Curiosity killed the Cat [Mushtoad's Adventures]

Once out of the Myconid Patch, Toad could be seen running as fast as their tiny legs would carry them, watching the world rush past them as they tried to view as much of it as possible as fast as they could. He wasn't all too sure if and when they would return back to the patch, all they knew is that the world was big and they needed to see as much of it as possible before their life was snuffed out prematurely. Sure they were naturally talented with magic, and could use that as a way to locating goods, but for the time being they felt like they just needed to aimlessly explore heading north.

The young Myconid would continue heading up north and would end up stumbling upon a large bug currently chomping down on some of the leaves on the bushes, it was about half of the Myconid's size and although the Messenger Locust was a herbivore Mushtoad was a plant and thus would definitely be on the menu. Thus him walking aimlessly would cause the Messenger Locust to turn it's head and finish chewing the leaves it was eating before staring at Mushtoad hungrily, it's wings twitching as it waited to see if the Myconid would try and flee or not. If they did then it would of course chase after it's new prey as Myconid flesh was a delicacy among herbivores, kind of like how carnivores enjoyed eating things like Humans and Elves when they had a chance.

Toad would stop dead in their tracks as they caught sight of the Messenger Locust, now very aware of his mistake of not trusting the world to guide him, however now even though he was curious about the creature in front of him, the sudden realization that he himself was a plant came crashing down on him. The fear of being eaten had initially made the young Myconid want to run away in fear, but the overwhelming fear of not knowing as much as possible was more overpowering than anything else. Keeping his eyes on the insect so as not to lose sight of his next discovery, how to survive against one of these things was his primary subject to study. As his eyes scanned the creature, Toad would try to harness the mana within his plantlike body while raising his hands towards the Messenger locust, ready for what was inevitable.

It would seem that Mushtoad was sort of a natural in accessing his mana seeing as the first time he attempted to harness it not only would he manage to channel it but it would likewise result in him being able to roughly shape his mana into a blast which would hurtle straight for the Messenger Locust. It would collide with the herbivore slamming into it and causing it to cry out in pain as the magical attack seemed to have wounded it severely. Still it would not give up instead choosing to try and blitz Mushtoad and pounce so that it could tackle the Myconid to the ground and bite into his mushroom cap. As for the Magic he has used he felt that while it hadn't been a huge drain it did pull on his magic more than his normal use of it, but the amount could be described as being double that of the former. As such he felt that if he continued to use this magic he would be at half of his mana with a second use, as for fully empty he could probably manage three in total with one more use of his normal unskilled use of his mana before he was completely drained.

Spoiler:

Well, it would seem that the young Myconid had some talent after all as almost instinctively fire off a ball of ambient Mana at the Messenger Locust, dealing a considerable amount of damage to the poor creature. This only seemed to infuriate the beast as it started to charge at him more intent on devouring him, guess it was time to finish this little experiment, so MushTOAD would keep their hand up in order to fire another ball of mana. Sure he would be drained a bit more mana than he would have initially liked to have lost on this little excursion, but right now he was just trying not to end up this creature's next meal.

Mushtoad would aim yet again however this time the Messenger Locust wasn't going to be caught off guard again, thus instead of remaining still and letting the dangerous sphere of magic hit it, it would instead try and dodge to the side while continuing it's advance. However considering it was already hurt something which would of allowed it to completely avoid being hit would instead cause it to get clipped by the sphere of magic it would be critically wounded. Now it had a large dent in it's skull with bleeding wounds and yet it would still attempt to bite into the Myconid, it would manage to find some purchase even though Mushtoad like the rest of it's kin was pretty resilient. As such it's last attempt was pointless as it's mandibles couldn't even penetrate Mushtoad's skin much less do any damage to it and it would die shortly after.

Spoiler:

Mushtoad would wince as the messenger locust would try and bite into his skin, but ultimately it was just a mild stinging sensation as the bug was too weak to do any real damage after being struck twice by a ball of ambient mana. To be honest, it was sheer luck that he had been able to survive this ordeal, but now that the situation was defused the young Myconid would examine the corpse of the creature while keeping his mana flowing through his body, or more specifically his eyes so he would not miss a detail. Perhaps there was something about this creature that would benefit him in the future. He would have to take it easy though as he was feeling the effects of the mana drain that he forced himself to endure, maybe a small break after his examination would be in order.

Unfortunately him flowing his mana into his eyes would cause him to be unable to glean anything from the corpse in regards to it's magical capabilities, perhaps if he had tried to study it normally he'd have a better chance of identifying things about it. Either way for now he just saw a corpse of an insectoid monster in front of him. He now had a source of food that he could probably bring back to his home or he could try and continue on his adventure, he would note however that it had an exoskeleton like all other types of insects though he didn't know whether it was the power of his magic or the overall frailty of the monster's exoskeleton that allowed him to kill it so easily.

Toad would groan as he continued to feel his mana reserves depleting the longer he tried to use his mana to accelerate his learning process, which to be honest wasn't a bad idea, but it was limiting his options for the moment. So after cutting off the flow of ambient magic to his eyes which was inhibiting his ability to examine the creature that he had killed, looking at the body he would wonder exactly why it felt the need to attack him, was it something he did? Then again he did see the creature eating some foliage, so maybe it just saw him as a regular mushroom. Yeah, that had to be it. With that thought out of his head, the young Myconid would grab the creature by its wings and would make his way back towards the mushpatch, maybe there he would be able to have a better chance learn more than he already knew.

[Mushtoad Exit]

Toad would leave the patch that he had only just sprung out from only yesterday, and was excited what else he was able to learn from the world around him. Perhaps he would learn a new skill with his Mana, perhaps find another Myconid patch, or even obtain better herbs for his concoctions. As he left his patch he would look behind him expecting to see only Autumn and her tall companion but was surprised to see that two other Myconids had decided to join their adventure, so he would slow his pace to allow the others to catch up to him. "Is everyone ready to have some fun? I was out here yesterday and got to see this really cool bug. I wonder what will happen to us today" A grin would form on the stalk just below his eyes as he looked at the two newcomers, but something about this notmush was bugging him still. "So does the tall thing just not understand us?"

Mushautumn was looking around whereas Elfkid looked really apprehensive about being outside again after all he had just experienced losing his parent and knew exactly how dangerous the world was. "Uh honestly, I have no idea. I guess he can follow directions but he's more like my pet than anything until he can actually speak our language." he said before waving at Elfkid who would wave back with a nervous smile. As for the other two Myconids they were glancing around with wide eyed amazement as this was the first time either of them had ever left the patch. "Super pumped, let's explore!" Mushbuff said running around in a circle around the group and bouncing up and down in excitement causing Mushthin to chuckle before turning to Mushtoad and waiting to see where he would lead them.

"Have you tried expanding your skills with mana to help him in that? I'm not sure anything else is able to understand us that well either" He would say before Buff decided to run around the group in a circle conveying his excitement about leaving the patch for the first time. "It's good to be excited, but the outside world can be dangerous if we're not prepared. Since we are going out for a long time we need to make sure that we find water in order to survive" Toad would say as he grabbed Buff by the cap as he ran past them for the umpteenth time. "We'll also need to find some supplies, food, some healing herbs, all that stuff" With that Toad would begin to lead the group West while trying to focus his mana into his feet to see if it could be used to help locate anything that they would need, well that and maybe any dangers.

Mushautumn would nod at that and try to focus his mana into his spores while trying to will himself to be able to communicate with Elfkid. Meanwhile Mushbuff would calm down after having her cap yanked and would wait patiently while listening to Mushtoad's instructions while Mushthin snickered in the background. As they continued to move eventually Mushautumn would cheer before ambling over to Elfkid and depositing a small orange spore on him. "Testing testing, can you hear us?" he said causing Elfkid to be startled for a bit, before nodding hesitantly. Though as they continued to walk they would hear noises in the distance though whether they wanted to keep heading west or change course due to it, remained to be seen.

Spoiler:

Toad was continuing to lead the party through the forest, though would you really calling it leading when you're just wandering around aimlessly? He was certain that they were heading west from the position of the sun, but it can be easy to get lost in the forest, at least that's what he was guessing from the kid being in the party. Speaking of that, it would appear that Autumn had developed a skill that would allow her to communicate with the tall one finally, he'd have to get her to teach him that later. "That's great. Ask him if he knows the area, or if he has any useful skills" He would say as he slowed his pace a bit more as something besides their voices started to make it's way to their ears or the holes that are there in place of the ears. "Slow down, there's something up ahead."

Mushautumn would proceed to ask Elfkid but then he got the message from Mushtoad and would slow down whereas Mushbuff would continue moving trying to see what was up ahead, while Mushthin would try and hide in the nearby treeline. If they had continued onward they would notice a lone Beastman resembling a Sloth was swinging a pickaxe at an exposed ore vein. Across from that one there were two others who seemed to be chatting amongst themselves while searching the area seemingly looking for a place to mine as well. Either way it seemed like the three of them were less than the group of Myconid's and their Elf helper but this was the outside world and anything could happen.

Three creatures considerably larger than most of the Myconids exploring the forest smashing the ground in order to get whatever it is that they are looking for, armed with sharp sticks that could easily pierce them if they went about this the wrong way. And there's MushBuff just strolling towards them like nothing bad will happen. He wasn't sure if he wanted to go out and stop the stout shroom from making a mistake and putting them all in danger, or just start moving in a new direction and using Buff as a distraction. Toad wasn't sure if Buff had lived past their usefulness as of yet, but a good tool is rather hard to find at the moment. "Buff, Get Back Here. We can come up with something better than walking into death" He would say as loudly as he could, after finding out that other creatures couldn't understand them, what was the use of trying to be quiet. "We can either try and sneak past them, Try and communicate with them, Go and attack, or go north from here" He said to the rest of the group, hoping Autumn would tell the elf the same thing.

Mushbuff would shrug off Mushtoad's concerns as they didn't really understand why these things were so dangerous, they looked new so why wouldn't they try and be friendly just like the new friend Mushautumn brought as such they would step out from behind cover causing one of the Beastmen to notice them. The beastmen would all turn to look at the Myconid before they all became alarmed with one of the Beastmen actually picking up a rock and throwing it at Mushbuff which would hit them straight in the stalk causing the poor Myconid to let out a cry of pain. Mushthin would watch her friend get hurt and would turn to the rest of the group "We have to help Mushbuff! Those things are mean!" she would rapidly say before rushing out of cover to go and assist her fellow Myconid though it seemed like she didn't have much of a plan besides charging at the nearest Beastman.

Mushautumn on the other hand was more cautious and remained where he was while Elfkid would crouch down to try and be less visible in fear of what would happen if he was seen in the company of monsters. While he was grateful to Mushautumn he knew that the other races weren't always friendly to one another and they all universally despised specific types. But above all the various races fought against the monster races and Elfkid didn't want to have to hurt the Myconid who rescued him after his mother died trying to save him. "What do we do now Mushtoad, they've gone and charged in!"

"Ahh Shitake" Mushtoad would say to himself as he ran up to MushThin and grabbed her by the stalk. "Go back to the others, and try to find something to back us up with" With that the young Myconid would hold up his hand, and focus his Mana into the palm of his hand to fire off a ball of Mana at the feet of the beastman that was starting to attack MushBuff, he wasn't going to lose a perfectly good tool to a walking carpet that couldn't weild magic, or at least he hoped they wouldn't be able to use magic.

Mushthin would nod and then run back not taking care to remain stealthy and as a result the Beastmen would see that another Myconid had to be nearby but before one of them could chase after them, the one who had hurt Mushbuff would be hit by a sphere of mana causing him to cry out in pain and the others to grow more wary of the group. Still with a caster it was their best bet to get closer and as such all three would rush over to where they thought the Myconid were, one of them would aim his pickaxe at Mushbuff the pick burying into the poor myconid's cap causing blood to ooze out of it while one of them would throw another rock this time aimed at Mushtoad. While this was happening Mushautumn would come out along with Elfkid to try and assist with the battle with the former brandishing the pointy stick he used to slay the snake and actually wishing he had taken the time to make a proper spear from one of it's fangs. This would cause the last Beastman to change her course from Mushtoad to him seeing as Mushtoad would already be charged by one of her fellow Beastmen she could take out the stragglers and maybe get a toy elf to play around with after the monsters were dead.

(You can take control of Mushautumn, Elfkid & Mushbuff during this battle)

Mushtoad would lower his stance in order to avoid the rock being thrown at him after watching his tool get murdered by one of the beastmen, if his race had faces they would be able to see a look of anger across it at the moment, however all any could see is the two eyeholes squinting. So he would shift his hand's aim towards the other beastmen who were advancing on the rest of their little adventuring party. His other hand would be on the ground trying to drain any nutrients and ambient mana within the area around them. If he was going to sucseed at that journey he would need to get as much power as he could possibly muster, if not he would soon end up like Mushbuff. Whether or not he was successful in draining the area around him, he would form another Mana ball and make a shot for the Beastman who was coming after him right in the face. "For MushBuff!!!"

Meawhile MushAutumn would stand at the ready for her attacker with her elf companion standing close by. "Please tell me you know of something that can help us out right now" To which the elf would shake their head, which brought down Autumn's spirits a bit, but she still stood firm and ready. "Then either try and hide, or provide a distraction for us so we can all survive."

With that Elfkid had a scared look on their face as they tried to decide what to do in the few seconds they had before being attacked. Leave their new friends to probably die? Or put themselves at risk to try and save everyone's life? So as the beastman approached Autumn, they would pick up a rock off the ground and throw it at them, trying to aim for the beastman's face.

MushThin, however, was searching feverishly for something, anything on the ground that could be used to avenge their friend's untimely demise.

Mushtoad would throw out another Mana Ball but this time it would go wide and hit the ground nearby the Beastman, fortunately even though his assault missed he was able to provide an opportunity for the not dead yet Mushbuff to cling onto the Beastman who had bust his cap with a pickaxe with the uniquely myconid attack causing his injury to seal up some. As for Mushautumn the thrown rock would smash into the beastman's nose causing it to leak blood whereas Mushthin would manage to find a poison berry on the ground causing her to pick it up and not know what do to with this, she needed more instructions but knew that it would be best to return to where she left the others.

Mushtoad would find that only the two who were hit would stop proceeding forward whereas the one he missed would be in his face and would swing with his pickaxe with it striking his cap causing blood to leak from it. Fortunately he had prepared and the grass below him would quickly wither away as a small amount of his health was restored. Unfortunately it seemed like in order to keep this going he would need another source of life as the nutrients near him had now been used up. In the case of Mushautumn the throw rock had slowed the Beastman's approach but it would seem that if they wanted to keep up the fight they might have to resort to their pointy stick, though on the plus side they had killed with it before. Perhaps due to Mushautumn's plea Elfkid would raise his scythe which was made from a combination of the Poison Viper Fang & his mother's broken staff before casting restorative magic which would heal Mushautumn by a little bit. This would cause all of the Beastmen to widen their eyes as now they knew the Elf was a cleric making him a lot more valuable to them alive.

Spoiler:

Mushtoad would let out a howl of pain as the pickaxe made contact with his cap, he had never felt such pain before and he wasn't sure if at this moment, leaving the patch was a good idea or not. What was he thinking, of course, it was a good idea to go out and explore, one couldn't grow to be stagnant in the patch all the time, so he would have to prove himself here and now. As the pickaxe would begin to leave his cap, allowing the blood to start flowing out, he would raise his hands in order to grab hold of the blade in order to be lifted up off the ground and up higher towards the beastman's face. To which he would release spore out of his cap that was laced with the purple viper venom he had absorbed the other night. Hopefully, this was enough to cause the beastman to back away, even if it was for just a few seconds.

Mushthin, however, was somewhat joyous that she had been able to find something during all this chaos and would begin to make her way back towards the others who were engaged in combat with their assailants. So they would stay behind the rest of the group and start throwing some rocks at the beastman making their way towards Autumn and her elf friend. MushAutumn would pull out her pointy stick and make a charge towards the beastman coming after both her and her elf friend, all in hope to put the being down so that they could all go back on their adventure. Mushbuff however would continue to hold onto the one beastman and continue to use their drain skill to hinder their advances. There really wasn't all that much he was able to do considering the damage he had already taken on his first adventure out into the open world. Perhaps if they survived this encounter they would take Mushthin back to the patch where it was safe. Elfkid now wielding their scythe would follow Mushautumn towards the one beastman, and as they approached their target would take a mighty swing at the creatures head.

Mushbuff would drain the Beastman who had hurt him one last time before the miner would grow annoyed and smash his pickaxe into his head again causing the life to dim out of his eyes and the Beastman finally being able to run over towards Mushthin who he saw wasn't fighting any of his fellow miners. As for Mushthin the throw rock wouldn't be as effective, as it would go wide and land on the ground not deterring the Beastwoman at all however as she swung towards Mushtoad, they would thrust out their pointy stick causing both of them to exchange blows. Obviously Mushtoad would come out of that exchange worse off but they did manage to stab the Beastman whereas Mushautumn would have one of their arms impaled by the pickaxe. Still this would allow Elfkid to swing his scythe at the Beastwoman who would throw up her pickaxe to try and block some of the damage with her getting a wound to her shoulder but mitigating some of the force from the swing.

As for Muchtoad his gambit would cause the Beastman to reel back in pain as his eyes were peppered with poisonous spores and he would cry out in pain while rubbing at his eyes to rid them of the pain. Still the poison would settle into his body though it wasn't particularly powerful as Mushtoad hadn't gotten that good with poisons yet and thus wouldn't be able to truly use the skill to it's true potential. Still this gave him a breather and now he had some options while the Beastman quivered with pain, now what would he do?

Spoiler:

With MushBuff now falling victim to the sharp stick of the beastman would catch the attention of the other Myconids as they heard his once excited voice become a blood-curdling scream of agony before silence, causing a myriad of emotions to run through the young Mushrooms caps. Mushthin was trying to balance the emotions of fear and anger towards the creature, unable to fully comprehend what they heard or saw from their friend's death. One thing, however, was for certain in the Myconid's cap, this big hairy beast needed to pay for hurting their friend so badly. Before they even knew what they were going to do, their body was moving forward at a full sprint towards the beastman heading towards them. Assuming the beastman was going to attack when they got close, Thin would drop low when she was close to avoid a possible attack and slide between their legs.

MushAutumn eyeholes would widen at the sound of MushBuff's death, and almost let go of her pointy stick in order to go help their friend, but knew something bad would happen once they let go of the stick. However, they did notice how the beastwoman's arm had stopped moving as much once the stick was inserted, perhaps something similar would happen when they poke something else. So she would withdraw the pointy stick from their arm and would push the stick back towards the beastwoman's head/neck area. "No!"

Elfkid would recognize the new voice of Autumn as they seemed to be reacting to something, so his eyes would scan the area as quickly as they could, only to recognize an all to familiar scene. Someone dead in the ground while he was unable to do anything about it, flashes of his trauma flashed through his mind as he fixed his gaze upon the beastwoman. Only for a split second he didn't see the beastwoman, but one of the same creatures that murdered his family. "Not again" He said as he pulled back the scythe before lowering the blade and would use the same sweeping motion he used while cutting down crops in the field, nice and low at the beastwoman's ankles.

Meanwhile Mushtoad while hearing Buff's cries of agony was too busy holding onto the pickaxe as the Beastman would recoil from the spores and lifting the weapon up towards their own head, which was something that he had hoped he would do. So he would let go of the weapon at the height where he could land on the creatures head, holding onto the side in order to stay on top of them. "He was Mine" Toad would shout as he focused his mana between his hands like he was creating another mana ball but within the creatures head.

The battle had truly erupted into a vicious melee as Mushthin would slide between the Beastman's legs thus only getting a glancing blow from the miner's pickaxe that than getting a serious one like how Mushbuff had received. Perhaps due to the rush she wouldn't attack and thus couldn't press her advantage while the Beastman would be turning around resulting in her no longer being behind him perhaps next time she would press the attack when the opportunity presented itself but it made sense than in her rage she would overlook such an opening.

Meanwhile Mushautumn would jab it's pointy stick into the Beastwoman's neck causing her to use one of her hands to hold were she had just been stabbed it was dangerous but due to the weapon merely being a pointy stick it didn't really hit anything vital despite opening a cut on the side of her neck. As a result she would lash out with a return attack burying her pickaxe into Mushautumn's head causing blood to ooze out but fortunately this gave Elfkid the opportunity to slash her ankle causing her to cry out and drop to the ground she would pull her leg inward and try to sit up while swinging her pickaxe to try and deter them from pouncing on her. Mushautumn would have an idea, but in order for it to work they would have to keep this one alive as he was sort of getting into the habit of adding new members to their Mushroom Patch except in this case it wouldn't be a friendly one but a prisoner...maybe.

Finally the battle between the Beastman and Mushtoad was getting even more dangerous, as Mushtoad would notice his magic wouldn't work inside of someone else as their own innate mana interfered with it and instead the only way he could release the mana ball was to do it normally. Fortunately at such a close range it struck true and the Beastman would cry out in agony before swinging his pickaxe landing a deadly blow of his own before stumbling away his eyes damaged from such an attack. The blow wouldn't kill Mushtoad but only just as the blood from this wound would drip down his side as he was perilously close to dying all it would take would be a single hit and so would end the life of Mushtoad.

Spoiler: