Final Lord

Chapter 238 Vicious Spores

Fungal-inhabited Beast
Extraordinary Level 1

Attributes:? ? ?

trick:? ? ? 】

They roared at Wang Bufu from more than 500 meters away, clearly indicating that they would attack if he dared to approach.

"Back off!" Wang Bufu shouted, and the light of the fire suddenly shone brightly, temporarily forcing the mycelium back.

He led his troops back to the safe zone, squinting as he observed the movement of the fungal-dwelling beasts, discovering that they were always moving in a triangular formation around the underground burrows.

“Master, why do these fungal-dwelling beasts look so much like cavemen?” Heska couldn’t help but ask.

"If I'm not mistaken, that cave should be the lair of the cavemen's troops." Wang Bufu was also somewhat speechless, so the troops generated after being manipulated by the natural wonder looked very similar to the cavemen.

"Huh?! Our troop's lair?!" Blind Cat and Blind Chicken exclaimed in unison, incredulous. How could it be such a coincidence that a troop's lair for their cavemen had just been generated in the White Spirit World?

“This isn’t the time to worry about anything. We can investigate any problems later once we’ve captured this natural wonder.” Wang Bufu was speaking when he suddenly realized something and quickly ordered, “No! Retreat! Retreat 800 meters!”

Not long after Wang Bufu and his group retreated, the ground where they had been standing suddenly burst open. Hundreds of fungus-dwelling beasts rushed out from underground! They searched aimlessly for a while, then returned to their nests dejectedly, having found nothing.

"I was right. Those fungus-dwelling beasts have retained the cavemen's ability to burrow underground."

Wang Bufu patted his forehead.

"Lord, they're only at the first level of the Extraordinary Realm. They can't be that powerful." Shanpao stood next to Wang Bufu, eager to try: "Why don't you use your magic cannon to fire a few shots at them from a distance and give it a test?"

Wang refused and shook his head:
"No, we can't kill any of these fungal-dwelling beasts. The more we kill, the more hostile the natural wonders become to us, and the fiercer their resistance will be."

The real challenge isn't the fungal-dwelling beasts, but the mushroom spores. Killing fungal-dwelling beasts will spawn even more terrifying mushrooms.

"Understood!"

"I have an idea," Wang Bufu said softly. "Let's do this first, then that, then this again... Do you understand?"

"understand!"

……

Wang Bufu returned to the vicinity of the grassland and deliberately lingered for a while. He squatted down and picked up a clump of spiral-shaped soil that had fallen from the fungus-dwelling beast with his fingertips. The texture of this soil felt particularly strange when he rubbed it.

The blind cat leaned closer to feel the soil and said with certainty, "My lord, this is not shallow soil. I suspect that those fungal-dwelling beasts are hiding deep in the burrow."

Suddenly, a fungus-dwelling beast emerged from the grass not far away. It howled and shot a cluster of spores at Wang Bufu, aiming straight for his face!
"Be careful!" The tentacles intercepted the attack just in time, but the spores instantly took root on the tentacles, and tiny hyphae quickly covered half of one of the tentacles. Another example of interspecies parasitism!

The blind chicken quickly treated the infected tentacles of the Touch King. Wang Bufu had a sudden thought, and several Poison Cavemen immediately spewed poisonous miasma, accurately hitting the Fungus Beast and slowing it down.

Several eagles that had been hiding in mid-air immediately swooped down, grabbed the Fungus Beast, and flew it to the rear, throwing it into the poisonous miasma zone that Shanpao had prepared in advance.

"Gotcha! Let's get out of here!"

More fungal-dwelling beasts emerged from the soil, but the cunning King Bufu had already run away, leaving them only with his back turned.

These fungal-dwelling beasts chased after it angrily for a while, but ultimately chose to give up.

After retreating to a safe location, Wang Bufu immediately ordered his troops to take turns teasing the Fungus Beasts to test their special skills and attributes, and quickly compiled a panel.

Fungal-inhabited Beast
Level: Extraordinary Tier 1

Attributes:
Health: Around 90
Attack: 25
Defense: 15 (Fungal Armor Stacking)
Speed: 8 (surface) / 2 (underground)
Range: 40 meters (spore spray, 10-second cooldown)
Special skill:

Parasitic Spores (Passive/Active) Passive: 20% chance to implant spores into the target's body when attacking, dealing 15 points of poison damage per second for 5 seconds.

Active: Sprays a spore mist, dealing damage and inflicting poison in all cases, and randomly applying one of seven spore effects. Lasts 10 seconds. Cooldown: 10 seconds.

Fungal regeneration (passive)
After leaving combat, restores 2% of maximum health per second.

Judging from its special abilities, the Fungal Beast is only so-so, but the effects of its seven spores are disgusting.

Wang Bufu summarized the seven effects as follows:

Mental disorientation
It interferes with neural responses and significantly reduces the target's thinking ability (Hesca forgot to use telepathy after being affected and recklessly reported the incident).

Metal parasites
The hyphae have metallic properties; once they take root, they tear through flesh and suck blood (the harpy is injured when the hyphae are inserted into her blood vessels, and the barbs cause continuous damage).

Weakness and Erosion
Reduces the target's attack power and speed (the harpy's wings are weak, and its movements are slow).

Toxin outbreak
It causes continuous high levels of toxin damage (the parasitic spores initially deal 15 damage per second, which increases with each stack, and can be fatal once the toxicity stacks high).

Sensory confusion
It distorts vision/hearing, making it impossible to distinguish friend from foe (in the experiment, the parasitized caveman even attempted to attack Wang Bufu).

Regeneration inhibition
Interruption therapy and natural recovery (requires the combined efforts of Elder Evil Eye and Blind Cat to dispel the evil and save lives).

Co-infection
After the spores spread, they enhance the attributes of other fungal-dwelling beasts (in the experiment, after the caveman was parasitized by a white mycelium, the movement speed and attack power of the fungal-dwelling beasts were significantly increased).

"These seven types of spores correspond to the seven types of mushrooms in the mushroom ring. If a unit is parasitized by all seven types of spores at the same time, it's practically a death sentence."

Wang Bufu breathed a sigh of relief, praising himself for his caution.

If he hadn't been so cautious and had instead launched a full-scale invasion, he would likely have suffered an enormous loss of troops.

Fortunately, there is good news: several cave phages are immune to all spore effects except for sensory confusion, mind loss, and co-infection.

As the leader of the cave phages, the blind chicken is immune to all spores except for synergistic infections!
【Name: Blind Chicken
Personal exclusive talents:

Courage (C Rank): Morale is at least +1. (This skill negates the racial talent of cowardice.)

Occupation: Cave bacteriophage

Level: Ordinary 3nd level 9

Professional skills:

Powerful Digestion, Fungal Symbiosis: Forms a symbiotic relationship with a type of fungus, promoting fungal growth on the body by consuming food such as soil, feces, dead leaves, and minerals. Gains additional special abilities that do not occupy a special ability slot based on the mushrooms on the body.

Current symbiotic fungi: Stone Mother Fungus (Transcendent Tier 2), Large Black Umbrella Fungus (Transcendent Tier 4), and Confused Flower Fungus (Transcendent Tier 6).
Stone Barrier (from Stone Mother Fungus):

HP +150, Defense +15, Can disguise as stone. Consumes 10 HP to cast Stoneskin on any target. This spell has no cooldown.

Stone Skin: Defense +5, melee damage reduced by 15%, speed -2
Bottomless Stomach (from the Giant Black Umbrella Mushroom):

Digestion capacity greatly improved, mushroom cultivation capacity greatly improved, speed +3.

Excitement (from the Confused Flower Mushroom):

Immune to mind control effects. Intelligence +3, can use mind control magic.

Attributes:
Life: 320/320
Attack: 22
Defense: 40
Speed: 11
Intelligence: 3

(End of this chapter)