As I begin to use the Mental magic more I feel my mind splitting and twisting horrifically into a pattern I've never felt before. I almost feel myself lose consciousness before getting a heavy serenity off it. At a frightening pace I feel an intensity like none before. Then I begin to relax. I feel my brain twisting back into place. It felt like something almost teased a part of my brain out, among all that happened… What was that all about? I swear for a second my mind split into two entities and they were made to fight it out to the death. Maybe it is the system's way of ensuring I'm still in charge here... As I look over to my new second half I see what I actually look like a simple mat black mushroom with wisps of cyan bioluminescent material embodied all the way up the stem of my body with a rusted neon orange cap wavey all the way from the gills up. Now I have a shadow clone, Hiyah!!.
The other me begins to crawl out of the pit in amazement of its new profound thoughts. It understands that I'm the main body and it almost signifies to me that this is how hive minds work. I'm not sure if I'm lazy but the other me did enjoy sitting in the pit for a while. He was daydreaming a lot about how to build us better.
[Mana Manipulation has reached level 2]
"Young one…. There are two of yOU!" To Master Shikans amazement I appeared to gain enlightenment, in the middle of his dojo. 'To hone one's abilities to such a level' he'd probably be thinking somewhere along the lines of 'He did this without being of birthing age'. 'This young fungi is an amazement of nature itself.' then out of nowhere "He at least solved the problem of a sparring partner of his mass group size. Wow, you don't really see this too often a complete body doubling. The world is wondrous." I've been caught, can't do much around here without mister sharp eyes over there catching it all. I try to clear up the confusion "I-ks ju-t me" to Master Shikans amazement" YOU CAN TALK TOO! This is quite the development"
As this goes on Master Shikan announces that it is time to wind down for the day. "Young one I have another medicine ball for you." He breaks it into two and hands it over to me "th–k -ou" I try to say thanks and that's all that come out maybe I should upgrade this voice box I do have biomass left over.
[Would you like to purchase Hyphae Voice Box +1? This will cost one Biomass.]
Yes!
My voice box becomes warm and I can feel each individual Hyphae transform under the pressure. "Is thi- bett-r" It feels like a lot of gunk was cleared from my throat. I'm sure it will only need one more upgrade to be fully functional.
[Would you like to purchase Hyphae Voice Box +2? This will cost two Biomass.]
Yeah!
Once again the box becomes overly pressurized and hot, almost itchy this time. I don't remember the arms and legs feeling this way when I first sprouted them, must be me getting used to the new body i'm in that is becoming more noticeable.
I turned to Master Shikan. "My name is Gravitas, you don't have to call me 'young one' anymore." To Master Shikan's surprise "It's nice to formally meet you Gravitas, you will be expected to learn a lot here in my dojo. From the looks of it you don't really know what's going on in the outside world…" He trails off telling me all about how unique glimmer caps are and how they have only recently become an official race to the fungal people over the last two centuries. The world he describes is enormous and I can't help but compare it to the size of earth, which it is at least two times bigger than. "The war becoming of the gods of fungi, have never been so violent, I only wish to see the tides of battle sway our way one day." from the looks of it the whole planet is fighting off these corrupted creatures, the ones who serve under the Dark Fungal God. I can only imagine what they look like as Master Shikan is very vague about what their appearances are, maybe because they can take on many forms... He says most if not all of them have skulls for faces/masks. There was also something about a dark ominous aura that emanates from each one of them. The war has been going on for thousands of years. He also mentions something about how he is under some race based faction and that the only reason i'm even in his dojo training right now is because of the war. I wonder what it would be like for me if I wasn't so keen on getting arms and legs. "What happens when a mushroom doesn't sprout legs?" Master Shikan replies "They become like the trees growing vastly high and spread more of themselves creating homes for our kind amongst many other things. You as a gatherer where destined to be that way too, until you grew legs that is." nonetheless just a mindless being.
Not knowing what he is thinking I begin to turn back to my medicine ball that has been split with the other me. I wonder if I should ask for Master Shikan to help me level some more, now that I have my clone it should be easier to take down some of these monsters, at least I hope so. It's either that or run away and try to fight them on my own.
Either I make a couple copies of myself, dive into magic or begin to explore. Those are some heavy options, I'm going to have to sit on them for a while.
We, meaning me and my clone at this point, decide to make a plan for the future, for freedom and for the time being to get stronger. It's hard not to confirmation bias myself.
As if on command we form a mercilium web around the medicine ball. With nothing else to do for the day we tuck in for the night.
[You have gained one Biomass.]
[You have gained one Biomass.]
[You have gained one Biomass.]
[You have gained one Biomass.]