Symbiotic: Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Sara knelt in the narrow empty tunnel, the only sound her own breathing. She laid her old spear across the stone floor, its familiar weight suddenly feeling inadequate against the unknown threat ahead. Closing her eyes, she pressed her palm to the shaft and whispered the command.

[Ability Activated: Create Masterwork Item]

[Cost: 500 Microbes. Current Network Capacity: 2000 of (2500) 3000]

Item Forged: Masterwork Mycorrhizal Spear

The air shifted. Spores lifted her body in a slow spiral, glowing faintly green as they gathered around her hands. Threads of mycelium sprouted from Sara’s palms, weaving upward to build into a shaft, building and condensing the fungal strength.

Next, the spearhead began to emerge, veins of silver light racing across its surface. It elongated, sharpened, until it gleamed like a leaf bladed shard of starlight. Fungal filaments threaded through the crystal blade, pulsing in rhythm with Sara’s heartbeat, fusing organic and mineral into one seamless whole.

The shaft thickened with living wood and hardened silver webbed veins, balanced perfectly for thrusts and sweeps. A faint mist of spores clung to the weapon, drifting lazily before being drawn back into the spearhead, as if the weapon breathed.

Sara opened her eyes. The tunnel glowed with the spear’s faint silvery threaded light, shadows dancing across the walls. She lifted it, feeling the perfect balance, the hum of resonance in her grip where the siler web of the spear’s handle merged wit the Mycorrhizal network in her hands. It was alive, attuned to her, ready to pierce flesh and stone alike.

She spun it once, the air whistling as the spear cut through it, spores trailing like comet tails. The weapon felt effortless, precise, devastating. Her shield and Tetsubo had been her bulwark and hammer, but this spear would become her scalpel. And, perhaps, her new favorite toy.

Sara smiled, resting the gleaming weapon against her shoulder. “Crystal Devourer,” she whispered into the dark, “let’s see if you can swallow this.”

[Item Acquired: Masterwork Mycorrhizal Spear]

Type: Weapon (Polearm)

Tier: 2 – Masterwork

Description: A long, balanced spear infused with Mycorrhizal network threads. Its shaft is reinforced with living mycelium threads, pulsing faintly with green light, while the elongated sliver green leaf shaped spearhead gleams with hardened crystal surrounded by a mist of spores. Designed for both precision piercing thrusts and sweeping slashing cuts, it channels both physical force and spore borne abilities with equal ease. Built to be able to wield in one or both hands for battlefield adaptability

Stats:

• Force: +10

• Speed: +10

• Thought: +5

• Self: +5

• Sum: +5

Abilities:

• Infested Thrust — On a successful strike, spores burrow into the wound, dealing +10% of Sum per second damage over 10 seconds.

• Piercing Resonance — Ignores 25% of enemy armor when thrusting, against armored foes as the resonance helps drill through hardened armors.

• Spore Lance — Can project a short range (Soul Sum feet) spore lance, striking enemies beyond melee reach.

• Symbiotic Recovery — Each successful hit restores a small portion of microbes consumed by Infested Thrust, (+1% Sum per strike), which can be used to restore wielders injuries or absorb into microbe network, allowing sustained combat.

Durability: High (self repairing through mycelial weave)

Weight: 27 lbs

Slot: 1 or 2 Handed Weapon

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But Sara wasn’t done yet, she thought to herself as she allowed her former spear to be gobbled up by the network, returning to the microbes from which it had come.

[Current Network Capacity: 2050 of (2500) 3000]

“Always Recycle, gang. Every bit helps!”, she chuckled. She looked down at her Battle Robes. They had served her impeccably. Her first Advanced item she ever summoned. But the robes had begun to show their weakness against the massive Greatworms. Hardened cloth could only go so far when what was hitting you felt like a building. She removed the robes into her inventory and then pulled them out into her hands, (A fun little trick she had figured out to avoid the time and hassle of getting dressed), and fed them back to the network. “Goodbye, old friend.”

[Current Network Capacity: 2150 of (2500) 3000]

With her Body closing in on the 100 mark, it was time to look at some real armor.

Sara could not help but grin as her mind flashed through image after image of tv and movie heroes in their gleaming plate armor. It had always looked so cool, but also looked like she’d hardly be able to move an inch with all that weight. But now. Now was a different story, and a different Sara!

Gleaming golden platemail, while cool on the movie screen, didn’t seem like the way to go. Not when she had her Mycorrhizal fungus and spores. She recalled how the hammock she had summoned had blended into its surroundings. Could she do the same with a suit of armor?

“I know one great way to find out!

[Ability Activated: Create Masterwork Item]

[Cost: 500 Microbes. Current Network Capacity: 1650 of (2500) 3000]

Item Forged: Masterwork Mycorrhizal Plate Armor

At once, her body responded. Spores surged from deep inside her, flowing out through her pores in a steady stream, glowing faintly green. At the same time, her Sporesight cloud swirled inward and hardened around her, the awareness woven mist gathering close, folding inward until it wrapped her in a cocoon of fungal plates and silver threads.

The two sources merged, internal spores and external cloud, swirling together in a perfect spiral. Mycelial threads sprouted from the air itself, weaving across her skin, hardening into steel like fungal plates. The chestplate formed first, locking into place with a pulse of resonance. Then pauldrons, gauntlets, greaves, each piece growing seamlessly from the living weave.

The helmet grew itself into place last, enclosing her head. For a moment, the narrow vision felt suffocating. But then her Sporesight expanded, filling the cavern with awareness. She didn’t need eyes. She could feel everything.

The armor pulsed faintly, alive with her spores. The plates flexed with her movements, connected by organic filaments that absorbed sound. She shifted her stance, expecting the heavy clank of plate, but there was none. Silent. Fluid. Perfect.

She crouched, and the armor shimmered, its surface shifting to match the stone around her. Camouflage. A hunter’s gift.

Sara exhaled, gauntleted fingers brushing the thick chestplate with it’s Mycorrhizal network of thick silvery threads. This was more than armor. It was her spores and desire made manifest, her will given form. Durable enough to withstand Greatworms, River Gnashers, Crystal Crawlers, and one Crystal Devourer that didn’t even realize it was currently enjoying its last moments of life!

[Item Acquired: Masterwork Mycorrhizal Plate Armor]

Type: Armor (Full Plate)

Tier: 2 – Masterwork

Description: A full suit of plate armor grown from hardened fungal plating and living mycelium. The plates are interwoven with Mycorrhizal threads that flex and shift, ensuring silent movement and seamless mobility.

Stats:

• Physical Defense +20. Mental Defense +20. Soul Defense +10

• Force: +10

• Speed: +5 (lightened by mycelial weave)

• Thought: +5

Defensive Traits:

• Stonebreaker Guard - Reduces incoming blunt damage by 50%, designed to withstand even Greatworm strikes.

• Pierce Ward - Reduces piercing damage by 25%, effective against even the River Gnashers’ Bonebreaker bites.

• Mindveil - Grants resistance to mental disruption attacks, reducing damage/duration/effectiveness by 25%.

• Soul Buffer -Provides faint resistance to Soul‑based attacks reducing damage/duration/effectiveness by 25%.

Utility Traits:

• Silent Weave -Mycelial connections between plates prevent clanking, allowing soundless movement.

• Camouflage Bloom - Armor can shift coloration to blend with surroundings, granting +20% Stealth Bonus even without Stealth skills. Infusing additional microbes into the Bloom increase the bonus by 5% per 50 microbes.

• Adaptive Fit - Armor flexes with wearer’s movements, reducing encumbrance and greatly increasing mobility compared to traditional plate.

• Sporeweave - Self repairing innately, but also capable of bursts of self repair near instantly if wearer infuses microbes to empower the rebuilding.

Durability: Extreme (self‑repairing through fungal regeneration)

Weight: 105 lbs (lightened by organic weave)

Slot: Armor, full body

Sara admired her new armor as she tested a few swings with her Tetsubo and then slashes and stabs with her Spear. It was only as her head was suddenly enclosed in her hardened steel like helmet with it’s T shaped visor that she realized, again, how awesome Sporesight was. She didn’t even have to worry about her impaired range of vision. She ‘saw’ everything, even with her eyes closed!

“Mushrooms for the win!”

Sure, using up her Microbes right before the big boss battle would seem, to many, to be a bad choice. But she’d breezed through almost everything in this Dungeon so far, and was even stronger now than she had been then. “How hard could…”

“Dammit Sara… Why?!?!”

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