Stuck as a Dungeon Mob

After they settled down in a patch of tall grass, A uprooted some of said tall grass. He brought the grass into Ed's cage and Ed assimilated the object.

[Assimilation is on cooldown]

[Assimilation has leveled up]

[Assimilated (Grass Blades) +2 vitality]

Following the level up, the prompt for assimilation appeared a little different.

'Interesting' The level up must have done something substantial. Unfortunately, since W still had a part of the assimilation skill Ed could not see a prompt for advancement or any advancement paths.1

Quickly putting the matter aside, as there was nothing he could do about that, Ed focused on planning for W's approach.

'I need to create a mushroom field in this tall grass' He needed to be very careful though. The magic mushrooms could easily destroy the tall grass by sucking out nutrients.

Planting magic mushrooms came with its risks.

'Hmm…' But which of these dangerous mushrooms was he to plant? There were metal mushrooms, sentry mushrooms, metal sentry mushrooms, crystal mushrooms, skeleton mushrooms, doom mushrooms, and that was just to name a few.

After thinking for a while, Ed settled on the following...

[Metal Sentry Shroom]

[Doom Shroom]

[Slingshot Mushroom]

[Tripwire Mushroom]

[Poison Turret Mushroom]

[Poison Cannon Shroom]

[Mud Magic Shroom]

Ed felt that these mushrooms were the ones that offered him the highest chances of success against humans. Things like the barbed mushrooms might not even prickle any armored humans.

The mud shrooms would slow them down however and that would help Ed douse them in sufficient poison. As for the tripwire mushrooms… Anyone could fall for a tripwire trap, it was a basic of the basics.

Ed of course also needed to see so metal sentry shrooms would be placed at the edge of the tall grass. Since they were metallic they could also last a bit if the humans noticed their purpose.

Lastly were the doom shrooms which might actually be too small to do substantial damage. Nevertheless, if they could stun a human they would have done plenty. Plus, small damage can accumulate in large amounts.

While Ed didn't know if W would bring humans, that was definitely the only risky thing he could bring so that was the only thing he needed to seriously prepare against.

"Yoashk, what are you doing?" Reid asked noticing that his only lizard buddy was putting down Ed's cage.

"Mushroom God wants to settle in this soil" Yoashk replied much to Reid's surprise.

After conversing with the other lizardmen Reid learned of what happened to the Mensch tribe. He also learned that all the chaos was mainly caused by Ed in his mushroom form. That was to say he knew who the mushroom god was.

Reid didn't ask anything anymore.

Ed's mushroom was firmly planted in the soil and Ed instantly felt much better.

[<Advanced Spores> is recovering - 17:19 minutes]

[Enhanced Spores has leveled up]

His enhanced spores skill also got to work and even merited a level up. Gray magic mushrooms were growing and thriving in the small clearing the orcs made.

<"Huh!?"> Some orcs were terrified as they witnessed the mushroom's mycelium spread and encroach towards their position. One could only imagine their surprise when a metallic mushroom appeared out of thin air and settled into that mycelium.

'I can see again!' Ed celebrated. He had spawned metal sentry shroom.

Its metallic mushroom cap hid the terrifying eyeball at its center but it didn't get rid of the inherent creepiness the skill <Eye Spy> brought with it.

<"Is that really Ed?"> One of the orcs muttered with a shudder.

After that in a matter of minutes, the gray magic mushrooms continued to expand. Their dull light illuminated the soil beneath them and eventually, there were only small places where the orcs and their mounts could remain.

<"What the-!?"> Just as Ed started to put down doom shrooms, the grass started to dry and die out at a visible rate. The orcs were now beyond terrified, some of them swore to never EVER even think of making an enemy out of Ed.

After the patches of doom shrooms came groups of poison turrets and poison cannon shrooms. These were accompanied by Sentinel mushrooms that acted as watchtowers.

A small mushroom city was quickly formed in under an hour.

<"Amazing!"> Sharog exclaimed. She was creeped out but simultaneously excited. All of those mushrooms seemed to hold special magical properties. Wouldn't they be perfect for alchemy?

As soon as Ed returned to the orc body, Sharog would pester him to teach her more magic and alchemy.

'Done at last' Ed thought while surveying the many signals the mushrooms sent back to him.

'This feeling is almost intoxicating' Having been in a cage for most of the trip Ed felt kind of stifled. Only now did he get to experience the happiness of seeing and feeling the soil.

'Ed, should we send someone to scout the portal or will we just wait?' While Ed was celebrating, A proposed a question.

'Huh? Oh, no. Let's just ask W' Ed knew that W was not yet at the portal and assumed that was why he hadn't taken the initiative to communicate with them.

Being reminded that they needed information however he figured he may as well initiate their conversation.

'W, How are things on your end?' Ed proposed a casual question and continued to silently steal the nutrients of the soil while he awaited W's reply. Ed no longer had transmission so he had to pose this question as a command.

'The nutrients here are kinda bad' There weren't many animals, just plant life so the orc plains were highly lacking in varied nutrients.

Whatever the case, Ed continued to wait.

***

'Huh?' In the crypt, near the merging hallway, W received a message from none other than Ed.

Currently, he was still being escorted by Christian and the other guy whose name was Archer. Both of them were taking good care of the adventurer girl apparently named Kimani.

"Kimi, more skeletons up ahead" Christian even made a nickname for the young girl. She nodded in understanding and unsheathed her sword.

The sword she now held was much more pristine and powerful than her last. It was one of the rewards that Ed had hidden behind puzzles and traps. The clothing the girl wore was similarly other rewards that Christian and Archer acquired both before and after meeting her.

Needless to say, Kimani finally looked like a real adventurer.

She sprinted forward with less sloppiness than usual and swung down her blade at the skeletons awkwardly. These plain white skeletons stood no chance against her sword all the same, however.

"You have improved significantly" Christian commented.

The girl could probably make her way out by herself now as long as she didn't encounter any mage skeletons.

"No… I'm still not good enough…" The girl said refuting Chris's praise. Frankly, she didn't feel her movements belonged to herself. There was truth behind that thought as W was assisting her.

W avoided helping her in regard to swordsmanship however as he was still traumatized by his level -1 swordsmanship skills. Well, the reality was that since he didn't have even that there was no help he could offer in that area anyway.

'Ed, we will be reaching the portal in half an hour' The journey was taking longer since the two adventurers were teaching his host some skills.

Kimani put down her blade only after completely eliminating the group of white skeletons all by herself.

"Should we go for a bigger target before moving onto the next floor?" Archer asked secretly scared. As they grew nearer and nearer to the orc plains his inner demon was growing in strength.

Christian felt a similar feeling. He had prided himself as a genius swordsman and this was true even after his defeat at the hands of Samuel. This was because when that sparring had occurred he was a whole class below Samuel.

When the catastrophic expedition into this dungeon took place however he was pushed back by mere orcs. No matter how hard he tried to improve he felt as if something was holding him back. There was a mental block that prevented him from focusing on his swordsmanship and advancing.

This feeling of being mired was actually the main reason why Christian and Archer came to the crypt. While they wanted to first reach A-class to get some revenge on the dungeon, they were incapable of reaching that class despite their efforts.

"Let's… Let's do that…" Christian said after much hesitation.

The young adventurer took notice of the hidden apprehension both Christian and Archer shared but made no comment.

"We should do it!" She was also in favor of the idea of going for a bigger target. The skeleton outposts had way better loot than just regular traps and puzzles. Wouldn't she become pretty well off if they conquered one of those places?

W could not hear these interactions but as soon as he noticed they were distancing themselves from the portal he frowned.

'Ed… hold on…' He might need to try and resolve whatever was going on.

'If they plan to leave… I'll be there soon' If the adventurers wanted to back out now Ed would control the young girl to dash off towards the portal. If the two young men wanted to stop him then he could just kill them.

'It's too bad, they seemed to have a chivalrous spirit' W said secretly lamenting their potential demise.

Disclaimer, I messed up by putting the skill at lvl 8 in Ed's status up to this point.