The swamp jungle of Turthia lies in the northeast of the continent like a verdant jewel in the cold tundra. The jungle was born from an ancient curse put on the land of the old theocracy of Turthia.
The priests failed to prevent a cult's attempt at corrupting their god, bringing their downfall. And while the details of the event are lost in the past, historians agreed on one thing. This event gave birth not only to a magic jungle but also to the cursed folk.
They took upon the name of their cult, and all villagers close to the jungle feared it; The Kashin, a humanoid race of small creatures looking like a mix of cats and foxes. Their cute look is only matched by their dark deeds, as they're known to be child kidnappers and murderers.
"From the dark and lush jungle, they come. Lurking in the shadows of your home to kidnap the children you didn't hide well enough. They rarely give them back, and never in one piece." - Typical warning for new parents in the north.
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It has now been more than a day that the spirit has swum away.
"There is one problem with Molly's plan. Without mastar's yummy light, Molly and the others feel hungry. The little pink squigglies digging the soil aren't enough now that Molly is a big girl. We will need to find better food."
Molly paced around the tunnels and chambers to find some idly family members and ask them to help her find food. The communication between giant magical insects was the same as their non-monstrous kind : some antennas' tap here and there and vibrations with their legs.
After hunting for a while, Molly came to a conclusion. There are only 'pink squigglies' around, and if she can't find a solution, they could only sustain themself with cannibalism.
But how can she expand the family to search for the master if she needs to eat them to survive? If only her previous food source got bigger like her.
"That's it! Molly is a genius! If weird blue light made Molly big, maybe it can make pinky big too?! Molly is no mastar, but I can put them in the moving light as mastar did!"
She did so, and the 'pink squigglies' became giant worms to feed the army of the master.
All for the master! She hailed internally.
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In a mushroom-filled cave somewhere underground, a floating orb of light was monologuing happily in front of a king-sized mushroom. The giant fungus stayed unresponsive, but the spirit didn't seem to mind.
"Thanks to you mighty shroom, I'm still alive and not dispersed in a hazardous flow of mana! Fret not, my soon-to-be friend! You saved my life, and so I will give one to you!"
The spirit energetically started to probe and analyze the mushroom with its mana limbs. Performing biopsies of its different tissues for further testing without endangering the fungus. Mutating things was still a risky endeavor with haphazard results after all, and harming its benefactor wasn't the plan here.
Unfortunately, the samples didn't react by much. Them coming from heavily mana-infused plant things probably hindered the usual mutation effect of mana. Or maybe only animals could be mutated that way? One thing was sure, more testing was needed.
The spirit decided to experiment on the smaller mushrooms in the cave. It took a lot of mana to induce a significant mutation on the first one. They indeed seem more arduous to mutate than its minions at home. The result was a grey mush exuding a foul aroma after it died.
This was the first failure of many to come. Hour after hour, mushroom after mushroom, experiment after experiment, the spirit could feel its burning desire for knowledge intensify. It was like discovering the meaning of its life.
"Experiment n°6: By saturating the mycelium of the mushroom with mana, I hoped to transform this roots-like structure into legs of sorts. As a result, it fused with the surrounding moss, supercharging it with nutrients. The moss died quickly after tripling in size, using every nutrient at its disposal, rendering the zone barren."
[...]
"Experiment n°14: As shown by the previous testing, big mutations aren't possible for now. This experiment will focus on transforming the flesh of the mushroom trunk into something else. The result was a success, and the fungus is now made of a fragrant fibrous matter producing honey-like sap."
[...]
"Following the procedure of inducing lesser mutations, I managed to pile them up and create up to three actually usable and viable species. It took me up to forty-three experiments to create them."
The first species resemble a big, white ball with blue and orange spots. The fungus could store a small quantity of mana, extracted from the ground until it matured and released everything into the air. It could safely pump the mana from a vein for future uses, albeit slowly.
The second species looked like a bundle of intertwined, blue sticks in the form of a bush. While actually a failed product in attempting to create a sentient fungus. It could still send mana pulse through the mycelium, triggering interesting effects in other mushrooms.
The third species was one of those mushrooms with an effect that could be triggered. It was shaped with a trunk and a hat, like your typical mushroom, green or purple in color. And upon touch, it would send a poisonous fog. The toxic effect was discovered by the selfless sacrifice of a mushroom who needed to breathe air to survive.
When the spirit snapped out of its experimentation frenzy, more than half of the mushrooms in the cave were either dead or mutated. The place now looked like a tiny mushroom grove, each varying in size, shape, smell, or color. The one who saved the spirit's life was untouched and throned in the middle of them all with a strange aura of majesty.
*cough*
"I may have gone a bit overboard this time. There are nearly not enough untouched mushrooms to continue testing without them going extinct. So now, the moss?"