As we moved into the forest I was nervous and excited. Did I do this right? Were my orders reasonable? Was I missing something? Despite questioning myself, a part of me was looking forward to the hunt.

The part of the forest we were in was not too dense. We had a few bushes here and there, but mostly trees. The majority had leaves but a few had needles. I did not know too much about plants, to be honest. Were any of them magical?

"Ma'am, I found something." Jeff reported.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Snake up in that tree." The scout pointed at a branch in the distance. I squinted, trying to find what he was pointing at. Oh. I spotted a tiny bit of movement.

"I think we can leave that for the students," I decided. Interestingly enough, I had not gotten a list of what monsters I should leave around. Was that part of my test?

"Understood." Jeff replied and moved away.

As I looked at the snake again, it occurred to me that I was not as prepared as I should be. Why didn't I ask for more instructions when it came to the type of monster I was supposed to clear out?

"Finn, what sort of monsters do you think are suitable for a group of students?" I asked.

He looked at me. "Well… depends on the students, I suppose. Ambushes are tricky. Anything hiding too well could be a serious danger. Large groups can overwhelm a small squad. Not sure how good they are with a single bigger threat. Depends how well the students trained their shields."

I pondered that. He had a point about ambushes. A vampiric nightshade was really dangerous if you did not identify it in time.

My thoughts were interrupted when a scout arrived. He was not part of my squad but Sarah had deployed all the scouts to cover a larger area. He approached me and saluted.

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"Ma'am, I found an area covered in webs. About 20 minutes north west from here. A bit too many webs, if you ask me. Could be a serious problem." He reported. While he was talking one of my own scouts, Brie, approached.

"Ma'am, I have spotted a fungal bear." She reported.

"A fungal bear?" I asked.

"It's a bear who has been taken over by a parasitic mushroom. They are dangerous because the mushrooms can spread." Brie explained.

My eyes widened. I knew it! I had always known it. Mushrooms were evil. Disgusting things.

"Ok, we will split…" I suddenly realised something. Captain Sarah had said we could split off Hatsumi if needed. But I had not really considered that part when dividing my undead. I should have brought the skeletons and given them to her. Damn. Oh well, at least I had quite a few goblins.

"Hatsumi, take your undead and 10 goblins. Investigate the spiders. If there are too many, retreat. We ran into a lot last year. We will take care of the disgusting mushroom." I decided. I was not sure if splitting up was the ideal solution but we had a lot of ground to cover and a limited amount of time.

Hatsumi nodded, then she picked her zombies and followed the scout. We followed Brie towards the bear.

"How problematic are those spores?" I asked.

"Well, they are a major threat, normally. If you fight that monster in close quarters without magical protection you are done for. There are potions, but we don't carry any of them with us. Your best bet is to kill them from afar and then burn the body." Brie explained.

"Good thing we have undead." I replied with a smile.

We found the monster inside a small clearing. The ground was mostly filled with moss and mushrooms. Some of the trees at the edge of the clearing did not look right. Their bark was more grey than brown.

"What is up with those trees?" I asked as we observed the monster.

"No idea." Brie said. "I did not go any further after spotting that monster. You don't want to get too close to a fungal bear."

"How is it sleeping with so many of us here?" I wondered. "We did not really sneak."

Brie shrugged. "They are dumber than most animals or monsters. They are controlled by that mushroom."

Sadly, Cassie was not here. She would have loved to just set the whole clearing on fire.

"Ok. I will surround it with the goblins, so it can't flee. Then I will try to hit it with some necrotic spells. I suspect a bear could crush a few zombies before going down. Hopefully my magic deals with that. And since we don't have fire to burn it I am hoping necrotic magic will be good enough that nothing survives. Nyx, if my magic does not weaken it enough for the goblins, go for it. Soldiers, stand back and watch for additional threats." I commanded my squad.

As my undead took their position one zombie walked past one of the weird trees. Suddenly there was a pop and a part of the bark flew away. A stream of some powder sprayed the goblin.

Brie paled. "Those are spores!"

I heard more pops. Quite a few goblins were doused in spores. I had no idea how that parasitic mushroom worked but it seemed to have trouble growing on my undead. In the end, it was a living thing and the death mana inside undead did not agree with it.

I smiled. I was looking forward to ridding the world of some mushrooms.

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