Cthulhu Gonfalon

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo [email protected]

In the dark depths, a giant jellyfish was waving his tentacles, trying to dig a maze.

The flexible tentacles combined the powers of multiple tools, so nothing was difficult for it. Around it, a maze was being gradually formed.

Looking from a distance, if you had acute eyes that could see through the darkness, you would see a huge maze, which was just like the ruins of an ancient time. It was buried deep, far away from the ground's surface. There was only a bit of light somewhere to prove that it was still connected to the ground.

Sui Xiong was digging hard, while singing a song.

"There is a monster, there are two monsters. The monster's friend is the third monster. The monster's brother is the fourth monster…"

To be honest, the rhythm of the song was fine, but the lyrics were strange. Fortunately, he sang it in Chinese. No one in the world could understand what he was singing. Even if someone heard it, the feeling was nothing more than…

"Your Majesty, it looks like you are in a good mood today?" After he came out of the deep well, Acaine heard the singing echoing in the darkness. He smiled and flew over and to praise him. "This song is very interesting, and the rhythm of the lyrics is pleasing. Unfortunately, I don't understand the lyrics; is it a folk tune?"

Sui Xiong nodded with a smile, and silently praised the artistic cultivation of this mushroom alchemist. Although this song was actually made by him, the style was indeed true of folk songs.

It was plain that even if the world, people, cultures, and even forms of life were all different, everyone's love of art and understanding of music were similar in the end.

"Why did you come here suddenly? Do you have new results in the research?"

Acaine nodded and said happily, "The two dragons have found several valuable mushrooms. I combined them with the existing varieties and succeeded in finding a species with the ability to absorb negative energy with high efficiency, and transform it into finely-grained crystals. Now the cultivating room can plant them extensively. Formal seeding could be started at any time!"

Sui Xiong gladly clapped his tentacles. "Great! Then I will start preparing for the cultivating pool."

"However, the ability of this mushroom to decompose flesh is very weak," said Acaine. "The mushroom that can be used as a staple food, plus decompose flesh and blood, faces difficulties in cultivating. Existing species are either poisonous or can mutate, and they can not meet the requirements."

"Don't hurry," Sui Xiong said with a smile. "We have some time. Take it easy."

The special mushroom that utilized the flesh of monsters was intended to serve as a reserve staple food. Therefore, there were three requirements for it. The first was for it to be able to quickly and efficiently decompose useless the flesh of monsters, to avoid contamination; the second was for it to be non-toxic and edible; and the third was for it not to produce malignant mutations, lest it become a mushroom monster.

Acaine had developed several kinds of mushrooms that could efficiently decompose the flesh and blood of monsters, but most likely because they derived from mushroom monsters, these mushrooms were either very toxic or they could condense their power from the blood of monsters. They quickly turned into monsters quite dangerous to ordinary people.

This, of course, did not meet the requirements. Therefore, Acaine continued to study, hoping to develop mushrooms that were in full compliance with the requirements. He felt that if he could perfectly cultivate the two kinds of mushrooms proposed by the Void Mask His Majesty, then it would be enough to change the prejudices of the Druids on Pasteurian alchemy. Their family's long-standing bad reputation would be eradicated, and his father could be released!

Because of this he was very motivated, and worked hard every day. He was either in the research room, training room, or bedroom all day. The first two places were used for scientific research, and the last place was where he slept and ate.

If there weren't so many dangerous things are in the lab and training room, he probably wouldn't even leave them to eat!

With such enthusiasm, his research progressed smoothly. In less than two years, he had already obtained results that ordinary mages had not obtained in decades.

Today was a good day to announce the end of one of the two major projects. So after, he prepared to have a vacation and have a good sleep after informing His Majesty. But after learning of his plans, Sui Xiong advised him not to go to bed for a vacation, but to go for a walk.

"You can't find a girlfriend when you're the house all day long," Sui Xiong said. "Even if you were to become a great sage, you would have to have a family!"

"I'm still young. It's too early to think about it," Acaine said.

"Young? One teacher of mine always felt that he was young, devoted his energy to research. Several decades passed and when he finally made a successful study, he discovered that his classmates already had grandsons that became his own students."

"Ha-ha. That is too bad."

"Exactly! So you can't learn from his example! People's youth is precious!"

"But I'm really young…"

"Don't talk nonsense. Climb out of your hole and communicate with people!" Smiling, Sui Xiong used tentacles to wrap him up, and sent him back to the Dragon-roar Town by transmission magic.

Most of the members of the Void Mask Church currently lived there. Some of them were learning various techniques, some were hunting with Gerrard, others were providing logistical support for their companions. They were always busy.

Acaine's arrival was welcomed by Gerrard and others. They even held a small welcome meeting, and welcomed the most senior scholar of the church.

During the welcome meeting, many people cheered with joy when they learned that the mushroom used to remove negative energy had been cultivated, and they could start clearing out an area without worrying about the attacks launched by skeletons in the night. Now the land and drinking water would not be contaminated, and they could live and cultivate normally.

It was known that under the guidance of infinite power of the Void Mask, these things would happen sooner or later. However, when the expectation finally became a reality, and was coming at a predictable speed, nobody could be unhappy.

Starting with Gerrard, everyone toasted to Acaine. They drank numerous cups of wine and in the end, the alchemist master who could eat poisonous mushrooms without changing facial expressions couldn't resist the power of wine, and slept on the ground.

Even in his sleep, he still muttered, "Well said! Yes! Drink another cup!"

The next morning, dizzy with a hangover, he was awakened by the armored wizard Phil. He followed Phil and headed for the depths of Mountains of Barrenness. They went to the lair of the Arctic Tyrant, which was once the dragon hole of an ancient shrine.

"There were a large number of monster corpses in the mountains," Phil said. "To be honest, these corpses are really troublesome, and often attract some disgusting things. I used to tidy them up myself. Now that you have developed the mushroom that could decompose the corpses, why not spread them to the mountains?"

Acaine told him that the mushroom he cultivated would either be poisonous or could mutate into a monster, which wasn't good.

"Then spread the second one," Phil said indifferently. "There are enough monsters in the mountains; I do not care if there is one more strange mushroom. But I have to ask: what capabilities does this kind of magical mushroom have?"

Acaine remembered and said, "The first is movement. Although they are not fast, they can rely on magic to fly slowly in the air, and they can creep slowly on the ground."

"That's nothing."

"The second is that they could use collision and self-detonation. Although the power of self-detonation is not great, it could emit an aroma that would seduce other monsters."

"Well, hopefully not too much."

"If they grow to a certain degree, they would also grow sharp zigzag-shaped arms, like two short knives. Although the power is not great, it could lead to cuts that would be very troublesome to deal with."

"Can't we change it to an ordinary knife arm?" Phil asked.

"No, because this kind of arm is used to divide large corpses of monsters."

Phil shrugged indifferently, "That's all right. Any other problems?"

"If it continues to grow, it could use spells. The first spell is nausea, which could make you nauseous."

Phil laughed. "What an interesting spell! What else?"

Acaine counted on his fingers. "The next thing is Stink Cloud, then Sleep, Body Freezing, Epidemic, Poisonous Fog… and finally Dead Cloud."

Phil stopped laughing. He stopped and turned to look at Acaine.

"Dead Cloud?"

"Yes, Dead Cloud."

"That is a high level spell!" said Phil. "It's a typical mid-level spell. The lower-level mages can't cast it!"

Acaine nodded. "Only the magic mushrooms that have grown to old age have this ability. In my laboratory, after using the spell, mushrooms about the equivalent of about 25 years in terms of maturity would have this grade of ability."

"25 years… it's really not a long time, to tell you the truth." Phil was hesitant, and asked the ages of other spells.

"From the third year onwards, they begin to grow the knife arm. They can use spells from the fifth year onwards, and then they have one more spell for about three to four years. After about 25 years, they will have mastered all the spells." Acaine told everything about his research because he had researched this magical thing in detail. "Even if we continue to cultivate it, there would be no growth. It is estimated that this is the limit of its race. It needs to break through the limit to go further."

Phil thought for a long time, but they could not make up their minds even when they arrived at the dragon's lair.

In the end, he gave Acaine several kinds of mushrooms that were unique to the flower fields in the temple. However, they postponed the affair of the cultivation of mushrooms in the mountains.

But Sui Xiong wasted no time. The first mushroom cultivated by Acaine was quickly cultivated in the underground maze. They quickly absorbed the negative energy that filled the maze. They grew unusually strong, and the clusters of mushrooms glowed with deep black light under the light of luminescent ores, and even had a little metallic texture.

These glowing ores were not the minerals of the Ashes Woods, but minerals in the remote Dead Desert. Sui Xiong purchased a large amount of this mineral through the commercial channel of Gars City, and then went there in person and brought back much once.

They were scattered throughout the maze to provide light. Under the meticulous design of Sui Xiong, most of the entire maze was shrouded in the perfect light which was dim, and only a few places dedicated to the rest of explorers had sufficient lighting.

With the bright light, several guarding formations were seen. They both protected these resting spots and allowed people to relax their nerves, tightened up from the maze.

Of course, resting at the spots cost money. After all, to maintain itself the formation needed to consume magic. If it weren't for the regular supply of magic in Sui Xiong, he would only consume backup energy, in an expensive magic crystal.

There were also several transmission formations in the maze that allowed the explorers to safely leave. It didn't take money to use them, because leaving meant that the expedition was over. If you went in again, you would have to buy tickets again.

When all the luminescent ore settled, this large magnificent underground maze would be preliminarily completed.