Symbiotic: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Sara pressed her back against the tree, heart still pounding from the encounter, but her mind refused to sit idle. Frustration burned through her fear. If the System was treating her fungi as party members, then there had to be a logic to it. She closed her eyes, forcing herself to think, and the sterile memory of her lab rose unbidden to her mind.

She saw herself again in the quiet hum of fluorescent lights, the air tinged with the earthy scent of soil samples. Dozens of petri dishes and trays lined her workbench, each tray filled with spore-rich soil. She remembered the way she had carefully labeled them, neat handwriting marking the variables: nitrogen increase, phosphorus reduction, moisture control, heat exposure. Biological sample additions. Each dish was a tiny experiment, a controlled world where she introduced new elements and waited to see how the fungi responded.

She recalled her repeated daily checks. Leaning in close, documenting the delicate white threads spread and retreat, measuring their growth or loss with calipers and recording the results in her notebook. Some networks flourished when fed, weaving dense mats of hyphae. Others shriveled when deprived, collapsing into brittle fragments. Different biological elements equaled different levels of growth. She had always marveled at the fungus’ resilience, their ability to adapt, to shift strategies depending on the environment.

The memory sharpened: her hand hovering over a dish as she dripped a solution into the soil, watching the spores flare to life, branching outward in a quick burst of growth. She had quantified everything… rate of spread, density of network, strength of connection. She had seen firsthand how each spore was not just an isolated organism but part of a collective, a living system that grew stronger together.

Now, standing in the jungle, she realized the System had taken that truth and made it literal. Every spore was counted. Every spore was a member. And together, they formed a network so vast that it dwarfed her own existence.

Her eyes snapped open, breath ragged. “Of course,” she whispered. “It’s treating them like individuals AND part of the whole. Like nodes in the network.” How big could it grow? The thought excited and chilled her. Thousands of party members would mean thousands of divisions. Every gain diluted to nothing.

But it also meant something else. If the System acknowledged the fungi as part of her, then perhaps she could learn to wield that network, not just suffer under it. The flashback faded, leaving her with a single, burning question: how to turn her weakness into strength.

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Sara narrowed her eyes, focusing on the faint icons that hovered in her vision. With a tentative thought, she pushed at them, prodding the System to reveal more. “Um… Party Status?” To her surprise, the interface unfolded like a curtain, lines of information scrolling before her.

Party Status:

Mycorrhizal Network - Max Size: 333

Current Members: 83 of 333

+ Host Entity: Sara Bloom

Total Party Size: 334

Her breath caught. She stared at the numbers, mind racing. Eighty-three. Out of three hundred thirty-three. She frowned, calculating. If she had started full, then regrowing herself must have cost two hundred fifty microbes. The System had burned through her network to rebuild her body. That was the price of survival.

“Two hundred fifty Microbes gone… just to bring me back,” she whispered. “And I don’t even know how to get them back.”

Her gaze shifted to the Monkey Mauler’s corpse, lying twisted in the clearing. Cautiously, she approached, every step deliberate. The creature’s body was already sagging, its flesh softening unnaturally fast. She crouched, reached out, and touched it.

The corpse collapsed instantly, rotting away in a rush of decay until nothing remained but a single object: a small, brown crystal, lodged where its heart had been. Sara jerked back, startled, but before she could even process the sight, the System chimed.

*Ping*

25 Microbes gained.

Current Network: 108 of 333

Her eyes widened. The crystal pulsed faintly in her palm, warm against her skin. She stared at the notification, realization dawning. Killing creatures didn’t give her experience, it fed her network. The fungi were replenished, restored by the death of another.

Sara swallowed hard, clutching the crystal. Relief mingled with unease. She had found a way to regain what she lost, but the cost was clear. To survive, she would have to feed her network with the lives of the jungle.

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Sara steadied her breathing, forcing herself to focus on the glowing interface that shimmered in her vision. She prodded at the System again, peeling back the layers of information until a prompt she had missed due to dying as it was given revealed itself.

Compatible Biological Sample Detected: Monkey Mauler

Monkey Mauler Sample 1 of 3 absorbed.

Effect: Stat growth stored to be triggered during regeneration.

Note: Stat increases limited to 3 samples per biological source.

Condition: Growth only occurs if source stat exceeds host stat.

Her eyes widened as the pieces clicked together. The Monkey Mauler’s bite hadn’t just killed her, it had injected something into her Mycorrhizal network, much the same way she introduced samples in her lab to test results. The fungi had fed on that biological sample, storing the energy and using it to rebuild her stronger. That explained the sudden increase in her stats after regrowth.

She chewed her lip, mind racing. “Three samples per creature type. That’s the cap. And only if their stats are higher than mine.” She glanced down at her trembling hands, remembering the weakness in her limbs, the clumsy way she had wielded the branch. With every stat hovering at a meager two, nearly anything in this jungle would qualify as stronger.

Sara exhaled slowly, the realization settling heavy in her chest. The System wasn’t just throwing monsters at her. Purposeful or not, it was offering them as fuel. Each encounter was a chance to grow, but only up to a point. She would need variety, different creatures, different samples, if she wanted to climb beyond the bottom rung. And, hopefully, to learn a means of acquiring new samples without being eaten!

Her gaze drifted back to the clearing where the Monkey Mauler had fallen. The jungle was full of predators, each one a potential source of strength. But every fight carried the same risk: death, and the costly drain on her network.

Sara clenched her fists, determination flickering in her eyes. She was weak now, but the System had given her a path. If she survived long enough to gather samples, she could climb out of this pit of fragility. One creature at a time. One sample at a time.

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Sara heaved herself to her feet, gritted her teeth, wrapped her fingers tight around the cracked limb. Every pull sent vibrations through her arms, every creak of splintering wood louder than she wanted. Her muscles burned, her breath came ragged, but she refused to let go. With one final wrench, the branch tore free, the sound of its snap echoing like a gunshot through the rainforest.

The jungle answered.

A cry rose from the canopy, sharp and furious, the same sound that had heralded her death before, and quickly closing in on her. Sara’s stomach clenched. She spun, clutching the branch awkwardly, its weight unbalanced in her hands. Panic surged, but she forced her legs to move, stumbling across the clearing until she pressed her back against a tree.

She raised the limb over her shoulder in a two hand grip, knuckles white, every nerve screaming that she was not ready for this. She was a scientist, not a fighter. A biologist armed with nothing but a broken branch. Yet here she stood, heart pounding, waiting for the predator she knew was coming.

Leaves rustled overhead. The cry grew closer. Sara tightened her grip, bracing herself for mortal combat in a world that had already proven it would not forgive weakness.

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The jungle canopy shivered, leaves scattering as another cry split the air. Sara’s head snapped upward just in time to see a blur of fur and teeth hurtling toward her. Her body locked up, frozen in terror. She had never been in a fight before. Never thrown a punch, never faced claws and fangs. For a heartbeat, she was paralyzed, her mind blank.

The creature descended, a two-foot ball of rage, its mouth bristling with shark-like teeth. Sara’s breath caught, panic clawing at her chest. And then, in the rush of fear, a memory surfaced. Summer afternoons, the crack of a bat, the cheer of teammates. She might not know combat, or how to swing a sword, but she knew softball. And this, she realized, was nothing more than a pitch dropping straight into her strike zone. An angry, fang filled pitch that wanted to rip her face off!

Her grip tightened on the branch. She narrowed her eyes, tracking the arc of the falling Mauler. Her muscles coiled, her stance shifted, and instinct took over.

She lined up her stance, slid her foot forward, and swung.

The branch whistled through the air, connecting with the creature mid-leap. The impact was solid, resonant, like the perfect crack of a bat against a ball. The Monkey Mauler flew sideways, tumbling through the clearing before crashing into the dirt with a sickening thud. It twitched once, then lay still.

A chime rang in her ears.

*Ding*

Your party has killed a Monkey Mauler.

100 Experience being divided evenly among your party.

Error: Party size (84) exceeds limit. 1.2 experience gained.

Current Experience to next level: 1.5 of 250

Sara lowered the branch, her arms trembling, her breath ragged. She stared at the fallen creature, disbelief flooding her. She had done it. Not with skill, not with training, but with the muscle memory of a game she had played for years.

*Ping*

25 Microbes gained.

Current Network: 133 of 333

Her lips parted, a shaky laugh escaping. “Swing for the bleachers,” she laughed semi-hysterically as she wiped the Mauler’s blood off of her fungi lined arms.

*Ping*

Compatible Biological Sample Detected: Monkey Mauler

Monkey Mauler Sample 2 of 3 absorbed.

Effect: Stat growth stored to be triggered during regeneration.

Note: Stat increases limited to 3 samples per biological source.

Condition: Growth only occurs if source stat exceeds host stat.

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