Private - World of Flesh, World of Mind, World of... | Page 2

After she finished her story, Madison continued to watch the wolf druid for any signs of aggression. Mizuki had remained perfectly still the entire time, even borderline aloof at moments--much to the plagueslinger's annoyance. It wasn't that she was looking for a fight; on the contrary, if Madison could just play the friggin' game as she wanted to without triggering any more PvP, that would've been wonderful.

It was just harder to get a read on someone's emotions when all their face is capable of doing is panting, snarling, and staring blankly.

However, Madison did appreciate the other woman's admission that she too had her fair share of blood on her paws. It meant that she couldn't judge the dark druid for her own actions.

Didn't stop her from trying, of course. Maddy just had that look about her that always kicked everyone's Protagonist Instincts into overdrive.

"I generally leave it up to the poor life choices of those who inhabit this world," she said with just a bit more attitude than necessary. "I'm sure with all the time you've put into this thing, you've noticed that there's a disproportionate amount of people and things that are out for your valuables or your life. I suppose there has to be, to keep people playing, right?"

Madison let that sink in for a moment before continuing. "I live on the cape, where there's no shortage of weird shit going on. Bandits along trade routes, pirates from Druuk Island, cultists hoping to make Anime Lovecraft happen..."

It was her turn to shrug her shoulders. With how many times that's happened today, it's a surprise nobody's torn a rotator cuff. "I have an agreement with a couple farming and fishing villages. If I keep them safe from the terrors of the world and help their farmers grow crops and whatever, they in turn leave me the hell alone and let me practice my nature magic in the nearby forest."

 

Sounds like you just kill everything which tries to attack you. Can't say I'm in disagreement with that approach.

In comparison to killing things which had done nothing wrong for no other reason than because you were hungry the idea of not showing any mercy to anything which tried to kill you or make your life difficult was honestly pretty tame. There were probably treehuggers who'd complain that you shouldn't kill if you could avoid it, but you weren't responsible for the lives of those who threatened yours.

Well, as long as you don't cause trouble for me I won't cause trouble for you. You're the first other druid I've met so I'd like to get along with you.

Although I've yet to meet any cultists trying to make Anime Lovecraft happen. Closest thing was when I was exploring Western Astorea and my companion... had some strange ideas. It's a good thing she lost interest the moment she realized Titanius just wanted to kill us or that could have gotten very messy.

For a brief moment Mizuki thought back to that time: she was really happy she didn't have to snap the woman out of it herself, since at the time she had been busy with not dying.

I'd say it would be interesting to see but I think that after Titanius I've had my fill of eldritch matters for some time.

Sure, she'd managed to get out of Titanius with her life, but it had been such a chaotic disaster that she didn't think she'd be that lucky a second time. Tilting her head she considered the rest of what Madison had said before replying.

That's actually pretty smart, setting yourself up near some villages. I've been wandering out where there's not a lot of people myself.

Looking slightly past Madison the wolf looked as thoughtful as a wolf could, sounding somewhat distant as she spoke once more.

You've given me something to think about though. So far I've used my druidic abilities to enhance my physical fighting style, but it would be a good idea to put some effort into learning how to use it in more aggressive ways. I can't make curses and hexes since I don't have black magic, but poison and flesh-eating fungi would be useful in case punching an enemy isn't going to cut it.

Would you be interested in sharing ideas? I haven't made a big study of druid magic but I've got some tricks that you might find useful.

 

Madison couldn't help but to smile when the wolf recounted her story of The Fade, and the adventurer who was ready to throw it all away to bend the knee to Titanius. She couldn't judge, of course--on more than one occasion, when the fight was looking grim, the witch would've very easily thrown Portia and Alric into the squirming mass of dark purple flesh if were the only way she'd survive.

Considering Portia was her punchsister and one of her best friends in the game, she was glad she didn't. Trust was hard to come by and easily broken with people like Madison; and that was the last thing she wanted to deal with.

Eventually the conversation moved onto other things. Mizuki admitted that she had only been using Nature Magic in order to bulk up a bit before hitting or biting something. That was perfectly fine; Maddy, despite being a disciple of rot and rebirth, was more than willing to divest the power coursing through the earthly leylines to grant her friends a bit of extra juice.

The druidess leaned back on her rock and contemplated for a bit, licking her teeth as the gears inside her mind churned. "I'm gonna' begin by saying that I generally like to fight from afar. I enjoy the freedom that cloth armor gives me, but unfortunately it leaves me on the squishy side. So a lot of the Nature Magic I tap into for combat is mostly going to involve binding things with thick vines with nasty thorns for that extra bit of grip."

Madison balled her fists and raised them in front of her face like a boxer. "I have wrapped some vines around my knuckles like tape or something, and forced thorns out to pierce light armor and increase the point of impact, though. You'd be surprised how well that works."

The smile faded from the witch's face somewhat as she flipped through her extensive knowledge on fungi. "The the thing about mushrooms," she said, brow furrowed, "is that most of them are only really poisonous if you eat them. Brushing up against a Death Cap or a Destroying Angel isn't going to harm anyone; it'll just make you look like a fool. And while you can grow fungi that will eat the flesh of your enemies, it's going to take an awful lot of concentration on your behalf, it's incredibly slow to work, and you're probably going to get murdered waiting for any tangible effect."

She continued, "Which is why I supplement my Nature Magic with Black. Less time, more violent, less thinking and worrying, and more fun. But since you're not specializing in it, perhaps you can look into utilizing plants that are toxic to the touch?"

Without waiting for an answer either way, Madison flicked open her palm UI and began composing a PM. "Here, I'm gonna' send you some plants to research."

And she did. Whatever she couldn't bother to remember, the plagueslinger had written down in her UI's notes section. Poison Ivy, Sumac, and Oak--the classics. Stinging Nettle, a personal favorite of hers. Hogweed, if it was a bright sunny day. Madison's fingers hesitated for a moment over the glowing interface, but she also attached information on the Gympie Gympie and Manchineel as well. If Mizuki was here in the Garden, that obviously meant she was powerful enough to handle growing and utilizing the two, as horrible of a fate they can induce on someone.

"Most of these, you can pour more mana into them to increase the effectiveness of their toxins." With a couple taps of the translucent buttons floating in front of her eyes, Madison fired off the message and waved away the display. "How you utilize them... That's your call. But I always recommend lacing the vines that restrain your enemies with them, since most of these toxins are harmful to the touch."

 

Mizuki nodded as Madison began to explain about her preferred method of fighting, patiently listening. Considering that druids were generally strong casters it wasn't surprising that Madison would prefer mobility and staying at a distance, although most druids prioritized supporitve magic over the more hostile style the rot druid clearly had been working on.

She didn't give a visible reaction regarding the mushrooms, aside from a single sweeping of her tail. She had some things to say about that, but she'd wait until after Madison had shared what information she was willing to share upfront. Given what she'd seen of the woman so far Mizuki doubted that she'd give everything immediately... Although she was certainly (and visibly) surprised when she learned about just how much effort Madison had put into researching the most dangerous and deadly of plants. Opening the received PM with a paw she scanned through the named plants and their uses, her eyes widening slightly before looking back at Madison.

Well, this certaily surpasses my expectations. I can't say I've got such detailed notes on anything I've figured out myself, but I'll try my best to give as much as I've received.

She then fell silent for a little bit, composing her thoughts and trying to think of information that would be useful to Madison.

Since you're a ranged caster I wouldn't expect you to need it often, but there's a group of wood called ironwood which you might find useful if you're in a pinch. Ironwood is often heavy enough to sink and combines toughness and hardness in a way which can make any woodworking tools go dull quite quickly.

She focused, and from the ground a piece of relatively dark wood began to grow, wrapping itself around the wolf's paw until it formed a single piece of armour, what on a human body would be called a bracer.

A good choice is what is called Lignum Vitae, or Pockholz. Before synthetic materials took over it was often used as material for ship parts which had to be very durable, sometimes even preferred over metal. It won't compete with the kind of enchanted armour that the heavy frontliners carry around but I doubt most other casters could pull up emergency armour of the same quality.

She dismissed the wood, putting it back in the ground as she looked up at Madison.

As you already know we can't control flesh and blood like we can control plants. However there's a way to still make use of your own body besides shapeshifting... You mentioned how those flesh eating mushrooms would take too long. If you cast it the normal way that is true, but there's another of casting nature magic, and it has to do with the reason why you can't use it without fertile soil or other plants nearby.

The following part was going to be rather tricky, so Mizuki changed back to her humanoid form. Still ignoring the fact that she was naked in the Emerald Garden she instead brought one sharp claw-like nail to the furred skin on her forearm.

You can either use your magic to create plants that only live as long as your magic feeds them, using present nutrients as a jumpstart, or create a more steady growth which allows the plants to remain but either requires so much energy that you can't create a lot of it or draw more of its growth from the nutrients present.

The third method is to force the plants to grow quickly without feeding them your magic as substitute, at which point they'll forcibly drain the source of the nutrients. More cost efficient for yourself but it'll leave fertile soil barren and plants withered depending on how big you grow it. That way you could have flesh-eating mushrooms devour their target quite quickly.

The other way to use this trick is to substitute yourself as food for what you're growing.

Using the sharp nail Mizuki created a small cut in her forearm, enough that some blood welled up. Focusing her magic the blood began to reshape itself, stretching out until a sanguine thorned vine was rising up from the wound, roots wrapping both around the caenis's arm and digging into her skin.

I strongly advise not using this in combat without a lot of practice, because if you don't control it well you'd pretty much be killing yourself.