Stuck as a Dungeon Mob

The plan of Ed to uproot himself sounded good, but there was an obvious problem with it.

'I will lose contact with my mycelium network' That was no different from relinquishing ownership over his current cavern area. That was because there was no guarantee for the mushrooms to survive without him.

There was also the risk of the mushrooms simply not accepting him back after a while. Ed thought this one might be unlikely, but there were no guarantees.

'Fortunately, I can store away a good chunk of them' The only problem was that storing away some mushrooms also meant cutting down the attack force. The odds of his mushroom field surviving until his return would be lessened.

Ed proceeded to store away the mushrooms before finally turning to A, who had been waiting for his orders.

'Grab some dirt and uproot me' Ed used the link skill on himself so that he could communicate properly. Another thing to consider was that Ed's safety would rely greatly on A and not lacking might affect that duty.

'Alright' A replied before taking on a pensive pose. Where was he supposed to start? Was he supposed to just grab Ed's main body or…?

After some consideration, A leaned towards the ground and scooped his hands deep into the soil around Ed. The puppet was not very dexterous, the next process was a bit difficult

He had to retain as much of the ground as possible while simultaneously scooping Ed off the floor. 

[You've been dealt damage. -3 hp]

Nevertheless, more difficult was not impossible. There was only about a minute of A struggling to not drop Ed, the main mushroom body was transplanted with ease.

To Ed, this appeared as though the entire world suddenly went dark. The congested mental network also suddenly quieted and there was nothing to do but wait.

Of course, even after waiting, the darkness remained. What was different however was that his roots were… more rooted.

'It's done' A told Ed through their link.

'Let's go then' Ed replied.

A nodded, he made the mushroom puppet grab the cage. Due to the size, the cage occupied both hands. The relatively small puppet then started its journey towards the surface.

The journey was bound to be long, but Ed and A didn't have to stop anywhere. The only place that they did stop was at the lizardmen village.

The blood clot that A inhabited was given two key skills. One was of course the Eye Spy skill. The purpose was to let the blood clot see. Without an actual eye, however, the skill was rather lacking in visual clarity.

This was something Ed compromised due to the time constraints.

The other skill was resonance. This was a skill that the wave shrooms he previously showcased possessed. It could detect and visualize vibrations, which was useful, it just wasn't hearing.

'Hearing is a lot more complicated than that' Ed would have to investigate that another time.

But with this knock off hearing, A sensed the vibrations from the lizardmen preparing to set off and decided he might not need to travel this journey on foot. He figured they would be gone by now but it was good they remained.

'I could have missed them without resonance' A thought. The poor visuals could still make out shapes, but they might blend into the environment sometimes.

"Hm? What's this little fellow-?" A lizardman asked noticing the weird metallic puppet. It hardly reached their knees, but what was most shocking was the mushroom it carried in a cage.

"H- Hey!" The lizardmen shouted in concern.

"Doesn't this sort of look like the… the mushroom god?" He asked with some hesitation.

Var Agus heard this shout and immediately ran out of his home. The mushroom god was at the village?!? The link skill did not have a direct sense of distance, but Var Agus did notice that the connection felt stronger than it usually would given his location.

"It's true!" The lizardmen were shocked to find the little puppet.

As for A and Ed, they were one and the same, so they had similar thoughts.

'Take us outside' Ed transmitted to the rapidly approaching Var Agus. The tribal shaman froze for a moment before nodding and roaring out new orders.

"Kouzzo, you will have the privilege of grabbing the mushroom god!" Var told the divine blood warrior of Mole, Kouzzo. The strong lizardmen nodded solemnly and looked at the mushroom god and the little guy that carried it.

"I will do my best" Kouzzo said before going over to pick them up.

Not long later, the lizardmen were leaving the caverns for the first time in a while.

The exit was the same that Bloody found, and the same that was once blocked by Eon. This cavern entrance had quite a history. Now, it would be witness to the start of another historical event.

"Var, how will we get to the hydra god?" Girusk, the most faithful believer of the hydra god, asked Var who just smiled wryly to the best of his lizardman abilities.

"I don't know" He didn't know how they would cross through the swamps and still have energy to defend the hydra god.

'Tell your tribe member to put me down near the water' It was at this moment that Ed's transmission entered Var Agus who wore a troubled expression.

'Do you have a solution, your divinity?' Var asked in his head.

Ed did not reply, he only waited for Var to relay the instruction and have his friend put him down. It didn't take long for Kouzzo to drop him gently on the ground.

'I am practically blind right now, but…' Since he was likely placed facing the marsh, the ships would have to work.

'I hope they work' Marshes weren't necessarily the best for boating. It depended a lot on the type of boats as well as the type of marsh. Ed did try to consider this when making his boats.

'If the hull sinks too deep, the ship could aground' In that scenario, it would just be a fancily shaped stationary fortress.

With no further delay, Ed released the ships from the system space. The first was one of the smaller variants.

It appeared out of seemingly thin air and fell heavily with a splash into the water. The lizardmen were shocked by the sudden splatter. Once the splash died down, however, the shock did not. There was a weird thing in front of them!

'You can use this to traverse the water' Ed explained to Var Agus who quickly got the gist of it.

"This… this is a boat!" A lizardmen exclaimed. Some of these refugees joined from the later conquests of the Mensch tribe. They had seen boats before.

"Gr- Great!" They could get to the battlefield quite easily now!

'There are also weapons inside the ship' Before spawning new ships, Ed decided to share with Var Agus his depth of knowledge.

[<Link lvl. 0> Activated]

'Hm?' He suddenly realized an oddity. The knowledge left him! The knowledge he himself created! He intended to pass it on just then, but... this was absurd!

On the other hand, Var Agus was able to suddenly understand everything there was to know about the ship before him. That included the cannons and the magic.

'Thank you! Your divinity, with these weapons we can't let you down!' Var Agus was overjoyed. He truly believed this one ship could make a difference, having learned of its specs.

Ed took the gratitude, but he also had to consider what happened to his knowledge.

'I want it back' Just as Ed told this to himself, the knowledge came coursing back and Var Agus who was initially overjoyed felt as if something was wrong.

[Link is on cooldown]

'Your Divinity, did you take back your wisdom?' Var Agus questioned. His emotional state became turbulent from suspicions.

'What do you still remember?' Ed asked Var Agus who was stopped to recall details on the ship. He relayed them to Ed, who nodded inwardly. But to verify things, he also opened up his status.

[Name: Edwa&!]

Type: Magic Mushroom

Health: 17/17

Mana: 160/160

Vitality: 16

Constitution: 3

~Skills:~

[Link lvl. 0] (!)

{ Passive: Transmit immaterial things to a linked entity

Active: Directly impart immaterial things to a linked entity. Results in temporary loss of said thing }

[Fortified Mind lvl. 0] -Show-

[Assessment lvl. 1] -Show-

[Assimilation lvl. 7] -Show-

[Thought Manifestation lvl. 2] -Show-

[Language lvl. 1] -Show-

[System Link lvl. 6] -Show-

[Eloquence lvl. 2] -Show-

[Sixth Sense lvl. 0] -Show-

[Body Recollection lvl. 2] -Show-

[Enhanced Spores lvl 3] -Show-

[Spiritual Mark lvl. 0] -Show-

'Looks like link can't just transmit immaterial things, it can impart them' This was rather interesting. Based on the small test he did on Var Agus, even after the active went to cool down, he retained some superficial knowledge.

'This might be better than instruction' Or was it possible to use them in conjunction? Did the effects of the instruction skill count as immaterial? The vagueness of the description allowed for seemingly infinite possibilities, and exploit abilities.

These thoughts whirled around Ed's mind, but were quickly put under control. The situation with the lizardmen was still ongoing.

'I will give you more boats' Ed had the small puppet move him further away from the first boat. He then summoned another, much to everyone's surprise.

"Just one was already great! Two-" Just as Var Agus was about to jump from joy, another boat appeared! Wait… they kept on growing. Not just in numbers, they also grew in size!

Once the large ship appeared, all the lizardmen were agape.. They might as well just give up the battle against Mensch and devote themselves to Ed! There was such great appeal to this technology.