Chapter 12.1 Modernization
I woke up when the sun was already at its zenith and felt hungry. But I was even more thirsty. I felt a pleasant fatigue in my whole body, as if from necessary work, and a lightness of thought in my head. Before I even had time to open my eyes, I had time to think not only of a solution to the problem of light for spiders, but also of something else that made my hands itch to realize it.
There was also the idea of creating a box in which you could collect interesting samples of magical plants to grow yourself. My magic coloring is good enough to feed plants in need — I've been able to figure that out and prove it in practice, so why not? If I continue with artifacting and alchemy — and I will, it's too interesting to twist the laws of physics into figments — I'll need a lot of stuff, and it's too expensive to buy it all.
Okay, I'll steal it now, but what about when I run away from the clan? There's no doubt that I have to run away, but it's still early. I don't know where to go, where to hide so that the clan doesn't catch up with me. You can't go to China and Korea — they'll give you up right away, even tie a pink ribbon on you. Not an option.
In the rest of the world, I don't know the situation, so it's too early to go, and there's no money at all... and the library isn't even half explored... I still have to figure out how to get my mother out... in short, it's too early to run. Meanwhile, I think I need to drink some water, my mouth is empty.
I don't think anyone is around. Just in case, I looked around, and indeed there was no one, but it was far away from the jug, and my body was still weak... and I was thirsty... and the jug was far away... Under the begging look of the lilac eyes, the glass carafe with a glass on top flew smoothly into the air and slowly flew to me, hovering next to the bed.
Not being a fool, I picked it up and immediately drank the slightly cool water. I thought about the foul play and looked thoughtfully at the carafe, the bedside table, the carafe again, the bedside table... The carafe flew up again and returned to its original position. Interesting...
In the evening I had dinner with the others and listened to criticism about my behavior and compliments about my talent. There was no desire to prolong the conversation too long — my hands were itching to realize my ideas, and there was still much to do before going to sleep... ....
The Bird Brothers quickly brought the ordered mushrooms, which are grown on one of the islands. It's worth mentioning that for some reason all the islands are very different from each other, not only in relief, but even in climate. So that in one of the islands of caves — that in expensive cheese — holes.
One of the workers of the nursery garden once told that in ancient times the island was considered forbidden, or rather — deadly for all living things, so they did not go there, and on the shores of other islands were arranged observation posts of magicians and subordinate spirits. The reason for all this was a colony of creepy creatures — reptiloids. These creatures stole women, girls as young as ten or eleven, and dragged them to their island.
There, the poor victims were subjected to the most horrible things: the eggs of these creatures were placed inside them, naturally for them, and larvae like "aliens" grew inside the women, eating their insides. In general, there was nothing left of humans, even the bones were eaten. Reptiloids caught fish and sea creatures for their normal life, but human flesh was considered a delicacy.
Three hundred years ago, the tearful pleas of the islanders reached the Emperor, and he ordered the Circle of Clans to eradicate the abomination from their lands, preserving the memory of what he had eradicated. It is not known how long the reptiloids were exterminated in Japan, or how many warrior-mages and ordinary people died, but the caves where the creatures lived are now actively used to grow magic mushrooms.
A book on magic mushrooms is freely available in the Mori family library, and there is nothing in the book that is not grown on Cave Island. Glowing mushrooms abound not only in fairy tales, but also in this world, and I pondered for a while over the choice of three colors: red, green, and blue.
I decided to stop at the last one, and now, for the second hour in a row, I was explaining to the spirits through thought pictures what I wanted to get. By the way, I signed a contract with these workers, and now I don't have to look for them every time I need them.
And it takes as much energy to pay for the work of the beautiful salad fireflies as it does for the "ghost light" — a simple spell of illumination, or for finding a way in the fog, for the dark night there is the spell "star sparkle" — a little more powerful light, without the scattered pale blue glow of a small ball, but a concentrated torch of bluish light. All in all, I can pay with it even if I am magically exhausted. I tied it to small beads on an enchanted bracelet I collected on this island.
Okay, my idea is to go back to the lichen. That is, I want the spirits to grow the central ganglion of the fungus around the crystal core, slightly changing the shape of the crystal bed. From the center in the cephalothorax to all the legs, a fungus will sprout, limiting it to destroying and absorbing wood, and eating from the earth or plants, or whatever else (this same "other" only with my permission, because the fungus can secrete organic acid — gastric juice, to soften the food), which the spider touches with its paws.
The cap of the mushroom, on the other hand, is transformed into a "bell" that must grow on the spider's head, adding long cockroach whiskers to the spider, which can also collect moisture. The glow only occurs when the "bell" opens like the most ordinary flower bud. The fungus's food supply is collected in the nucleus and in two balloon-like projections near the head, where space is left.
Stomachs of spiders are left under the place for further modernization — no matter what other heresy will come in the head. In the end, I want to finally get alive plant chimeras, with a hard block binding to me and my blood.
In general, the spirits understood me, and when they started working, they did everything with the inherent slowness of plant spirits, so I could easily correct their actions. While I was working on the first spider, I had another idea, which I turned in my head almost until the end of the germination of the mushroom, which is used for the production of various compositions of mental orientation.
And deciding that it was worth it, I gave orders and instructions to the spirits. In another hour the spider had flexible claws instead of chelicerae, made of a mixture of extremely rough wood, stone chips, and mushroom shoots, with a particularly strong acid "gland" coming out. I went to bed around three in the morning, quite satisfied with myself and my inventions, because the spider had changed a lot, moving much more smoothly, more "alive".
The spirit confirmed that the shell had become easier to control, especially — to hold on to different surfaces (I added "sticky" mushroom paws, so that they did not eat everything in a row, and glued when necessary). I fell asleep quickly, anticipating new discoveries, well, or just beautiful underground views....
Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to check out the spider's design changes the next day or the day after, as I was taken for a ride. Mayuri-san was so burdened with ritual practice that there was little moral strength left, and I didn't even have enough to listen to the lectures about the poisonous jellyfish that grow here.
The only thing I could do was mindlessly practice with a sword or spear-whatever I felt like and had the strength for. On the third day, I had a workshop in the gardens, and Mayuri-san and her family went to a neighboring island for an important meeting. I tried to finish quickly, which resulted in a strawberry growing on my flower bush.
I don't know how or why, and neither did the curator, who was baffled by my antics. Not feeling threatened, I filled a cut-off bottle with the amazingly smelling berries and fled up the mountain — the spirits were supposed to change more spiders overnight, and I wondered what the result would be.