Ryan held the Resonance Bloom in his hand. It pulsed with a soft, inviting light, like a tiny crystal disco ball just for him.
The Lore Scanner function, born from that mysterious Precursor tablet fragment, had told him it would boost his senses and clear his head.
"Mildly psychoactive," it had also warned, with a cheeky note about craving shiny things.
Ryan figured he already had a mild craving for shiny things that gave him power-ups, so that wasn't much of a change.
"Here goes nothing," he mumbled, and took a bite.
The texture was surprising. It wasn't crunchy like he expected a crystal fruit to be. It was more like firm, cool jelly, and it dissolved on his tongue almost instantly, leaving behind a taste that was hard to describe a little bit like mint, a little bit like starlight [ if starlight had a flavor ], and a little bit like the feeling you get when you solve a really tricky puzzle.
It was pleasant. Definitely better than beige goo or survival bricks.
As soon as he swallowed, a wave of clarity washed over him. It wasn't a sudden jolt, more like someone had expertly cleaned a very dusty window in his brain.
The whispering of the giant fungi in the grove, which had been a vague background hum, sharpened into distinct, almost musical sighs.
The colors of their glowing caps became incredibly vivid, each hue a perfect, vibrant jewel. He could see the tiny, almost invisible spores drifting in the air, each one a miniature spark of light.
The earthy smell of the grove was now a complex perfume of damp soil, sweet nectar, and something else something metallic and a little bit dangerous that he hadn't noticed before.
His god Interface pinged, showing the immediate effects:
Resonance Bloom Consumed!
Temporary Effects [30 Minutes]:
Sensory Acuity +50%
Mental Clarity +30%
Permanent Effect: +5 Intellect!
"Permanent plus five Intellect!" Ryan exclaimed softly, genuinely impressed.
This little fruit was a powerhouse! His brain felt brainier. Like he could suddenly do long division in his head while juggling, though he had no desire to try either.
His Intellect stat was now 15. He was practically a genius by his old standards.
He looked around the Whispering Grove with his newly super-charged senses. It was like seeing the world in high definition for the first time after a lifetime of watching fuzzy old TVs.
He could see the delicate veins on the underside of a leaf fifty feet away, hear the tiny scuttling of some unseen insect deep under the mulch, and even smell the faint, lingering fear-scent from where the Grove Stalker had fought him.
It was a little overwhelming, but mostly amazing.
His gaze fell upon the giant, pulsating fungi again. Now that his senses were so sharp, he noticed something new. Some of them, particularly the older-looking ones with slightly duller caps, seemed to be withering.
Their glow was weaker, their whispers more like faint, tired sighs.
He approached one of these sadder-looking mushrooms. Using his enhanced vision, he could see tiny droplets of a thick, almost honey-like liquid oozing from cracks in its stem.
It glowed faintly with the same color as the mushroom's cap.
His Lore Scanner activated:
Scanning Object: Withering Echo Fungus [Anomalous Flora, Tier E]
Note: This specimen is nearing the end of its life cycle. The liquid exuded is a concentrated form of its psycho-acoustic energy, known as 'Sonic Nectar.' Caution: May cause auditory hallucinations or an uncontrollable urge to yodel if consumed in large quantities by unprepared individuals.
"Sonic Nectar, eh?" Ryan mused. "Psycho-acoustic energy. Sounds potent." He remembered the God Warden's first announcement about Aptitude Symbiosis unlocking innate potential.
His own SSS-Tier was about extraction and assimilation. Maybe he didn't need to eat the nectar directly. Maybe he could just extract its essence.
He focused on a patch of the withering Echo Fungus, specifically on the glistening droplets of Sonic Nectar.
"Okay, System," he thought. "Let's see if we can get the good stuff without the yodeling."
Target: Sonic Nectar [Echo Fungus Byproduct]
Initiating Extraction Protocol
Warning: Target Substance Is Potentially Unstable. Direct Assimilation Recommended Over Consumption for Unverified Organic Compounds.
Extraction Complete!
Acquired: Concentrated Sonic Essence!
Effect: +2 Permanent Intellect!
Ryan felt another gentle wave of mental clarity, less dramatic than the Resonance Bloom, but still noticeable.
His brain felt even more brainier! His Intellect was now 17! This was fantastic! He was practically collecting brain points!
His Interface also updated his overall status:
Threat Level: Enhanced Human
"Enhanced Human!" He grinned. "I'm moving up from 'Novice Hunter.' I like the sound of that. Sounds like I should come with a cool theme song."
He resisted the urge to hum one out loud. He wasn't sure if the yodeling side effect applied to humming too.
He spent a few more minutes in the grove, carefully extracting Sonic Essence from a few other withering fungi.
Each successful extraction gave him a tiny bit more understanding of the energy, but no more permanent Intellect points from these particular ones. It seemed there was a limit to what he could get from one type of source in a short period. Still, +2 Intellect for free was a win.
As he was about to leave the grove, his super-enhanced hearing picked up something new. It was faint, almost masked by the whispering of the fungi, but it was definitely there: a rhythmic click-click-click sound, accompanied by the sound of something heavy being dragged through the undergrowth. It was coming from the direction opposite to how he'd entered the grove.
Curiosity, now super-charged by his enhanced senses and a brain buzzing with newfound intellect, got the better of him.
"Drag marks and clicking," he murmured. "That sounds like a mystery. And mysteries sometimes have shiny loot." Or, you know, more things that want to eat him. It was always a fifty-fifty chance in the Shifting Wilds.
He followed the sounds, moving with a new stealthiness thanks to his "Environmental Camouflage" talent and his increased Agility.
The Resonance Bloom's effects were still going strong, making him feel like a super-powered jungle detective.
The drag marks were clear on the damp earth something heavy had definitely been pulled this way. The clicking sound grew louder.
After a few minutes, he heard something else: muffled shouts, the clang of metal [or at least, something hard hitting something else hard], and a familiar hissing sound, followed by a weird, warbling pulse of sound that made his eardrums vibrate unpleasantly even from a distance.
He crept closer, parting a curtain of thick vines.
In a small, rocky clearing ahead, he saw a familiar figure: Scarlett "Red" Viper, the A-Tier stealth user. She wasn't alone. She was with a small team of three other novices, and they were in trouble.
They were fighting another Grove Stalker. This one looked bigger, meaner, and its colors shifted even more erratically than the one Ryan had fought.
And this one was making that awful, disorienting sonic pulse that was messing with Ryan's ears even from here.
Scarlett and her team were struggling. Her "Shadow Weave" illusions shadowy figures that flickered and danced around the Stalker were clearly distracting it, but the creature's sonic attacks seemed to be throwing off their coordination.
One of her teammates was already down, clutching his head, and another was stumbling, looking dazed.
Ryan watched from the shadows, his mind racing. He could help. Or he could observe. Or he could try to extract something from the sonic pulses mid-air. Decisions, decisions.
Being an "Enhanced Human" came with so many more interesting, and potentially fatal choices.