Private Isulus Fungiplomacy? Fungomacy?

[Little Doggo]

Tangleweaves,
The Purple Bog
Morning

To convince Max, this time, Doggo needed an actual reward, unlike the garbage they earned from the pigtailed squeaky AI last time. The Explorers League wasn't one to simply let their people go unpaid for their efforts! That made her confident, knowing that Max wouldn't turn down easy gold, specially when they had a guide come straight from Isulus to accompany them in their journey to what should amount to a simple meeting with a local Myconid tribe.

"Are we there yet..?"

She couldn't hold it back anylonger after what felt like an hour of walking through humidity, mud, water and whatever else this jungle thought was fair game to throw at them as they both were to follow her fellow explorer, a guy that might be around Jiejie's age with how he carries himself like a veteran whistle would.

"Just a feeew more hours." He chuckled as Doggo's groans followed, waving off her concerns, "Almost there, just remember to be in your best behaviour. Not many Myconids can actually talk back in our tongue, and I wouldn't want to break their trust."

'Benny' hoped, at least, to show more friendly faces to the mushroom-folk, and none fit the description of both alien and friendly than the duo of kids tagging along with him right now.

"Got to say, I didn't expect your friend to carry a spirit with him. But it's fine! The Myconids probably won't mind her too much... Hopefully." Ben added, giving a glance back to Max and Jade

"That's true! Jade is kind of from around here right? I mean, she's like... A fairy or something."

"Dunno about Max though, this place stinks so I wouldn't be around here for long. Not so monkey or dog-friendly, or anything-with-a-nose-friendly."

She added, dragging her legs out from the mud as they finally got some solid ground to walk on, wiggling her feet one at a time after being knee deep in an attempt to get rid of some of it.

"Maybe the Myconids can tell us where to find more Jades? Aren't they connected with nature too? I'd like a cool crystal sword, or maybe a rock sword!"

@Dynamax

 

[Dynamax]

"That's the tenth time you've asked that." Max exaggerated, maybe it was @Little Doggo's first time asking about it, but he would make that remark regardless. "But she isn't wrong, are you sure we are in the right path, Bob? We've been walking for a whole damn hour and we didn't get a single exp." Talking about adventure inefficiency, it almost seemed like they would never meet a hostile creature to hit and get some juicy points.

He wondered if killing amicable Myconids gave anything though—

But casting a single glance at Doggo was enough for him to give up the idea.

"I am not 'or something!' I AM a FAIRY. A gem one at that. But you aren't wrong, Myconids are no trouble to me. I'm used to get around them."

Jade fluttered her wings, puffing her chest confidently while laying on top of Max's head.

"Yeah, this place feels like I've shoved my nose up into a gorilla's butt and forgot to clean it up."

He frowned, similarly trying to get around all that mud. It felt impossible to walk properly there, everything was a stupid difficult terrain which made Max wish he had Metamorph in his set of skills. "Honestly, I should just climb any tall plant I see." He hissed.

"Myconids may try if they feed on my kind. But that's not a good idea."

 

[Little Doggo]

Doggo huffed, putting up her hands, counting a total of three fingers, two on her left one on her right, as odd as counting like that would look like for Max.

"Three. That's how many, you probably imagined the last seven!"

"Exp? Ooh I see, well, you both are getting a lot of experience even if you think you don't."

"The journey's just as important as the destination. You might find gold on the way there." Ben winked, trying to appeal to the monkey boy's baser instincts, given the way these two kept talking about loot for half of the road.

"EEeh?! Nitpicky..."

Doggo yelped just as Jade got all defensive. Something something fairy, and she's already tilting one ear and raising the other.

"At least we know Max is fine! His bad words aren't getting repetitive, so the smell ain't doing poo to him."

"Hah, no need Max, but do be careful around Tangleweaves. You are going to find plants more willing to eat -you-, and climbing them is one way ticket to their stomachs."

It wouldn't take much further for Ben to point out to the trio past a bunch of overgrown flowers, pushing colourful petals aside to reveal the isolated little village, filled to the brim with Myconid workers going back and forth, and some even wielding makeshift spears as if they were some sort of guards, standing guard on the bridge leading into the surprisingly advanced yet worn-down tribe.

My-cco, The Abandoned Settlement!

"Flesh-Walk..."

The taller of the duo stated, pointing it's spear to the group once they begun to approach, with Ben being the first to raise his hands in surrender.

"Evil..?"

"They can talk..?!"

"Just a little, the league is interested in them precisely because of that. But try to slow down when you talk to them, and gesture if you need to. They aren't exactly scholars."

"Mycon." The chubby one said, a bit above Max's height compared to the tall and lanky one, "Ben. Friendly tribe. Pass? Eld."

'Mycon' glanced over to the group, aiming the butt of his spear towards Max, more specifically towards the Fairy atop of his head.

"Crystal..? Good? Eld. Call."

The tall mushroom person groaned to it's partner, curiosity taking the best out of it as it slowly approached the stick towards Jade as if to try to poke a body.

"She's harmless, we swear! Wouldn't hurt a fly even, right Jade?"

@Dynamax

 

[Dynamax]

Max rolled his eyes at @Little Doggo retorting his exaggerated remark, and his eyebrow raised at the guy that was accompanying them. "I guess we do get some exp for exploring new places in RPGs, yeah. 'Welcome to Isulus', achievement, 'Fungi Tarzan', plus five hundred experience points, or whatever." He handwaved, crossing arms and looking around.

"Well, not that this place is uncool or something." Max tried to look around, ready to snatch anything that seemed remotely safe to eat or to collect, foraging.

"If these plants want to eat me, then I'm gonna be a vegan for the whole day just to screw over with them." He squinted at the nearest flower, that had a very 'melting' and 'wiggly' look on it.

---

"The fuck." Max looked at the walking-fungi. They looked disgusting, beyond salvation. One in particular was triggering a trypophobia Max wasn't even aware he had, and his averted his gaze to look at Doggo.

"Talk isn't really what I would say they are doing. They are blurting some... You know, whatever—" He forced himself to look at the disguting mushrooms again, and as soon as one of them tried to poke Jade with a stick, the fairy fluttered her wings and tried to lean away, and Max quickly got between the two of them.

"Don't touch her." He scowled, protectively.

"Max..!"

She placed her hands on her chest, surprised and flushing.

"She loot. She mine." He shook his head, gesturing and pointing at his bag.

"Hey."

Jade sighed, then looked at Doggo, floating near her shoulder.

"Yes, I am a friend. I don't want any problem!"

 

[Little Doggo]

Doggo hopped back next to Max as the monkey boy made his disgust apparent in the most classic Dyna way.

"Careful, don't want to teach them new bad words!"

Her eyes shifted between the lanky mushroom and her buddy, taken back much like Jade once Max started to actually care for the fairy in ways beyond mere loot, suddently it felt as if he had begun to grow... Was this the power of the so called 'Tropes' that Omega Redux kept telling her abou- Nope, Jade's still loot, a sigh of relief following up as a false alarm went by.

"That's the Max I know!"

Hopefully this wouldn't unlock achievement 'be an ass to the mushrooms'...

"Good..."

Reluctance in it's putrid voice, having been forced to step back at the kid lashing out as if it were more an animal than an actual person, and just as unpredictable, yet it's defensive stance was quickly put at ease after mere moments of being frozen on it, the idea that it's gaze were not on the group anymore but elsewhere.

"Center, Plaza, Pass. Eld, Mycon, speak... Eld words good."

He stood aside, letting his stick spear tap the bridge's floor.

"That was awkward..." Ben exhaled a deep breath, his heart finally calming down after the potential disaster was dodged by a hair, "Almost got ourselves a failure. No 'experience', no achievements for you all," He teased.

"No way we would fail right now. This is like, our specialty." Doggo added, lifting a hand up to cover up Jade, preemptively making sure she's less visible this way whenever they got themselves deeper into the town.

Ben would take the lead afterwards, the buildings were all worn down, with most of it's wood replaced by vines and overgrowth from nature itself as it begun to claim it's share once again, yet even then the road was paved by several lamp posts and cracked glass, filled with fiery fireflies dancing within to function as makeshift light sources. There were more than one Myconid making their way across the dirt road leading to the very center of what should be a market district.

"I thought Myconids couldn't do all this stuff... What's going on here?" Wherever she looks, curiosity took over, and a glance was shot back to the fairy, "Ever seen Myconids like that? I thought they were just big mushrooms with legs..."

"That's why we are here. These Myconid are more 'human' than any other we've seen. I have wanted to talk to this 'eld' figure for a while now, and I don't mind if you two join me, but if you two want to spread and search for clues, that's an option too." His hopes were far higher on the story these old woods could tell than the Eld itself.

"Whatever you do, no eating plants okay Max? Salad here isn't as tasty as in Astorea."

"Yeah Max, what if we find a plant version of Jade? Maybe her long lost cousin! My nose says there's something cool for sure."

Or maybe it's just the mushroom stench coming from the cauldron...

---

Choose!

Ben is heading to meet the 'Eld' in the central plaza, but there's other things to be done. Choose what interests you the most:
1- Ben, who is heading to meet this very short and weird looking mushroom. It seems to be walking with a limp on it's leg, and is accompanied by a very strange looking Small Pet
2- The Plaza itself, where there seems to be a small sort of marketplace with tattered tents. It's hard to tell what each sells, but there's plenty in stock apparently. Someone is cooking mushrooms in a cauldron too. On the west side of it there is a large noticeboard of sorts, with cloth pieces and patches of leather hanging from it like they had been attached recently for some reason.
3- From all the buildings, there is one large shop with it's sign still intact. The building is in better state than the rest around town, but nothing that wouldn't remove it from the 'ancient ruins' label. There is someone managing the inside though, and more than one set of firefly jars can be seen illuminating the otherwise dark interior. Given the amount of stuff cluttering the inside, one can guess this is like the wealthiest shroom in town!

@Dynamax

 

[Dynamax]

Max crossed his arms and looked at @Little Doggo. "Listen Doggo. There are no bad words, only bad people that use bad words for bad things." He pressed a thumb against his chest. "I just happen to be the bad people once in a bit, but it is for good things. Like getting money."

Overall, however, he understood he did some funky mistake there, but he handwaved. "Sorry about that. I will try to not cause any trouble." He raised a hand and crossed a finger on his chest, as a gesture of promise.

As they moved deeper into the town, Jade nudged closer to Doggo's hand, squinting at the surrounding potential predators that could be ready to turn a fairy into a snack at any moment.

"Why didn't I meet you before Max, ugh..."

The monkey boy paid no mind to the fairy's complaints, as his curiosity was similar to Doggo's. So far all the myconids he had met were just disgusting creatures to kill and loot. Now these ones were disgusting creatures he couldn't kill or loot, but at least could be quest givers.

"Not sure what I would do if I found another Jade. I guess depends if the new one is better, I would just throw the old one away. She spend too much food."

"Hey WHAT?! I don't— I can't believe I am hearing this!"

Jade crossed her arms, averting her face with a pout.

"Looking around sounds like a good idea. Maybe they find rocks to be valuable or something. Would be a good way to spend those stupid glowstones we got that turned out to not be worth shit at the market." He huffed.

 

[Little Doggo]

Doggo shook her head, smiling back at Max as she pointed a finger straight back at him.

"You are not bad people. Bad people don't apologize, they just keep doing bad things."

Yet she understood what he meant. He did bad then fixed it, but bad was done, however, even to that she had an answer, much like how jiejie always has an answer to any problem.

"You are dumb once in a bit you mean. But that doesn't make you any less of a good person!"

A yelp escaped from her after her heroic pose ended up using both hands, exposing Jade for a moment before she lifted her right once again to keep the fairy out of sight.

"If you find a better Jade, can I keep Jade? I don't think you can sell her anyways, and she's like, a cool rare item right?"

Unique item or something. Clearly no one would buy Jade at a high price: She doesn't drop daily materials nor craft nor level up her players, so her uses were strictly flavor, minus the cool crystal sword part of course.


The leather hanging from the notice board had strange doodles that tried to mimic words, yet nothing intelligent seemed to be present in them. Things such as 'Wolf' and 'Metal' aswell as 'Bee' were all put into the string of sentences at some point. What was more interesting were the papers hidden beneath turned yellow by now and most of them torn out. Bounties, headlines that seemed to imply news, and a name that kept showing up in each of them 'Cambera'.

"Flesh!"

Yet further inspection was interrupted at the call of one of the mushroom-people who waved at the pair, the one who had been steering a stick across a glowing cauldron filled with an orange liquid bubbling from it's surface. Heat seemed to emanate from it.

"It's waving at us..?" Doggo didn't think twice, unconciously waving back at the sage-looking shroomhead. "Maybe it's a friendly one?"

Her eyes went from Max back to Jade. Something about that cauldron gave her bad vibes, specially considering the little fairy could become a dish if it fell in, the thought got her hiding right behind Max as she let him 'tank' the social interaction for her.

"Close. Close. Watch pot."

The tent this 'sage' like creature worked on seemed to have several shelves right behind it, several of them filled with holes and the constant exposure to the air and humidity having warped the wood a little. Most of what's on display seems to be rotten, and the utensils found here and there suffering from a case of rust, as if it had been pulled straight from an ancient tomb.

The glowing mushrooms swirling within the cauldron, however, didn't seem all too ordinary, yet Jade most of all could tell these were no mere 'magical' shrooms either. Something about them seemed to be alive, as if the shrooms and the fairy were not all too different, yet fairies they were not. Living nature, but not akin to trents or other spirits.

@Dynamax

 

[Dynamax]

"Huh? Uh? Yeah... Sure..." Max frowned at the insistence at @Little Doggo's claim that he was a good person. "I don't think so, but I guess it is nice to know you think that." A friend thinking that of him felt nice, in a way. In fact, it almost felt like she was defending him. Max wasn't sure what to make out of that, but it felt nice enough.

"Yeah, you can have Jade if I find something better."

"Are you really going to trade me so easily..? Something too? That hurts."

Max frowned his nose at the strange smell of the mushroom soup, and when they approached it, he didn't mind 'tanking' the interaction.

"Holy shit." He scowled at the swirling cauldron and the icky-looking tent that looked like it was a lair of decomposition. "One bite of that and you go Super Mario World, you can bet." Max pointed at the cauldron, opening his arm as if that would be of any help to shield the other two from the funky steam that went out of the cauldron.

"Is that thing food?" Max asked the large mushroom.

Jade looked at the cauldron, paused and commented:

"It is alive."

 

[Little Doggo]

"I do think so, yeah. Now and forever!"

Doggo reassured. Despite how Max didn't seem to think the same as her, that wouldn't stop her thoughts. Good guys are good guys when they don't know they are, or so every story her mom and Yuhan read to her goes.


With the promise of Jade being sold for free to her, Doggo laughed, giving a careful pat to the fairy with her index finger.

"Don't worry, if you ever end up in my inventory I won't trade you away ever. Aaand you also get another fairy friend to talk with!"

Although the idea of two Jades for Max to listen to didn't sound like a good ending for the monkey boy...

"Food..?" The sage looked back to the pot, pausing for a second as he begun to think over the word for a second before nodding. "Food. Ready short. No food yet."

And with that it lifted a hand to gesture them to wait, as flesh-people understand these just as much as Mycoon-people do, heading into the tent as it begun to glance scavenge for something, tendrils extending from it's hands, the root-like appendages searching up and down until suddently they found it: A white, grainy ingredient on a bowl, pouring little bits of it with the tips of it's 'fingers'.

"This smells weird, but I kinda like it, and my nose never lies so let's do it!"

Doggo giggled, lightly bumping her hand on Max's shoulder as he compared it with a certain game, familiar if only thanks to Yuhan.

"OH I know that one! My sis played it once. I think she's more of a fan of the blue hog game though, since she runs just as fast in this game." Granted, the idea of watching Ruby curl into a ball and run at super sonic speeds though made her laugh to herself.

"Maybe we can make Jade grow bigger if she eats one of those mushrooms and carry all our stuff!"

The Toad-Sage kept swinging and swinging it's staff-spoon, the mushroom slices melting away until all that's left are little bits of them into a sort of orange broth. With it's tendrils extending from one hand the sage picked up a set of wooden bowls and poured them down onto the cauldron before offering one to each of the kids.

"Hot hot!"

Doggo quickly picked up her own, giving a quick look into it's contents and the bowl itself, a few sniffs, and finally gave it a trying taste...

"...It's sweet! I never had something like this before, it feels like home for some reason?"

It had a rich, sweet taste, almost like honey. It had a flavourful touch of garlic too, and just like Doggo said, a homemade sensation, as if the shrooms had emotion packed into them and the very heart of a chef had been poured into the mix.

Jade however could notice the trail and scent of life emanating from the beverage, and like a tracking dog, the fairy would find it everywhere she turns her heads to, specially on the mushroom inhabitants within the town that walked across the market.

The glow within the shrooms had begun to die off, and with it that same trace of life she caught at first, only to sense it move and travel in the air before sinking into the cracked cobblestone within the streets...

"This is great Mr. Toad! Like Like!"

Doggo's words encouraged the hunched sage to swing it's head into a nod, several times before grabbing another bowl, this time for itself. Unlike it's clients who had mouths to digest, the sage simply drenched it's head with it, absorbing the liquid like it were a sponge, and with it, the energy out of the living broth.

"So Jade, you said this is alive? I mean, you are a fairy, isn't that just normal? Mushrooms are part of nature like you so..."

@Dynamax

 

[Dynamax]

"At least someone here enjoys my presence."

Max frowned at the myconid, shaking both of his hands. "No hungry." But it was fruitless, the mushroom guy was already preparing them a very good portion of... What was even that thing? Max was usually hungry, but like the average kid, he was particularly picky of what he was eating, even if he was already old enough to know to not leave any food leftover on the plate.

"Shit."

He hated wasting food, so he simply waited until they were ready for the 'meal'. "Yeah? Well, sounds cool. But cooler than running fast is hitting things really hard." He tapped the sword on his back. "I'm not sure if I want a bigger Jade though, she will eat even more than she already does."

"..."

"I can grow bigger, even without eating mushrooms. It just takes a lot of energy, so I rarely do it. On full moon nights it is easier to me though, since I can catalyst my magic better... Near crystals I can do it easily too."

"Then don't." Max said, though wincing instinctively when the food appeared. @Little Doggo was quick to try it out, so Max didn't post pone it too much, soon taking a bit of it and... "How this actually taste good?" He was speechless. That looked damn weird, but it didn't taste weird at all. "Yeah Mr. Toad. This tastes... Good." Even if it tasted good, Max was still intrigued.

"No, it just feels... I'm not sure how to explain."

"Maybe this is made out of spores? I just know everyone has a bit of it around here. As if it was life force or something."

 

[Little Doggo]

"Out of spores?!"

Her voice took a leap just then, eyeing over her serving then back at Max.

"She's gonna run my appetite through the dirt like this..."

The spoonful she took afterwards didn't quite help her case, mindlessly nomming away as she tried to turn a blind eye (and ear) to the fae's words and instead focus on the monkey's own reactions, then over to the mushroom, with the old man nodding like a sage back at them both.

"Food. Same as mushroom!" He gestured in a vain attempt to support his words, forming a circle across his torso and tapping away at the center, "Mushroom not taste like food. Food taste like... Ether." Visibly struggling, and failing to properly express thanks to the language barrier and the complexity of the topic.

"I can't say I get any of that, but it's tasty regardless."

"But now that you say 'Life Force', it kinda feels alive. Bet we'll figure out eventually. Should we go tell Benny about this?" Doggo cast her eyes back to Max just then.

@Dynamax

 

[Dynamax]

Max stared at Jade with a frown. "Shut up, you are making Doggo uncomfortable."

"What?! And since when you care about making people comfortable?"

Max averted his eyes to focus on the food. "Always did, what do you mean?"

"You make me feel uncomfortable on daily basis."

"I care about people being comfortable."

Jade nearly leaped on Max's face, but she sighed, fluttering her wings to raise her height and crossing her arms as she landed on @Little Doggo's head.

Frowning at the big mushroom's words, Max couldn't help but get even more confused. "The hell is ether? Isn't it some chemistry thing?" He tried a guess, but it didn't feel accurate. On top of that, he didn't even know what ether tasted like.

Regardless, he nodded. "We should. As tasty as this thing is, we have no idea what is that, so it would be good to know if we aren't being poisoned." Not that he felt particularly bad after eating that.