"There are seventeen in all, and none of them are normal."

The wedge-shaped pieces of wood were scattered around the fire, from different locations, of different species, and of different sizes, but the only thing they had in common was the same stain of color erosion from the inside out. Kraft kicked them into the campfire in turn, the undehydrated wood crackling as it burned, and then quickly blackened, and the loose spots shrank and rolled up unnormally, evaporating the scorched water vapor and mixing in the swollen smoke masses.

People with good associations invariably look up at the diseased wood chips, but the extra abundance of sunlight here makes those who look up at the canopy feel a certain chill that is not on the body.

It was a sparse foliage than elsewhere in the woods, leaking extra light to the ground, which did not encourage the growth of more low plants. On the other hand, shrubs and weeds are particularly sparse, and even those that survive tend to be languid and low, resulting in a peculiar sense of flatness and openness.

Martin drew his sword and slashed at a clump of fungus that had sprouted at the root of the tree, cutting the canopy in two with the wood, only to realize that the tender things did not grow on the hard wooden surface, but on the almost hollowed-out roots, and the filaments and wood fibers were woven into bundles pointing to the ground.

"Dig down." He commanded the servant with the shovel.

The shovel plunged into the soil, turning out the invisible root system under the soil, and without washing, you could see the coiled wire-like adhesion on the mottled surface, and the branches that should have been tough were easily cut off, like moldy radishes that failed to dry out, showing a disgusting rotten softness.

The excavated mud gives a delicate and fertile sense of life, depositing incredible humus nutrients, which seem to flow back from the forest and into the earth.

And with the excavation, in addition to these obviously anti-natural images, the silent onlookers increasingly feel that something inconspicuous and important is missing.

The insects that live everywhere on the surface and underground have not crawled out of the human disturbance, as if they have migrated out of the land en masse, or ...... Like the hollowed-out parts of the trees, integrated into the land?

Mushroom Forest】

Kraft remembered the sight Martin had described, where the fungus was everywhere, growing everywhere it could see. In fact, they have long been surrounded by fungi, but in an inconspicuous form, in a more sinister form, from the unknown depth of the ground under their feet to the canopy of more than 20 meters above their heads, the fungus thrives in invisible places.

"What's going on?" Barrow Knight observed Kraft and Martin, sensing that there was something tacit between the professor and his colleagues, and guided the group here, "Some kind of tree disease?" ”

"Sort of." Kraft took the shovel from his hand, plunged it into the pit, cut off a tree root, and easily crushed it with his boot.

The erosion and binding of hyphae in the roots is much greater than the proportion in the trunk, and the infection spreads from the bottom up, forming a predatory and symbiotic posture with the trees, turning these tall plants into part of a network of mycelium, providing nutrients to this huge whole and facilitating their expansion in the process of decay.

From the first appearance of paresthesias in their memories to the camping site, they walked on the fungal body for at least half a day without realizing it.

"But...... It shouldn't have anything to do with us, right? Hu, who was digging the pit, asked in a whisper how it was not pleasant to be in a seriously ill forest, and he soon realized that something more disturbing to him than the discomfort at this time was, "I just don't know if it will affect the wheat harvest." ”

As vassals of the lower nobles and reservists of the knights, the servants were far from being insensitive to the land, and those who had seen plant disease would have a clear memory of the omen of hunger, and if this vision of penetrating into the land were to spread, it would be a disaster more cruel than war in any realm.

If this area can be expanded, sooner or later it will affect Hudson. Or they have heard more than once complain about the reduced output in the forest.

"That's none of our business, when we go back, give the internal affairs officer a mouthful, no matter how much wheat is reduced, the duke will not lose your boy's rations." Seeing that the atmosphere was strange again, Barrow interrupted the servant and forcibly brought the conversation back to business.

"We're here to find the heretics, and maybe it's those ungodly creatures hiding here that provoke the Heavenly Father to punish us." Sticking his waist and glaring around, he turned around and kicked the dirt back into the pit and stepped on it, "Go back and prepare for the night early." ”

The somewhat rough attitude served as a good reassurance, or as a result of the usual aftermath of commanding the guards, the camp quickly resumed operations. Barrow stood still, waiting for the crowd to disperse and stopped Martin.

"We said we were here to find the infidels, right?"

"That's right, it's the pagan religion that was particularly active some time ago." Without thinking, Martin affirmed what he had said when he set out, "You see, what can they do by putting their hands in the church and letting it go?" ”

"That's weird." Barrow stared at Martin, and the professor who seemed to have something to say, as if he was about to drill a hole in his breastplate with his gaze, "Intuition, and what I know about you, tell me that it has something to do with our intentions, but what inconvenient things you didn't tell me." ”

He pointed to the filled pit and stomped his feet on the floating dirt, "I don't think you're lying, but it's certainly not what I thought it was." ”

From an angle that Martin couldn't see, Craft nodded slightly in agreement, saying that he would half-hide and half-ensure that things went smoothly, which was very much in line with his impression of Martin.

"Then you have wronged me, I said it before I left. This is an unusual group of heretics, who have some vicious witchcraft, and those who are afraid of death should not join in the fun. Martin said.

"So what 'malevolent witchcraft' is real?" Barrow looked a little surprised, but then his expression twitched, "So these ......"

"Yes, this may be part of 'malevolent witchcraft.'" Kraft answered Martin's question in a heavy tone, he hadn't thought it would be like this, and he couldn't think of what it was.

"But don't think too much about them, the fact that they're still hiding in the woods says a lot in itself. Of course, it's too late if you're afraid to regret it now. ”

"You are insulting the most important qualities of a knight." Turning back is absolutely impossible at this point, and Barrow doesn't think there's anything in Westminster that this team can't solve, "Just to be on the safe side, I remember we brought fire oil, right?" ”

"That amount is not used to set fire to the mountain, and it can't finish this wet forest like a soaked forest." It is also impossible to kill the mycelium hidden deep underground, "we have to find the source of these things." ”

It should be hidden deeper in this fungal forest, waiting for Kraft to unearth and answer a new question.

What does it need so many nutrients for? 】