Chapter 158 - 113: Silent Forest (3)
The mushroom exploded, scattering Ice Crystal Spores everywhere. Niu Armor was instantly frozen solid, unable to move.
A few seconds later, he thawed and tried to run, but every mushroom in the Mushroom Forest had awakened.
The blue-capped mushrooms formed Ice Element Balls on their caps and launched them at Niu Armor. A dense barrage of Ice Element Balls pelted his body relentlessly.
The mushrooms with ice-crystal caps summoned icicles to attack him, while also emitting an aura of cold air.
Each of these attacks had a chance to freeze their target. With the sheer number of hits, Niu Armor was frozen again before the previous effect even wore off.
The layers of ice on Niu Armor grew thicker, freezing the very energy within him and making it impossible for him to break free on his own.
When Niu Armor didn’t return after a long while, his teammates went looking for him. They found him in the Mushroom Forest, frozen into an ice sculpture. Only his eyes could move, darting around anxiously as he pleaded for help.
Aburara gasped when he saw the Mushroom Forest. "Those are Frost Mushrooms and Frost Witch Mushrooms! Be careful, they’ll freeze you solid until you die."
[Name]: Frost Mushroom
[Description]: Summons icicles to attack nearby enemies.
Emits a chilling aura that both enhances nearby ice-type plants and applies a chilling status to enemies.
Has a chance to launch 4 icicles from the sky, each dealing 3x damage to enemies.
Upon death, releases Ice Crystal Spores, dealing damage and freezing surrounding enemies.
[Attack Power]: 200 (Bonus in cold environments)
[Special Effect]: Chilling
[Range]: 50-meter line, 3m x 3m (upon death)
[Durability]: 500
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[Name]: Frost Witch Mushroom
[Description]: The Frost Witch Mushroom attacks enemies with ice Elemental Magic.
Its initial Magic is Ice Element Ball. With each attack, the chance to summon an ice cavern increases by 0.1%. The ice cavern lasts for 10 seconds. Anyone who fails to climb out in time will be banished to the Ice Elemental Plane. Upon successfully casting an ice cavern, the chance resets to 0.
[Attack Power]: 60 (Bonus in cold environments)
[Special Effect]: Chilling
[Range]: 400-meter line
[Durability]: 1000
"We know!"
Even without Aburara’s warning, no one else would have been reckless enough to charge into the Mushroom Forest. One look at Niu Armor’s miserable, motionless state was enough to tell them how dangerous these mushrooms were.
From a safe distance, Rose, Yuan Xiaobo, Mirus, and Lin Kong began communicating with the mushrooms, trying to soothe their emotions and calm them down. Meanwhile, Lin Yan continuously cast Magic on Niu Armor to remove his status ailments, giving him a chance to escape. Dong Lin stood guard, ready for any surprises.
Lin Yan’s Magic was working, to an extent. Each spell she cast would clear Niu Armor’s frozen status, allowing him to take a single step forward before the surrounding mushrooms froze him again.
Fortunately, Niu Armor’s defense was high, and the Flannel Thermal Underwear he wore provided enough cold resistance that his health barely dropped.
Without his teammates’ help, however, escape would have been impossible. As time went on, without food or energy, he would have eventually become nothing more than a skeleton in this forest.
Luckily, he wasn’t alone.
Gradually, persuaded by Druids like Lin Kong who had maxed out their plant affinity, the mushrooms ceased their attacks. With Lin Yan continually dispelling the ice, Niu Armor was able to cover more ground each time he was freed. Finally, he broke free from the mushrooms’ attack range.
Niu Armor collapsed on the ground outside the Mushroom Forest, panting heavily, his heart still pounding with fear. Though he wasn’t injured, the experience of being frozen and helpless had been terrifying.
Once both Niu Armor and the mushrooms had been calmed, the next step was persuading the fungi to return with the team to their domain.
The promise of becoming ambulatory, sentient plants was as tempting as ever. Many of the mushrooms were captivated by the future Lin Kong’s group described and began demanding to be taken along. The situation even escalated to threats: if the team didn’t take them, they would freeze them on the spot and not let them leave.
It took a great deal of persuasion from Lin Kong and the others to talk them down. They explained that their domain was already expanding into this world and that the mushrooms would naturally become part of it if they just waited. Furthermore, if the team’s current expedition was successful, the expansion would speed up significantly. Only then did the mushrooms relinquish the idea of holding them captive.
However, the team had already used up all their containers for plants, so each member ended up stuffing their backpacks with mushrooms.
All except for Niu Armor, that is. He was thoroughly terrified of the mushrooms and wanted nothing to do with them.
After bidding farewell to the mushrooms, the team continued on their journey. With their plant containers full, they were no longer searching so meticulously for mutated flora.
If they happened to come across a valuable specimen, they would simply mark its location and move on. After all, once the Ice Crystal Tree’s influence expanded this far, these plants would naturally become part of their domain anyway.