Chapter 4207: Dangerous Knowledge (Part 2)

"Our consciousness is shared among all spores, but only within a certain distance." Loma hated betraying the secrets of their kind, but he had no choice. "They all carry our energy signature and consciousness, so no one but us knows which part will become the main body.

"The Divine Beasts must have thought they had captured the fungus folk, giving them more time to put more distance between them. Only once the connection got severed must the Divine Beasts have realized their mistake."

"Why so much secrecy?" Solus pondered. "Doesn’t this strategy make you impossible to capture?"

"I wish." Loma sighed. "The range of the consciousness of a fungus folk is limited to a few dozen meters, well within the range of Life Vision. Extending it further causes you blinding agony, Solus.

"I could cover the entire Kulah only because the Odi left me plenty of food and had no care for my well-being. Every moment was torture to me, and so it was for the fungus folk here.

"They experienced the death of every one of their spores once they got too far away. Our people don’t have a kill switch, Solus. Letting a part of us die is akin to self-mutilation."

"Okay. Then in which direction did the wind blow during the past few days?" Kalla asked.

"North, north-west until three days ago. Then it shifted to the west." Ygri replied, surprising everyone. "Why are you looking at me like that? I didn’t stand idly while I waited for you. I collected every piece of information that might have been relevant to our chase."

"The fight happened less than two days ago." Kalla double-checked the readings of the Eyes one last time to be sure. "We have to go north west."

"No, we have to go southeast." Loma said. "Even as newborns, fungus folk still have the mind of an adult and a strong survival instinct. We let the wind carry us only until we get to safety.

"At that point, we know it’s only a matter of time before our enemy understands what happens and resumes the chase."

"So, you move in the opposite direction of the wind so that the faster and the further the enemy goes, the farther away from you they get." Solus nodded.

"Exactly. After a few hundred kilometers of that, we just pick a random direction. The enemy can’t predict what even we don’t know." Loma said.

"But you must stop at some point to eat and grow new spores, correct?" Kalla asked.

"Indeed. We do that at the first abundant source of food we find." Loma said. "Carrying around a small carcass or a bit of wet grass takes only a first magic spell. We can do that even on the run, if we are that desperate."

"Let’s hope our fungus folk wasn’t." Kalla trotted over the scene of the fight before Warping south east. "The longer they spend in an area, the easier it will be to find their trace."

***

A few hundreds of kilometers away, Xenagrosh and Theseus were following the erratic travelling path of the fungus folk. They had to stop and extend the search in every direction every time the Shadow Dragon lost track of the creature’s scent, which happened quite often.

"Why don’t you just admit that we’re lost?" Theseus groaned. "We’ve been travelling for days, and we’ve yet to see a single spore."

"Because we aren’t." She sniffed the air, snarling when the fungus folk’s trail suddenly went cold. "Someone came here before us. Someone smart and resourceful enough to erase all their traces and those of our quarry."

"What did you expect?" The Bastet felt his skin crawl as he followed the Shadow Dragon closely. "We knew we’d have competition. The entire Verendi must be after this poor bastard."

"Yes, we have competition." Xenagrosh nodded. "But it’s not from Verendi. I come here often for business, and I’ve traveled these lands for a few decades after turning into an Eldritch. This is a smell I’ve never encountered before."

"Did they get him?" Theseus’ voice was supposed to be worried, yet he sounded hopeful. "Can we finally go home?"

"No to both." The Shadow Dragon snorted as she flew circles around the area in a spiral pattern. "Our quarry went south, whereas our competition went east. This fungus is a resourceful little fellow."

A flap of her powerful wings covered a few kilometers as the Eldritches bolted towards Solus’ earlier position.

"Be honest with me. I can tell your heart isn’t into this, and I just want to know why." She said.

"Because I don’t like the idea of what we are going to do to the fungus folk if we catch him." Theseus sighed. "And don’t get me started about the perspective of learning the secret of the white core.

"I don’t think that kind of power should be entrusted to a shady bunch like the Organization."

"Really?" Xenagrosh asked with a mildly amused voice.

"Gods, yes!" Theseus snapped. "Maybe it’s different for you because you are still a monster, but I’m nothing like my original self. This is my second chance at life, and the idea of wasting it to become another Paquut makes me want to puke."

"And what would you have us do?" Xenagrosh asked. "Leave the fungus folk to the Verendi Council or to whoever tried to give us the slip? Who would you entrust the secret of the white core to?"

The Bastet thought about what would have happened to him if Dolgus hadn’t found him first and put his life on the line to protect Theseus.

Then, he remembered what would have happened to them both if the Organization hadn’t rescued them from the Council and shuddered.

"No one. We should find the fungus folk, protect him, and find a way to return him to his people." He said.

"You want to play hero?" Xenagrosh laughed. "Pray tell, how do we find the Hordes? How are we supposed to keep the fungus folk safe if we can’t bring him to our base? Should we talk him into trusting us, or would you have us babysit him until either he evolves or the Hordes find him?"

"I..." Theseus’ words trailed off as he tried and failed to find an argument that didn’t sound naïve, childish, or both. "I have no answer to any of that. I think we should just leave the fungus folk be."

"I may agree with you, if everyone else stopped hunting him down as well." Xenagrosh scoffed. "I remember what the Verendi Council did with the Mouth of Menadion. What they wanted to do with you, and I don’t trust them one bit.

"If they capture the fungus folk and achieve the white core, it won’t be long until they aren’t a threat just to Verendi, but to Garlen as well. The same stands for whoever is currently one step ahead of us in our hunt.

"I’m sorry, Theseus, but if we find the fungus folk first and bring them home with us, at least we’ll know who has them and what they are going to do with that knowledge. It’s more than I can say about anyone else on this planet."

"What if one of our so-called allies in the Organization plots something even crazier than Verendi’s Awakened Council?" Theseus asked. "What would you do then?"

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