Into the Black Forest

Since there was nothing to do over the next few days, Asher decided that he would have some fun.

'Fun' being a relative term. Now that the piercing aftereffects of the Congealed Corpse had faded, he found the memories of the icy cold tingling to be quite interesting and 'fun'.

Would there be other plants with strange effects in the forest as well?

Asher stretched his arms, finding himself on the outside porch.

"Going somewhere?" Little Red's voice sounded behind him. The woman's presence revealed itself as he turned around. She was currently sitting on one of the porch chairs, staring into the sky.

She gazed into his eyes, testing his reaction.

Asher nodded, not planning to hide anything from her.

Little Red shrugged, shooing him away.

"Keep your eyes open then." With that, she grabbed a whetstone beside her, grinding her blade against it without giving him any more attention.

"Mhm. See ya later!"

Ash snaked around the boy's skin as his form became slightly blurrier in Little Red's vision.

With Sophie's camouflage in effect, he should be a bit safer.

Little Red stared at Asher's back as he faded into the trees.

"He should be fine…"

But just as a precaution, she opened her left eye, creating a ball of flesh in the sky.

its pupil was tinged with red.

…

The first thing Asher wanted to check on was the corpse of the bear he killed a day ago.

When Little Red went back there yesterday, the bear's fur had already been covered with dozens of Congealed Corpses, presumably sucking out the bear's flesh from its body.

Congealed Corpse, such a cursed name.

Asher snapped off another tree branch, planting it into the ground.

Behind his path was a trail of branches, inserted perpendicularly into the ground like lampposts.

A path leading back to the cabin.

"Hm, should be around here- There it is!"

Through the trees, he could see a flash of distinct brown fur peeking through the vegetation.

Asher slowly made his way toward it. The pervasive stench of rot filled his nose before he could realize, causing him to plug his nose in disgust.

Even his skin felt dirtier as he pressed deeper toward the rotting corpse.

"Woah…" But as he got closer, a breath of amazement subconsciously escaped him.

Rooted directly on top of the bear's body was a gigantic cap mushroom, so large that it dwarfed its shriveled host's corpse, wreathing it in shadow.

The mushroom's skin was deep crimson, and it slowly diffused a mist of the same color into the air.

Sniffing the air, the mist's overpoweringly tempting scent drowned the stench of rot.

"Hm… it smells like the one I ate yesterday. System, is this also a Congealed Corpse?"

[This is a mature one.]

"Just a little bite…" Asher drooled for a second before slapping himself on the face. The stinging pain brought him back to clarity; Little Red had clearly said the mature ones were poisonous.

Just like the Grave of Cherry Blossoms, this mushroom had some adverse influence on his mind.

Asher whipped around as a bush rustled behind him.

"A deer?"

Stepping into the clearing was a small fawn, about half of Asher's height. Surprisingly, it didn't back away as Asher stared at it, most likely due to Sophie's ability.

Instead, it approached the mushroom on the corpse with an uncanny glint in its beady eyes.

Even herbivores couldn't stand the tempting aroma, it seemed.

The fawn stumbled up the bear's fur, ignoring the loose, sagging feeling of dead flesh on its hooves in its ascent to the top.

Asher's eyes widened as the deer reached upward, snagging off a chunk of mushroom using its teeth.

"The mushroom tempts other animals to eat it…?"

With a grin, Asher found himself truly enjoying this sort of 'nature walk'. He enjoyed the feeling of observation as he discovered how the ecosystem's life interacted with each other.

The unnatural glint in the fawn's eyes faded. It stumbled off the bear's body, letting out a cry as its legs twisted underneath it.

Asher let it trail out of his sight before deciding to follow after it.

"Red said it was fatally poisonous… Is it only to humans, or does she mean something different with the word itself?"

He vaulted up a tree, catching sight of the creature he was tracking a couple meters away.

Some strange process was happening to it. The animal's legs trembled and quivered, losing their strength.

The deer collapsed to the ground. That same red mist that came from the mushroom billowed from inside the deer's mouth in the form of crimson foam.

Then it began to scream.

A warbling, human voice screeched from the deer's voicebox, nearly identical to a small infant's.

"Wha…?" Asher was certain it was from the effect of the mushroom, but why would it do something like this?

The clamoring scream changed, shifting in maturity to imitate an adult man's shout of pain.

"I have a bad feeling about this…"

His premonition was correct.

A series of howls echoed in the distance; the scream had attracted a pack of wolves.

So that was what it was for. The mushroom acted as a parasite, looking to infect its final host.

"Though the System didn't give me any warnings when I ate it yesterday. Cooking it probably makes it safe."

Asher snuggled into a more comfortable position in the branches as he observed the quickly approaching wolf pack.

"Maybe that's why the bear ignored all the other animals we passed when it was chasing me. So the predators here eat humans?" What an uncanny thought. If that was the case, then the Congealed Corpse was much more vital to the ecosystem than he thought, creating human screams from animals to spread its spores to predators.

A pack of three wolves burst into the clearing. Just like the bear, they were slightly gigantified, each being just barely less than twice Asher's height.

Their gray coats shimmered as they pounced onto the tiny, shivering fawn.

The poor animal was killed in seconds, ripped to shreds and torn into by razor sharp teeth. Not even bones remained.

Asher wasn't too affected; he had seen his fair share of gore before.

The wolves howled in tandem, quivering as the mushroom fragments in the fawn's blood coursed through them.

Suddenly, one of them raised its nose, sniffing the air tentatively. The wolf snarled as it sensed another life closeby.

'Hm.'

The small movement didn't escape Asher's eyes, as he instantly realized that his presence was compromised.

Knowing that he couldn't run faster than the wolves, Asher pushed off the branches below his feet, leaping toward the closest wolf.

Unlike with the bear, this time he would make the first move. He felt like last time he didn't use [Puppet Movements], his most versatile skill so far, to its full potential.

As the wolves were still sniffing the air, Asher dropped from the sky, burying the heel of his boot into his target's skull.

Time slowed to a crawl as Asher found himself surrounded on all sides by three, snarling wolves. One of them whimpered, its head injury severe but not lethal.

A smirk crossed Asher's face. He chided himself for fleeing from the bear at the start of the mission..

His confusion when he first entered the mission made him incredibly cautious of the bear, but in reality he most likely could have faced it head on too, despite its defensive fur. These were simply animals, the targets that [Puppet Movements] worked the best on.

'[Puppet Movements]: On!'

Asher leaned backwards, snatching a smooth stone from the ground as a wolf's jaws snapped where his neck was.

As the wolf reached for another bite, Asher shoved the stone into its mouth, kicking the wolf's chin from below.

It yelped in pain as its mouth forcibly closed, shattering its teeth. Not dead, but still taken out of the fight.

Asher vaulted upward, catching another wolf by the neck as it sailed under him. Squeezing its throat with all his strength, he waited for the wolf's movements to slow.

The wolf shook itself violently, in an attempt to fling Asher off of its back.

With a burst of strength, Asher swiftly crushed the creature's windpipe, leaping away as it staggered to the ground.

Asher landed on his feet with ease, tilting his head toward the remaining wolves with a taunting smirk.

His eyes conveyed a feeling of levity as he was overcome with laughter. Amidst his fit of uncharacteristic emotion, he finally realized why he was so joyful.

Because recently, most of his fights have left him either defeated or demoralized, or both. With Stella, the Stray Dogs, the birds from yesterday, and even the bear too.

So the clear advantage in power and skill that he had over the huge wolves consoled his mind.

You aren't weak. You aren't talentless.

Have more confidence in yourself.

The remaining two wolves growled, but they didn't advance. Being experienced predators, they knew when to back away from difficult prey. Or in this case, another predator.

When they disappeared into the forest, all that was left was a patch of bloody grass where the fawn was, a few broken shards of teeth, and the shivering body of a dying wolf.

Asher picked up a rock from the ground.

[Warning! Next attack will trigger Fourth Match Flame. Do you wish to change its settings?]

"Oh… thanks. Yeah, set it to the lowest power."

The wolf let out a pained whimper as it stared at him.

But Asher had gotten far too used to killing to care.

A small explosion blew out the wolf's brains onto the ground. Asher's palm sizzled as his skin turned pink and tender from the heat. He wasn't hurt enough to use-

"Ah! I could have used [Nostalgic Room] to save the wolf, right?"

[Do you feel bad about its death?]

"Hm? Not really." Asher spoke with such a matter of fact tone that the System couldn't respond.

Asher's focus was fully on the wolf's corpse as he waited for something to happen to it.

Within a few minutes, the first mushrooms began to sprout from the wolf's fur.

It seemed that when the infected animals died, the fungus would sprout and tempt others to eat it, mainly preferring carnivores as its host.

Asher twisted off a few of the mushrooms as they quickly ballooned to an acceptable size.

"Can I eat these raw?"

[Yes. The effect is spread out in both intensity and duration as it takes longer to digest.]

"Let's see how it feels this time." Asher chomped down on one of the mushroom caps, nearly gagging at the slimy texture and bloody taste.

He tossed away the stem, glancing down at the two fungi in his other hand.

Shrugging, he concealed them in his cloak.

The boy stretched his limbs, walking deeper into the forest.