Before officially facing the bees, Marlow questioned Lumina to gather more intelligence regarding the Large Hornets.
However, the Elf simply spread her hands, indicating she didn’t know much either.
“Aren’t you a student? Ah, I see. You must have spent your classes daydreaming. Looking at you, your grades probably weren’t exactly ideal.”
Facing the mushroom’s slander, the Elf grew somewhat annoyed.
“I was a top ten student in my grade for academic performance! A Large Hornet is an over-spec monster for Iron-rank adventurers. The fact that I even recognize it means I’m well-read, okay?”
“It shouldn’t even be on the Second Floor, and that Wolf-shaped Magic Beast shouldn’t be here either. Powerful monsters like that usually only stay in the Deep Zone. The mana environment of the Shallow Zone is like a pond compared to an ocean for them. What could possibly drive them to settle for the Shallow Zone?”
The Priestess’s soft voice droned on, sounding like some sort of sleep-inducing audio playing in Marlow’s ear. It made her feel quite drowsy.
“Well then, Miss Top Student, can you teach me how to recognize human writing and language?”
“Of course I can.”
Under the mushroom’s overbearing pressure, she could only agree. Yet, unwilling to be too submissive, she added with a sarcastic, mocking tone, “So, it turns out you’re illiterate, Marlow? How rare to find someone who can’t read.”
She imitated a figure from her memories, covering her lips with her hand and acting incredibly surprised.
“Duh. I’m a mushroom. Of course I don’t understand human writing.” Marlow snorted at the Elf’s mockery.
She was a mushroom; she was proud of her lack of culture.
The Elf’s face quietly flushed.
‘Ah, is that so? A mushroom really doesn’t need to know human writing. Damn it, why did I naturally start treating her like a person…?’
After thinking about it, Lumina attributed it to Miss Mushroom’s overly abundant humanity.
Aside from the occasional evil thought that slipped out, she usually acted like a flighty young girl. There was no trace of her being a magic beast. Of course, Lumina had never personally seen those magic beasts with high intelligence, so she could only make distinctions based on her feelings.
“You said illiteracy is rare. Does every child have to go to school and learn to read and write?”
“At least that is how it is in the Elven lands and the Andes Empire. Illiteracy is a thing of the past. Everyone has basic reading and writing skills… Why are you asking, Marlow?”
“Nothing, just pure curiosity.” Marlow casually brushed off Lumina’s question.
She was simply piecing together basic information about this world and learning common sense through snippets of conversation. There was no need to have the Elf specifically teach her that.
As a model youth who had completed nine years of compulsory education and knew a bit of everything from the internet, she actually had a day where she was called illiterate. It was impossible not to care. This was a matter of dignity.
“Right, so how are we even communicating then?”
‘Aha, you finally noticed!’ Marlow thought, though she hadn’t quite figured out the answer herself.
“It’s likely some kind of link on a consciousness level, allowing us to understand each other’s thoughts.”
Anyway, it was quite mysterious and couldn’t be explained by common logic.
“Airplane. Computer,” Marlow said, picking two words to see if the Elf could understand them.
“A flying machine and… what was that?”
Although her Symbiosis with the mushroom was extremely rare — perhaps even a unique case — similar situations weren’t unheard of. For example, those in the rare Beast Tamer class could use Telepathy to give orders to their tamed pets and feel the emotions and thoughts sent back.
Generally, those were very simple instructions, such as attack, defend, or dash. After all, the intelligence of a magic pet wasn’t high enough to understand complex commands.
This made Lumina feel quite depressed. She felt like she was the magic pet being trained, as her simple head couldn’t understand most of the thoughts Miss Mushroom sent her. Even though she recognized the words individually, they made no sense when put together.
Thinking back to her claim of being well-read… she hurried to end the conversation before her ignorance was exposed.
“Um, it’ll be easier to teach this way. When you think of a word or sentence, I’ll say it out loud. You just need to remember the pronunciation and the corresponding meaning.”
“Put the teaching aside for now. We’re almost there. Are you ready?”
Hearing this, Lumina gripped her staff tightly. Her palms grew slick and sweaty, and her heart pounded wildly. Actively provoking a Large Hornet, known as a killer bee — she must have been dreaming to do something so ridiculous. She was literally poking a hornet’s nest.
“It’s just ahead.”
It was a strange individual. It kept circling the same spot. It didn’t dodge obstacles in its flight path; instead, it would crash into them and then fly in the opposite direction until it hit another obstacle, forming a loop. It was like a clunky, poorly programmed robot.
“Light Bullet.”
Hiding behind a tree, the little Elf made the gem on her staff glow with a dazzling white light. In the next moment, she aimed the tip of the staff at the bee’s path.
A Light Bullet hit the Tiger-Headed Bee’s head with precision. In an instant, the light eroded and scorched it away, leaving only the smell of burnt protein and a headless corpse.
An individual bee was weak. Even a Priestess who only knew a few attack spells could take one down easily. The Light Bullet, an upgrade from Level 1 light magic Illuminate, possessed incredible speed and decent damage. Its only drawback was its high mana consumption, which meant Lumina couldn’t use it many times.
Seeing that she had successfully killed the bee in one hit, she let out a sigh of relief. At least there were no surprises.
Mycelium quickly climbed onto the bee’s corpse on the ground. The Decomposition skill activated, and the massive body was rapidly dismantled, digested, and absorbed, converting into pure nutrients and mana.
A surge of refined mana welled up from the ground, forcefully and dominantly surging into Lumina’s body. It flowed into her limbs and bones, replenishing what she had just spent and filling her to the brim.
“Mmm…”
Lumina quickly covered her mouth. It was… too much. She had even let out a comfortable moan without realizing it.
Was this also Miss Marlow providing help?
This was an unheard-of method of mana replenishment. Whether it was efficiency, mana purity, or even conversion time, it far surpassed any existing method. This external mana felt as if it were her own; she didn’t even need time to adapt before using it. With this, why would she ever need to worry about mana consumption or calculate her skills?
She had never fought such a “wealthy” battle before. She could already imagine herself tossing spells around randomly without a care for mana, only worrying about how fast she could wave her staff.
Heh… Heh.
Wait, something felt wrong.
“Um, Marlow. I know mana is great, but can you stop pouring it in? I feel a bit… stuffed.”
Hearing the girl say this, Marlow finally realized what was happening. She saw the Elf’s eyes curved into thin slits and a somewhat dazed, silly smile on her face, accompanied by occasional giggles.
On the System Panel, a negative status effect had appeared next to the Symbiosis state.
[Mana Drunk]: Excessive intake of mana resulting in a state of mental vertigo similar to intoxication.
Excessive mana? Was she the one sending it? Was it through the Fungal Network? To be honest, even she hadn’t noticed it happening.
So, her rapid mana regeneration was because the Mycelium was gathering and transporting mana, and Lumina, who was linked to the Fungal Network, shared that effect.
She was quite the useful support, yet the Elf actually had the nerve to complain. It didn’t matter, though. Lumina might be indifferent now, but in the future, this mushroom would be out of her league.
Marlow redistributed the mana gained from decomposing the bee, using all of it to expand the coverage of the Fungal Network. Afterward, she silently monitored the territory she could observe, searching for suitable prey.
It seemed they wouldn’t be able to move until Lumina’s negative status wore off.