Chapter 23 : Magic Mushrooms

[Emma Knight - Level 5 Revenant Race: Undead {LOCKED} Alignment: True Neutral Anima: 300 EXP: 625/840 Select one of the following three choices: 1) Ability - Hand of Aeons (Cost: X Anima/second): Anything your hand touches whilst this is active ages X years every second. Potency varies according to the amount of Anima invested. 2) Ability - Oversoul: Become intangible and possess the body of a living target. Only works on those with a lower level than the user, with effectiveness varying based on willpower. 3) Ability - Consumption: Ingest living brain matter to gain the victim's recent memories, along with increased EXP for their death.] "Is it just me, or have the options gotten weirder ever since I doubled down on being undead?" Emma asked as she examined the abilities on offer; deciding that the empty entrance to the Dungeon was as good a place as any to make her decision. [Yes.] "Thanks." Emma deadpanned, annoyed but not surprised by the unhelpful answer; the System had proven forthcoming about a great many things, but it still preferred to keep its own inner workings close to the chest. "Back already?" Felix frowned. "Alone as well; I take it you haven't found dad yet?" "We got our wires crossed, I think," Emma groused. "I spent the time heading towards his office, whilst a local said he was spotted in his car heading homeward. I don't suppose he's gotten in touch with you in the meantime?" "Still nothing," Felix shook his head. "Whatever dad is doing, it's not connected him to the weave the same way we are, so magical communication is out. Meanwhile, there's still no signs of satellite signals or the internet coming back; believe me, I've checked." "I did find something else of interest though," Emma mentioned. "Met an old man who knew a lot more than he let on at first. Very helpful, when we finally got to dad's office to check with his coworkers where they thought he was headed..." Taking a seat in the warm desert sand, Emma began to regale her brother with her recent magical adventure. — "What a mess," Amalgam sighed as he raised his hand, launching yet another sphere of red and incinerating the latest chunk of rubble, ten square feet across. He'd been at it for well over an hour now, not even taking into account the hastily erected illusion to keep the rest of the village away from the incident. As far as they'd know; a gas explosion was the cause of the manor's collapse, and emergency services were already attending to the scene. "On the one hand, maybe I shouldn't have been growing troops of Manastorm Mushrooms in the building's basement," Amalgam considered. "But on the other hand? How was I supposed to know we'd get such a massive surge of mana, sending them all into a frenzy? Nothing like this has been recorded in centuries; hell, this particular troop wasn't even meant to mature for another twenty years!" Another three blasts cleared fifty square feet more, the three sequential detonations erasing any trace of his misdeeds where they landed. "At least I managed to convince the young lady to leave, before she realized what was going on. Thankfully she wasn't a herbalist herself; oh, that would have been dreadfully embarrassing! I'm supposed to be her wise senior alchemist, dispensing kindness and words of wisdom. I do not make these kinds of rookie mistakes. Bah!" If there was one silver lining for this entire fiasco, it was that Amalgam had plenty of targets with which to work out his frustration; he'd cleared five hundred square feet of rubble so far, which still left well over four thousand to go.