The sun was barely up as the light from outside was still a deep blue and there was the distant sound of monsters clashing somewhere in the city coming in through the window, oddly enough one couldn't hear any birds about. This wasn't what woke Ethan up though, what had woken Ethan up was the sound of someone, many someones actually, chewing meat.
Ethan opened his bleary eyes and blinked them a few times before his mind registered the sight before him.
Some of the Goblins were eating from his gore mound, others had eaten half of the dead goblin in the doorway, one Goblin was gnawing on the gooey looking casing around the Fly eggs, making very slow progress and three more Goblins had somehow died during the night and were being eaten off to the side. Recognising one of the dead Goblins, it was the first Goblin that chirped and fell asleep in his apartment which made Ethan hold in a laugh.
'Ha! The thing made the sleep pile but got crushed to death by all the others!'
All the Goblins despite their cannibalism. all still seemed to be quite content and only ate a couple mouthfuls of meat each, just enough to stop feeling hungry before entering in to a pattern of licking their lips and sighing, amongst idle belly scratching and five mile stares as they seemed to appreciate the beauty of the gray painted walls and the straightness of the lines in the apartment from their squatting or standing positions.
Amidst the sighing there were definitely sounds of some chatter between the Goblins with little grunts, chirps and the very rare trilling, there was no growling or shrieking and most of the Goblins weren't even carrying weapons anymore those were left on the ground abandoned before they'd joined the sleeping pile last night, they were just laying about idly and doing whatever passes for thinking in regards to the minds of a Goblin.
Ethan was waking up himself with a little mushroom stretch and a quick visual check on his roots, he felt refreshed. He was definitely invigorated and ready to move on to a new day with a surprisingly chipper attitude. Looking around, he noticed his little bird nest of roots partially encasing the four eggs that were laid by the Fly from yesterday. The eggs seemed slightly larger and had changed from a creamy off-white to a more dirty-plaster white, the kind of colour you see in an old office workplace.
'The Goblins haven't noticed those yet, that's good. The roots must cover them up enough.'
After looking at the eggs for long enough, Ethan didn't notice any other changes and diverted his attention back to the room and the squatters in his apartment, namely the ones that were attempting to figure out what the toilet seat was for as they lifted it up and let it rest, bringing it back down and staring at it and repeating the pattern as if forgetting that they had already tried that, the sound of the toilet plastic seat smacking against the cistern and bowl was irritating and echoed outwards from the open bathroom.
'They're all acting really high or drunk. I'm pretty sure this won't wear off, it's not like a chemical since it's a spore and spores grow fungi which means there's fungi growing inside them. I definitely feel something from them like a very subtle tug that gets stronger the closer they get.. I have to assume that's me feeling the fungi inside them but I guess we'll see as time goes on, though I'm pretty sure in my deduction since it's been over 12 hours since they were infected, yeah I guess infected is the right word to use.'
Realising he'd gone on a tangent he steered his thoughts towards planning his survival for another day although survival seems less of an issue now that he has a small army of Goblins to act as a deterrent and meat shield, in the worst case that they die or get killed he can make some more spores like yesterday and make whatever comes along docile.
'Well then, ideas. I have several opportunities here and [Create Spores]. I should probably start with the ones with the least chance of going negatively.'
Ethan was silent in one of his thinking poses, which was identical to every other thinking pose he had given that he couldn't actually change his pose, facial expression not withstanding.
'Hm.. I could sit here all day and think about potential uses for this ability but what should I choose? I have to weigh out the pros and cons. I especially don't seem to be able to control the spread of my spores either, I can only hope I unlock something to let me do that later but for now I have to rely on the wind to spread the spores.'
Ethan was truly in a bind. He had many interesting and fun ideas for what to do with his spores but unfortunately most of them would go incredibly poorly if they went wrong, for now, and until he would be able to lessen the risks of side-effects, he chose to do something safe that would benefit him and the Goblins whilst providing more information on what the spores can do and the energy they take out of him.
Closing his eyes, Ethan began to imagine what he wanted his spores to be and do. He felt a flow run through his mind and felt his bloodline or the system guiding him towards activating his ability that brought his imagination to life.
'[Create Spores]'
Ethan immediately felt some type of fatigue hit him, though it wasn't enough to make him feel too tired, more of a light jog one might do to get a taxi before someone else can get in and steal it or to catch a bus before it leaves without you. Then the itching began on Ethan's cap and from his head sprouted numerous tiny little hairs with little yellowy-white bulbs on top, ready to fly off with the wind and infect the nearest living creature.
'Oh damn I forgot about the itching, it really makes using that uncomfortable.'
As the spores sprouted and turned into an airy looking wig of fine hair on top of the Mushroom, a couple of curious Goblins looked over and saw the change. Meandering over without a care in the world they put their hands on it to feel the softness and gave it a vigorous rub, releasing the spores into the air.
'KAaK AkaK'
'KeEK KEk'
'Akek KaKAK'
The Goblins had inhaled Ethan's spores and were now infected. A few moments passed by and the three Goblins that had come over to investigate all staring blankly at nothing as their bodies seemed to go into hibernation mode. Their eyes began to regain some life until one of them began to have a nosebleed.
The unfortunate Goblin felt the blood trickling from its nose and raised a hand to it's upper lip to see what it was, it raised its hand and saw the blood and turned to look at the other two Goblins who were both looking at him with confused looks, the two Goblins looked at each other and back at the nosebleed Goblin before the latter Goblin fell backwards and began to convulse, its eyes and ears began to bleed profusely. The other two Goblins just stood and watched the Goblin die, it seems that Goblins just don't care about each other beyond using one another the same way Ethan had used them last night, as alarms and meat shields.
'What the fuck, I didn't make it do that.'
Ethan really didn't intend for it to do that, he was pretty confused seeing what happened, as the convulsing stopped and the Goblin was very clearly dead, the other two Goblins smiled to each other then at Ethan and went to the corpse then they dragged it closer to Ethan and turned around to leave the apartment, not forgetting to take their weapons with them.
As the spores spread throughout the room now that they had been disturbed, over the next hour or so, other Goblins followed suit. First glancing at Ethan and smiling in an eerie way before leaving the apartment in groups of up to three. The unlucky few however fell over, convulsed and died before being dragged over to the gore mound until eventually Ethan was left alone again, well, alone plus a few extra Goblin corpses.
'And now we wait.'
Ethan sensed the roots closest to the dead Goblins and began to probe the bodies with his roots, forcing them in through the skin and orifices over the next few hours.
'It would seem that when a Goblin is already infected, there's a chance infecting them with different spores has a chance to outright kill them. I can only assume this is a result of the two fungi both trying to control the infected body and causing it to fail, maybe the ones who succeed are the fungi that merged together? The newer version couldn't have destroyed the older version or they wouldn't all still be so calm and docile around me. I didn't imagine it having the effect of making them friendly to me which was an oversight on my part, but that's what the testing is for.'
Ethan spent much of his time focusing on invading the corpses with his roots to get those sweet, juicy nutrients inside the bodies to be inside his whilst simultaneously thinking about his abilities and other tests he could carry out. He had somehow managed to invade them all but it seemed the nutrients in these little bodies alone were quite plentiful for Ethan's current self and he felt better than he'd ever felt before, comfortable, well fed, warm and energized. Ethan felt that his future had never seemed so great before.
'This God guy isn't so bad. He seems to be throwing fortune my way.'
Ethan thought with a grin.
It was well into mid-morning possibly around 10-11am, give or take an hour, when some of the Goblins returned.
At first Ethan was on guard when he saw the Goblins, thinking they might not be his ones and that they might try to attack him so he got ready to use [Create Spores] again but to his fortune they were his Goblins. He knew as soon as he saw the first one come through the door covered in blood and with one less arm, yet still wearing that goofy smile and flicking his eyes between Ethan and the other Goblins. The two Goblins behind it were fully intact but also covered in blood and were dragging something behind them.
All three Goblins stopped and looked at the door before realising it was in the way. Smashing the door down more so it no longer required climbing to get in or out and could just be walked through, the Goblins worked together and kept dragging their haul into the room.
Looking at the Goblins Ethan felt himself get excited, it seemed his spores were working as intended this time around, if you put the casualties aside that is.
'They did it! They brought me food!'
The Goblins had managed somehow to get the mostly intact corpse of a guy Ethan remembers seeing in one of the first floor apartments up four flights of stairs and added it to his gore mound, which was quickly becoming a corpse mound.
"Well done boys! More nutrients! Ah I could kiss you!"
The Goblins who were about to leave the apartment again froze in place and turned to look at Ethan. Eyes slightly wider than normal and mouths slightly open.
'Oh right, that's the first time I spoke.'
The Goblins looked between each other and one pointed his club, made from the leg of a Human it looked like, at Ethan before making a couple grunts and trills.
After a bit of back and forth the Goblins looked at Ethan, shrugged to themselves then walked over to Ethan. Unsure of what was about to happen, Ethan went on guard mentally but all the Goblins did was rub his head a little bit before grabbing a claw of meat from the Human corpse and went back out of the apartment stuffing it in their faces like a man late for work.
What Ethan had done was to create spores that would compel the Goblins to bring meat back to Ethan for him and them to eat.
This compulsion combined with the natural instinct to bring food back to the nest had worked in his favour because rather than being a completely foreign concept it was something they probably would've done anyway when they made a nest with or without Ethan being around, this being the case there wasn't much the fungi needed to change. This was also why the number of casualties were so low, future spores would compound and each successful infection would increase the risk of death when exposed to new spores for each Goblin.
Similar scenarios then began to happen every five to thirty minutes as little groups would return, bringing back assorted body parts and dead things, throwing them at Ethan's roots before taking some meat for themselves and leaving again. Ethan began to be concerned, he didn't have enough roots to eat these corpses yet and was worried that [Create Spores] might be a bit more of a double edged sword than he'd expected.
'Okay, this might be getting out of hand, they'll bury me alive in corpses if this keeps going.'
The Gore mound had quickly evolved and was now like a cut out from a fantasy battlefield with various limbs and corpses laid out around Ethan. If anyone saw this right now they'd think Ethan was pure evil but in Ethan's mind he never really felt Human anyway, so might as well embrace the change and make sure the food doesn't go to waste.
'I think Judgement might have been the best thing to ever happen to me. My life has a direction now and I have power over my own fate.. Before I felt like everything around me had more control over me than I did, when I applied for jobs it was someone else who decided if I'd get the job. It was the utility company deciding how much I owed them for bills. Even my girlfriend, she decided when we'd have sex and when we broke up. But now, I have the power to be the one in control. I can make the rules, quite literally.'
Ethan smirked to himself as he lingered in his fantasies of control, what he was going to do. Then a certain thought surfaced.
'I don't have a dick anymore.'
Ethan's already pale mushroom face grew a shade whiter and his nutrient flow slowed down inside.
'I can't have children anymore. I can't have sex! OH NO!'
Ethan's thoughts began to spiral in a darker direction as he tried to come up with solutions.
'I have my roots and I can feel those, kind of, the more I focus the more I can feel, so I can touch things at least. I don't have a dick but could I use my roots instead? No that's fucked, that would be like sticking a branch up a woman, she'd end up all mangled and I'm not exactly a sadist, causing pain, that kind of thing always bothered me and turned me off. Kids.. I guess I make my own kids? Could I use my spores to make more of me? I should be able to, right? I don't want more of me moving around right now though, it's not a safe environment.'
Ethan wasn't sure about that last part but something instinctive inside him told him now wasn't the time to have offspring.
'Fuck this, I'll figure it out later. One of my racial abilities might be to shapeshift or something, thinking about this now is pointless.'
Turning his thoughts back to the problem at hand; being killed by corpses. Ethan decided he needed to get them all to chill out again and focus on something else instead of hauling more food to him.
With the food he had now he'd be fine for a while, he couldn't guess how long because he didn't know how often he needed food in his new body so far it had been a constant trickle from the gore of his old body and now the new corpses, he was actually more worried about the Goblins eating it all.
'Okay, next up I need a better way to distribute my spores than the wind and dumb luck. The Goblins did a great job spreading my spores unintentionally though, I should use that.'
