their parents had sacrificed themselves into order to enrich the soil that their offspring would grow in with enough nutrients to support them till this day. It was a young Myconid's best chance at survival until they were old enough to fend for themselves.

Mushgran would shift himself out of the ground plopping out his arms and legs and proceed to look for a better spot so he could get to a nicer damp location in their home. It was dark and wet just like a Myconid liked it, and well hidden to keep away from predators that might make them a meal. Still he wondered which one of them would wake up first, he had longed for a conversation partner ever since the older generation had left to find food about five days prior.

Autumn shifted in their spot slightly, waking up from their peaceful rest. They burrowed up from the dirt and stretched their limbs with a wide yawn. Their eyes blinked open, revealing deep orange orbs the same shade as their mushroom cap. Autumn took a look around for a moment before their eyes settled on the only other thing that was awake in the immediate area. The stood and took a few unsteady steps forward, nearly toppling over as they got used to their weight. They moved over to Mushgran and plopped down next to him, their eyes wide and curious "H-hello? Could you help m-me? I just woke up and....well I don't know anything, so I am p-pretty sure I need help..." Their voice was timid and shy, as everything they were suddenly experiencing was so new.

Mushgran would turn to the little one who had just spoken to her and would smile with her gums showing not that Myconids really had teeth to begin with. "Ah you are the first to wake, but I saw you almost fall. Hm I shall name you Mushautumn yes that's perfect." Mushgran would nod to itself before realizing that the newly christened Myconid before her had asked a question. "Yes yes, you wish to know things, Mushgran knows lots of things. First and foremost welcome...this is truly eventful as it marks the first day of your conscious life. You and I, we are Mush (Myconids) we might not be the strongest or the fastest but we are born with a connection to everything around us and we can take a beating. You will probably be getting hungry soon after all the soil around you has run out of nutrients, luckily for you one of the older generation have sacrificed themselves to provide nutrient rich soil for you and the others. Once for each, that should be enough for you to survive for thirty days without starving to death.  I'm afraid however that water here is limited, even if you all rationed the water will run out in 10 days as we all need water way more than food to survive." Mushgran said with a frown before turning and pointing towards the north where light would trickle into their safe haven.

"Outside you can find water, unless you find a way to produce some for yourself, or drink more than the others. You should make your decision soon, as the others will most likely be waking up soon. This gives you as the eldest a brief window of opportunity, namely a head start over them. I will warn you though...the outside world is dangerous, and we Mush only have the ability to drain the nutrients out of things and our trump card, magic. But for a young Mush like yourself...take care to not rely on it too much, as it can let you down when you need it the most."

Mushautumn nodded through Mushgran's explanation of how things went and how they would be. They didn't want to take all of the water from the others, that would be cruel, but they also wanted to make sure they had enough to survive out in the forest, because that is definitely where they wanted to go. This place was nice, but outside? Outside whispered adventure, growth and ample amounts of fun to be had. Also room to practice this magic, which was definitely something they wanted to master as much as they could. They moved to collect their share of the nutrient rich soil and twelve days worth of water before moving towards the exit, but then something occurred to them. They turned to Mushgran with a curious look and a tilt of their stalk "Mushgran? How do I use my magic?"

As Mushautumn looked around for the water they would find none while Mushgran looked on with a mirthful look, of course the water wouldn't be out in the open no it was all around them as the patch which was their dwelling was damp enough that water could be extracted from the ground to provide for them. Of course Mushgran wouldn't tell Mushautumn that unless they asked, which was why if they came back and asked about their magic he would tell them. "It should come to you, it's instinctual and everyone has a different feel for it. I will say though, if you are trying to mess with it please step about ten steps away from me and everyone else, you know just in case..." Mushgran said her eyes slightly widening as it realized that Mushautumn might just try using magic right away.

Spoiler:

Mushautumn nodded at the words, the water forgotten from their mind for just a moment. They took the requested ten steps away from Mushgran, as well as away from the other Myconid that hadn't awoken. They then closed their eyes and attempted to focus his mana, letting the energy flow through his body and perform....whatever effect it would have when it formed magic. He would sit there for a long moment, simply trying to do whatever his mana did when it made a spell. If it didn't work the first time, he would just sit there for longer, focusing harder in order to try again. He knew that he would have to succeed sometime if he kept trying, but he would only try two times in here, in case his mana lashed out for being bugged so much and decided to destroy everything. Whether he needed to try twice or not, or if he actually did anything or just wound up sitting there with his eyes closed, Mushautumn would go back over to Mushgran with a curious look on his face, something reoccurring to him "Mushgran, where is the water you mentioned? I looked around, but I couldn't find anything. Is it hidden?"

When Mushautumn tried the first time he would feel a tingling inside of his body as his mana flowed inside of him and then it would be suddenly used up and yet..nothing happened. However the second time he used it rather than nothing happening, other than the mana drain of course, he would get this feeling like he should head outside. Just in case such a phenomena hadn't distracted him from asking Mushgran he would find that Mushgran was dozing off. Mushgran would mumble in his half asleep state that the water was all around and then trail off leaving Mushautumn to try and figure it out for himself, or maybe he could go with that feeling of his and see where his magic was taking him.

Spoiler:

Mushautumn giggled at the sleeping Mushgran before looking at the ground at their feet. They moved over to a little patch and placed their hands onto the ground, their cap pressing comically against the dirt as well. They focused on draining whatever nutrients they could from the dirt in order to fuel themselves. Once that was done, Mushautumn would look at all the other sprouts in the patch closely, looking to see if any of them were close to waking up. He was more than a little bit wary about going out alone. He didn't know what the world outside was like, and he couldn't ask Mushgran any questions because they were sleeping. If any of them woke up, he would stay and walk over to them, waiting for them to fully wake up before striking up a conversation. If they didn't wake up, he would walk out of the patch and into the forest outside, following the strong pull of his magic to wherever it was going to lead him.

[Autumn Exits if no Myconid wake up]

Mushautumn would end up heading outside seeing as none of the other Myconids were up and about just yet though that was after it managed to successfully utilize Drain to drink some of the water which was hydrating the patch that they lived in. Once doing so the magic would lead it to the south though if it followed that it would find itself following a winding path towards some goal that it had no idea about. Regardless whether Mushautumn would put faith in it's magic or not suffice to say it was in for quite the journey whether it continued forward or decided to head back to the Myconid Patch.

Spoiler:

The very moment the childlike Myconid would wake from their slumber they were full of energy, making an attempt to hop out of the ground, but crumbling under their own weight. Guess Mushtoad was not quite ready to be moving around just yet, however that was not going to stop them from exploring their surroundings. With a push off the ground the young mushroom would get themselves back onto their feet, and with a quick clearing of dirt from their body they would begin to explore the patch where their siblings continued to sleep. Almost running around the patch poking and proding at everything being curious about all that was now open to them. After a few moments of haphazard searching they would notice a older looking Myconid observing the patch, so they would start to run towards Mushgran, only tripping over themselves twice in the process. "I'm Here, I'm here... Wow this place is big" They would say being distracted by the openness of the area, turning their heads all the way up to try and see it all, only to fall backwards at Mushgrans feet looking up at her with a smile. "Hi! Where are we?"

"Hello little one, I shall name you..Mushtoad as I feel like it will fit you. First and foremost welcome...this is truly eventful as it marks the first day of your conscious life. You and I, we are Mush (Myconids) we might not be the strongest or the fastest but we are born with a connection to everything around us and we can take a beating. You asked where are we? We are home, this patch has been able to support us so far for the past three generations. Either way you will probably be getting hungry soon after all the soil around you has run out of nutrients, luckily for you one of the older generation have sacrificed themselves to provide nutrient rich soil for you and the others. Once for each, that should be enough for you to survive for thirty days without starving to death. I'm afraid however that water here is limited, even if you all rationed the water will run out in 10 days as we all need water way more than food to survive. But you have woken up before the others, though I feel like they will all start to stir and move about soon enough, this is your chance to either try and gather your nourishment right now or take your chances outside just like the oldest of you has done." Mushgran said with a toothless smile as she wondered what manner of Myconid this particular one would be.

"THERE'S MORE THAN JUST THIS PLACE!!!" Toad would shout out as they had been told that there was more to the world than just the patch where they had just been born from, the thought of it was making the young Myconid eager to start on their new adventure as they started looking around for the exit. However excited they were though they did feel the need to have a have something to drink before they would set out, and would try and drain any nutrients they could from the ground below them. Personally the thought of danger left them unphased as they thought of the opportunity to find out more about what else lived in the world, and if they were able to get anything from the ground below they would make for the exit as soon as possible.

[Mushtoad Exits unless something recovered]

It would seem that unlike her older sibling she was more in-tune with her instincts as she didn't need to wonder exactly where the water she could obtain was and merely drained it up from the soil, however before Mushgran could do anything else but give her the Earth Mana Stone which belonged to her Mushtoad would rush out of the area and into the Great Forest outside. Mushgran would tilt their head to the side and promptly shrug, hopefully Mushtoad's over excited nature wouldn't get her killed but either way one could only hope as outside their home their was a dangerous world for a young Myconid.

Spoiler:

Toad would return to the patch a while after he had left on his first adventure dragging his kill behind him, curious about what he could learn from the creature's corpse, and if he could get anything more than just the meat from its body. Not seeing any physical wounds from his magical attacks from earlier he would search for an opening of some kind where he could get a more in-depth examination to see how these creatures functioned. "Granny, I Found Some Food!!!! What DO I DO Now?" The Myconid would shout as they tossed the locust onto the ground.

Mushgran had actually been taking a nap when the young Myconid suddenly rushed in carrying an obviously dead Messenger Locust causing her to wake up even before his shout woke her up even more she would sigh at this particular Myconid's excitability and wait to see if he'd calm down before speaking. "If you want to eat it, you will have to drain it's nutrients after all..we don't have mouths." she said to him in their language which was a combination of reading various spores released naturally by a Myconid and well body language. As such when he was "shouting" it was more akin to releasing a large amount of these spores and gesticulating wildly. Fortunately for the young Myconid it seemed that his constant observation of the Messenger Locust had allowed him to acquire a new skill which would assuredly help him in the future.

Spoiler:

"If you want to eat it, you will have to drain it's nutrients after all..we don't have mouths."

Asta would lift from the ground the little albino mushroom would squirm for a moment before taking in it's surroundings as well as it could, it could here people talking so he would move toward them while he noticed there were sleight sounds in the entire area. He felt like he was missing something but he would let it the thought flow in one ear and out the other when he was closer toward the voices. "Hello anyone there?"

While it seemed like one of those Myconid which had been asleep longer than their counterparts had finally awoken from their semi-awake state she had been worried that she would have those types which stayed dormant until it was too late. Ironically Mushgran had actually been one of those types and as such had spent the rest of it's life trying to gain knowledge so that the next generation didn't repeat the mistake it suffered from. "You are awake, how wonderful. Hmm you woke up later than others but there is still nourishment in our home should you want it, but more importantly it is still damp enough that you can get a drink should you need it." Mushgran said trying to hint to inform the newest Myconid how they could feed themselves without being overt about it.

There was someone talking and Asta would face in what he thought was her general direction listening to what she had to say about the others that seemed to have had awoken before Asta did. The talk of nourishment was something Asta knew about without knowing causing him to begin walking toward where he could feel was the dampest. The air was wet and he could feel it so he would attempt to "drink" as much water as possible before talking again.

"So what can i learn?"

Toad was unfortunately too busy examining the dead corpse of the messenger locust when another Myconid had awoken from its slumber, after hearing that in order to eat the meat provided he would simply have to drain the body of all the goodness that was inside. That would be useful to know that eating and drinking was so... Efficient. However, something that he would have to work on later on down the road would have to be learning how to drain a target from a distance, keep himself out of harm's way altogether. In the meantime, Toad would instead look at the mandibles of the creature before trying to pry one away from their mouth, he needed something to help him get a better look at the creature, and only so much you can examine from the outside.

"You wish to learn? Even if it meant staying inside today to grasp what I can teach you?" Mushgran said affixing his eyes on the oddly colored Myconid and then nodding as he did in fact have things to teach him. However another Myconid would enter their home followed by what seemed to be an Elf causing Mushgran to swivel to look at him. Mushautumn...what have you done." he said alarmed at the fact that the first to awaken had brought back an elf of any sort much less a child. He wasn't angry so long as the Myconid was careful about it, after all the Myconid could use other civilized monsters to increase their number it was just not as common as just reproducing among themselves.

"This is Elfkid, he's mine and he's going to stay here with me." Mushautumn said in response and would turn in order to finish dragging the Poison Viper that the two of them had hunted. Elfkid would wave nervously though he would seem to defer to Mushautumn, while the only other Myconid up and about seemed more interested in observing the two of them than actually getting involved with the conversation seeing as he had stopped inspecting the Messenger Locust he had managed to hunt.

Myconid Patch:

Asta heard someone but could not see them well he didn't know he could not see it was simply natural to him so until he learned it was not how he was suppose to be he would act normal. He would turn to the voices once they stopped talking and take a moment simply scanning in that direction, there had to be alot of people inside of this place the shuffling and noises made coming from every direction now made it somewhat hard to focus so Asta would turn his attention back on the one he had been talking to.

"I don't think i could get out of here if i wanted to not yet anyway so i don't mind staying for a while. How did they get out by the way?"

Mushautumn would walk over to the side of the cave where Mushtoad was and then point at the other Myconid's kill. "Do you want to pool resources?" Mushautumn said seeing the other Myconid's interest and with the chance of being able to observe not just one but two new things Mushtoad would agree with a shrug. "Okay." Mushtoad said deciding to rip off another mandible from the Messenger Locust giving him two miniature cutting tools. While they were sorting out their problems Mushgran had moved over to Mushastra and then waving his hand in front of his face.

"Ah...you can't see. That is indeed a problem. Feel inside of you..for your mana, and try and focus it into your eyes. You should feel something missing the connection to your other senses and the pathways which are not being used. You must master this skill no matter what your very survival depends on it." Mushgran said giving him instruction as to how to potentially unlock the ability to in fact see. It was fortunate that he was born a Myconid as complete blindness would be a crippling disability for those who lacked the ability to gain sight through magic.

Asta would listen to the words of the old mushroom while also listening to the conversation that was going on trying to gauge who the one's talking were and possibly put their voices to memory for future use, However once they were done talking Asta would focus on the task of sight; channeling his mana the best he could he would attempt to find the pathways the other mush had spoke.

Asta was in deep though not trying to find the things spoken of with all his ability.

Asta would try its hardest to focus its mana and it would seem that it was able to push his mana into his eyes in order to gain what is known as Mana Sight, suddenly he would be able to perceive everything around him though everything was in shades of grey except for Elfkid who actually was green. Most importantly it could make out the details around it and could see for the first time, however it would also notice that this magic was a slow but steady drain on its mana to use this ability and overusing it would most likely completely drain him of mana. "Was it successful, can you see what I am doing right now?" Mushgran said waving it's hand up and down trying to see if the blind Myconid in front of it had successfully gained mana sight. If not then Mushatsa would just have to try again if not however then they could move on and now the young Myconid could have a chance at survival.

"Considering you will have to devote most of your mana towards sight, it seems like you will have to rely on drain to feed yourself and hunt others otherwise you will not be able to navigate outside of this cave. Go on, try it?" Mushgran said referring to the damp soil around Mushasta while the other Myconid begain to drain the nutrients out of the food they had hunted. Mushtoad had actually decided to give the Messenger Locust he had hunted to Elfkid while sharing the Poison Viper with Mushautumn as it was easier for the elf to eat that monster than the poisonous one. Which speaking of poison Mushtoad would actually drain out some of the poison while channeling his mana causing him to topple over after eating his fill and begin to squirm on the ground as he was suffering from getting poisoned. Mushautumn would spare him a glance shake his head and continue to drain the non-poisonous parts leaving the fool to his own demise, eventually after some time Mushtoad would go still, though not because he died but rather because he fell unconscious due to the pain. Mushautumn and Elfkid would move away from Mushtoad before sleeping as well deciding to cuddle up to one another to get a better nights rest.

Spoiler:

Asta would look around with his newfound sight and then focus on the old toad before noticing the green out of the corner of his eye he would need to figure out what the colors meant. He would take a little time to see then focus on feeding on the damp floor he would focus his thoughts while clearing his mind and only focusing on food. While he was not in dire need of a drink he still could use one so while he focused on that he would look back toward the old toad once again before his vision would begin to fade away and Asta would gasp

"I cannot see anymore!?"