From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 410: Whispering Tree and Proverbs Mushroom

As Omiron assumed the posture of Ultraman releasing the Zaperion Ray, the evil thought's psychic version of the brain CT scan began.

"This is so unusual..." Omiren muttered to himself as he examined it. "The larva in your brain has completely passed the hatching period. Compared with other larvae I have seen, it is terrifyingly strong... Your expert is right... It is indeed infused with a strange magic... Once this magic disappears, I am afraid you will immediately turn into one of my kind."

"Tell me something I don't know..." Xie Nian tried hard to suppress the urge to curse and said in a bad tone.

"Okay... okay... what's even more strange is that your skull has suffered serious trauma... The fact that your brain can still function normally is a miracle in itself." Omiren's psychic power poked back and forth on Xie Nian's head in the form of a probe, carefully probing this thing full of holes.

"Gods above...what does that mean?" asked Xie Nian.

"Someone opened your skull, took out some things, and added others... The larvae didn't even need to dig a tunnel when visiting your brain..." Omiren retracted his posture, and the psychic probe that was going in and out of the evil mind's head disappeared. "It's a pity that I can only evaluate my own kind and can't guess what happened to your brain..."

"That's enough..." Xie Nian waved his hand impatiently, "I still can't stand someone going in and out of my brain... I thought I didn't have much brain left for others to mess with... Can your alchemy potion work on the Mind Flayer tadpoles in my brain?"

"I think there's a great chance." Omiren put his hands behind his back and floated up. All mind flayers can use psychic power to float in the air, and he is no exception.

"It's a tincture distilled from rare mushrooms, which can produce quite subtle psychic effects. You can find some auxiliary materials in my mushroom nursery, but you need to find the two most important mushrooms yourself. Fresh tongue of madness, and spores of ghost head mushroom." Omiron briefly introduced his alchemical potion. Ivy speculated that it was effective through the hallucinogenic components in the mushrooms.

In the scientific world, most of these hallucinogenic ingredients are alkaloids or alcohols, but in the magical world, there may be other things involved in alchemical reactions.

After all, there is no mushroom on earth that can explode.

"The Devil's Head mushroom can hinder the cognitive ability of those who approach it, while the Tongue of Madness can make people crazy. They are both very dangerous mushrooms. If you plan to pick them, please be careful." Omiren explained.

"Putting these poisonous mushrooms into my stomach doesn't sound like a good idea..." There was no mushroom in Gale's cauldron, and even though the mushroom people repeatedly assured him that it was non-toxic, he did not waver at all.

"Not only these two kinds of mushrooms will be distilled and extracted, my alchemical formula will curb the more harmful effects." Omiren tried to dispel the adventurers' suspicions, "The psychic effect of the potion will activate the larvae in your brain, making it mistakenly believe that your brain has been completely rotten, so in order to survive, they will crawl out obediently. Then, we will be able to see the true face of this larvae."

"That sounds reasonable... Can you promise that the potion won't damage my brain again?" Xie Nian was a little tempted.

"Your sanity will remain intact, at least the remaining part of it will," Omiren promised.

"Great. I saw the ghost-head mushroom at the door. Considering that we are going to help the mushroom people deal with the gray dwarves, it will definitely be feasible to get some spores from them. What about the tongue of madness? Where should I find it?" Xie Nian thought for a while and asked aloud.

"I think you should look for Lenore, a priestess of Mystra who built her own tower in the Underdark," said the hobgoblin Bulger. "She has all kinds of plants in her garden, even whispering trees. Of course, she came to the Underdark to study the whispering trees."

"Whispering Tree!" Asdeln said to Ivy happily, "It looks like our weapons can get another upgrade. Remember that blueprint? It said we need Whispering Tree Bark."

"Yes," Ivy nodded, recalling the master weapon blueprint that Asdelon personally handed to him in the abandoned village. "The idea of the drow blacksmith apprentice is very good. It is similar to the carburizing process. The anti-magic properties of the Whispering Tree are integrated into the blade of the metal weapon through flames, thereby temporarily depriving the enemy of the ability to cast spells while hitting. But this technology has an obvious disadvantage. It cannot be applied to weapons that are already enchanted, because the Whispering Bark will destroy the original effect of the magic weapon. Maybe I can make some consumables such as throwing knives and arrows for you..."

"Where is the tower of Priest Mystra?" Ivy asked.

"It's on a high cliff beside Ebon Lake. If you want to go to the fishing village to cause trouble for those gray dwarves, you can easily find it." The hobgoblin Bulger said with a smile, "I'm so glad that someone can maintain peace in the Underdark. I wish you a smooth journey and safety."

"How do you know we are going to cause trouble for the gray dwarves?" Xie Nian looked at Omiren suspiciously. She felt that it must be the Mind Flayer who secretly accessed her memory when examining her brain.

"Of course I heard it from the mushroom people. My consciousness is also in their psychic network." The hobgoblin explained hurriedly, "Mushroom people, like mind flayers, can form psychic networks between individuals, and this network can be shared with other people who do not belong to the tribe through spores. They call it telepathy, which means unity of mind. Through telepathy, mushroom people pursue collective unity and seek higher enlightenment and spiritual sublimation. I think this is very similar to my ideal. It is precisely because of this special ability of the mushroom people that Omiren and I have stayed in this village."

After reluctantly accepting the explanation of the hobgoblin, the team returned to Gale's cauldron and ate today's lunch.

"Is it my illusion?" Asdeln took a sip of sour red wine. Although he looked down on this kind of country stuff, as a vampire derivative, sour red wine might be his only comfort at the dinner party. "Why do I feel that trouble is always chasing us? I thought we were looking for a way out, but now we are a little trapped underground. To be honest, I have never missed the sun so much, especially after I became a vampire."

"If you live, you will always face opportunities and challenges," Gale's wise demeanor emerged, "We walk underground, and many things here are opportunities for us, including the Whispering Tree, the Mithril Furnace, the Mystra Priest's Arcane Tower... but definitely not mushrooms!"

"Don't forget that we still have to rescue the husband in the bone cloak!" Will reminded.

"And the poor dwarf," Kalak added.

Asdeln rolled his eyes. "It seems that it's not the trouble that's chasing us, but we are looking for trouble."

"There are many things to do and little time, so we must plan our route carefully." Ivy drew a simple topographic map on the ground. "I just talked to an outsider in the village. Many water systems in this area can be regarded as branches of Ebony Lake, so it is more reasonable to use these rivers and pools as marking points. For example, the myconid fishing village that was massacred by the gray dwarves was built on the edge of Ebony Lake. To the south of the fishing village is the tower of Priest Mystra, and to the north is a huge Whispering Tree. As for the Temple of Shar, which is suspected to be an adamantine furnace, it is just opposite Ebony Lake. The light emitted by the Whispering Tree can be seen from a long distance underground, so we use the Whispering Tree as a reference to reach the edge of Ebony Lake first, and then go to other destinations."

Ivy had proven his ability many times over the past few days of adventure, so when he spoke, the team members never interrupted.

This time was no exception. The route proposed by Ivy was quickly passed unanimously, so after lunch, the team set out again, heading towards the faint blue light emitted by the Whispering Tree.

"Won't it be uncomfortable for you to be with the Whispering Tree, Ivy?" Kalak asked curiously, "After all, you seem to be better at magic than Gale."

"Hey, I heard it all!" Gale said dissatisfiedly, "My ability to cast spells has been severely suppressed, and the little visitor in our brain has caused the same effect..."

"But in fact, you didn't play a big role in the adventure. Not only did you swallow two of our magic items, but you even died twice!" The evil thought continued to attack, "I just hope that in the future you can stand in a safer position when the battle begins."

Gail stopped arguing and just muttered quietly.

Due to the length of the adventure group, Ivy didn't hear everything, but could vaguely make out a few words, like "Mystra," "Chosen One," "Orb of Destruction," and so on.

"The Whispering Tree can only suppress magic temporarily. It doesn't mean that I will lose the ability to cast spells for the rest of my life." Ivy smiled and answered Kalak's question. "Besides, I'm not just a mage."

"That's right, your swordsmanship is also very good." Kalak nodded, then pointed ahead and shouted, "Is that the Whispering Tree? I see a blue light!"

A dreamlike tree stretched out its branches and leaves emitting a soft silver-blue light from the bottomless abyss of the Underdark. It was a species unique to the Underdark, the Whispering Tree, which constantly released an anti-magic field.

The air in the underground world flows very slowly, but the silver-foil-like leaves of the Whispering Tree still bid farewell to the branches and slowly fall into the abyss with no end in sight. The light emitted by the leaf veins is stronger than that of fluorescent mushrooms, but weaker than moonlight. In this space where the sun, moon and stars cannot be seen, these points of light are already precious.

The members of the adventure team stopped and stood on the edge of the cliff to admire this rare spectacle.

"Hey - is there anyone? Save me!" The voice from below attracted the attention of the adventurers. They looked in the direction of the voice and saw only a field of green mushrooms besides the bottomless abyss.

There was a crackling sound, and as long as any living creature approached, a ball of highly toxic spores that was easily ignited would explode.

Once an open flame appears in the spore cloud, a phenomenon similar to a dust explosion will occur, blowing everything near the mushroom into pieces.

"Who's there!" Will shouted loudly, crouching down and looking down the cliff.

"Barron! Old Barron!" the cry for help rang out again. "Help me! Please! - Escape! My bag!"

"If there really is someone down there, he must be close to death. If you go down to save him, you will definitely die faster." Ming Sala glanced down, crossed his arms and sneered.

"He needs help, we can't just stand by and watch." Will was unmoved and began to look for a way to get down to the bottom of the cliff.

"Why do you say that, Minsala?" Gale tried to find clues from a patch of green mushrooms.

"Hmph. There's a torch next to the mushrooms." Minsala shifted the center of gravity under her feet. "As long as someone touches these mushrooms, it will cause a chain explosion."

The drow, who live underground, are born with darkvision, and although they cannot distinguish the color of objects in the dark, they can easily judge their heat.

The torches hidden in the mushroom bushes were difficult to distinguish with the naked eye, but Minsara could see them clearly at a glance.

Will, who had already hung himself on the vine, felt a little embarrassed, neither up nor down. After looking around for a long time, he finally found a foothold at the edge of the mushroom bush.

"It's a dwarf! He seems to be the husband of the mushroom merchant in the camp." Will looked up and said, "Mages, do you have any solution?"

"If I heard correctly, did he mention the backpack just now?" Gale confirmed, "Maybe there is a prop in his backpack that can help him escape."

Will's one eye looked around the cliff and said loudly, "I saw his backpack on a rock! If I jump over here, will it explode these mushrooms?"

Gale smiled. "Guess what, the Archmage of Waterdeep is ready to show off his intelligence! Wait a minute!"

"We're not yet in the forbidden magic range of the Whispering Tree, so my spells can still be effective..." Gale distracted himself by talking, trying not to look at the abyss under his feet.

"Thank you so much, Will." Gail grabbed Will's outstretched arm and stood firm in the narrow foothold.

After a few simple hand gestures, a ghostly arm was created by the Archmage.

It was the spell that Ivy often used to process potion ingredients—Mage's Hand.

"The Mage's Hand has no heat, so it won't attract the attention of these mushrooms. I just need to throw the backpack at old Barron's feet, and he will come out by himself!" Gale commanded the Mage's Hand to pick up the backpack while showing off his intelligence. "With magic, we don't always need to take risks by ourselves, right?"

Old Baron, who got the backpack, quickly took out a scroll from it. After a burst of light and mist, a dwarf trapped in the mushroom bush appeared beside the two of them, making the already poor place to stay even worse.

"Aha! Thank you!" said old Barron awkwardly.

"I met Driss in the mushroom village. She was waiting for you." Will showed his friendliness.

"Driss!" Old Barron said with an expression of sudden enlightenment, "But I haven't found the mushrooms yet..."

"Mushrooms?" Will was curious. "What kind of mushrooms are worth taking such a big risk to find?"

“Magic mushrooms!” Old Barron gestured with great effort, trying his best to describe what it looked like, but his injured brain made him fail. “Magic mushrooms… just like… just like this!”

Old Barron's eyes lit up because a mushroom that looked like a blooming flower was floating past them.

The dwarf leaped forward, trying to stop it in mid-air, completely ignoring the abyss below.

Will was quick to grab old Barron's belt and said, "You should lose weight... I finally know how you fell down..."

Barron's fingers failed to touch the Proverbs Mushroom. The flower-like mushroom fruiting body swayed in the air and soon came to the top of the cliff and fell into the hands of Ivy who was at ease.

"What...what kind of magic is this?" Gale asked in surprise.

A ghostly arm slowly appeared from the empty space next to Ivy, exactly like Gale's wizard's hand.

The Wizard's Hand saluted the three people below the cliff, and then disappeared.

"Come up quickly," Ivy said with a hint of laughter in his voice, "We still have things to do."

"Mystra's heel..." Gale rolled his eyes vigorously, "I should have thought of it earlier..."

(End of this chapter)