Krafft's Anomaly Notes

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

Scattered around the fire were wedge-shaped pieces of wood, from different places, different species, and different sizes, the only thing in common was the same color erosion from the inside out.Kraft kicked them into the bonfire one by one. The undehydrated wood crackled as it burned, and then quickly turned black, and the loose and stained parts shrank and rolled up abnormally, evaporating burnt-smelling water vapor, mixed into the expanding smoke group.

When people with good associative ability saw the diseased wood chips, they looked up at the same time. The extraordinarily abundant sunlight here gave people who looked up at the canopy a certain kind of coolness that was not physically present.

That is the sparser branches and leaves than other forests, which leaked extra light to the ground, but this light did not promote the growth of more low plants.On the contrary, the shrubs and weeds are particularly sparse, even if they are still alive, they tend to look sluggish and low-lying, resulting in that special sense of flatness and openness.

Martin drew his sword and cut down a clump of mushrooms that germinated at the root of the tree, and cut the canopy and the wood into two sections. Only then did he realize that those soft things did not grow on the hard wood surface, but were rooted in the almost-cut out Hollow roots, filaments and wood fibers woven into bundles pointing underground.

"Dig down." He instructed the servant who was holding the shovel.

The shovel digs into the soil, digs out the invisible root system under the soil surface, and you can see the silk-network adhesion on the mottled surface without cleaning. The branches that should be tough are easily shoveled off, like moldy radishes that have failed to dry. , showing disgustingly corrupt softness.

The excavated mud clods give people a delicate and fertile sense of vitality, depositing incredible humus nutrients, which seem to flow backward from the forest into the earth.

Along with the excavation, apart from these obviously anti-natural images, the silent onlookers increasingly felt a lack of inconspicuous but important things.

Those insects that are active everywhere on the surface and underground have not crawled out due to human disturbance, as if they have migrated away from this land collectively, or have integrated into this land like the hollowed out parts of those trees?
【Mushroom Grove】

"But it should have nothing to do with us, right?" Hu who dug the pit asked in a low voice. It is not pleasant to be in a forest that is seriously ill, and he soon realized that he was more disturbed than the discomfort at this time. "I just don't know if it will affect the wheat harvest."

"But don't think too much about them. They are still hiding in this forest, which shows a lot of problems. Of course, if you are afraid of going back on your word now, there is still time."

"Probably." Kraft took the shovel from his subordinate, plunged into the hole, cut off a tree root, picked it out, and easily crushed it with his boots.

"We agreed that we were here to find heretics, right?"

"What's the situation?" Barrow Knight observed Kraft and Martin, feeling that there was something tacit between the professor and his colleagues, guiding the team here, "Some kind of tree disease?"

From an angle that Martin couldn't see, Kraft nodded slightly approvingly, saying half of it and half of it to ensure that things went well, which was in line with his impression of Martin.

Kraft recalled the scene Martin had described, mushrooms everywhere, growing everywhere in sight.In fact, they have already been surrounded by fungi, but in a form that does not show mountains and dews, and in a more sinister form. From the unknown depth below their feet to the crown of trees more than [-] meters above their heads, fungi thrive in invisible places .

"That's right, it's the pagan religion that was particularly active some time ago." Without thinking, Martin affirmed what he said when he set off, "You have also seen that they dare to put their hands into the church, and what can they do if they let 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 poke a hole in his breastplate with his eyes, "Intuition, and my love for you My understanding tells me that this has something to do with our intention to come, but you didn't tell me anything that is inconvenient to say."

The somewhat rough attitude played a very good soothing effect, or it was due to the prestige of commanding the guards on weekdays, and the camp quickly resumed operations.Barrow stood where he was, and waited for the crowd to disperse, then called Martin to stop.

He pointed at the pit that had been filled back, and stomped his feet on the floating soil, "I don't think you're lying, but it's definitely different from what I thought."

"That's none of our business. Tell the internal affairs officer when you go back. No matter how much wheat is reduced, the Duke will not lose your boy's ration." Seeing that the atmosphere was getting weird again, Baro interrupted the subordinate and forcibly Bring the topic back to business.

"Then you have wronged me. I told you before I set off. These are a group of unusual pagans who possess some vicious witchcraft. If you are afraid of death, don't join in the fun." Martin said sternly.

As the vassals of the low-level nobles and the reservists of the knights, the retinues are far from losing their sensitivity to the land. Those who have seen plant diseases must clearly remember the omen of hunger. If this vision of going deep into the land has Contagion would be a more cruel disaster than war in any territory.

The erosion and combination of mycelium in the roots is far greater than the ratio in the trunk. The infection spreads from bottom to top, forming a predatory and symbiotic posture with the trees, turning these tall plants into a part of the mycelium network, and dying Nutrients are provided to this huge whole in the process of promoting their expansion.

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

"We're here to find heretics. Maybe it's those ungodly guys who are hiding here, and that's why Heavenly Father punished us." He stared around, then turned around and kicked the soil back into the pit to flatten it. "Go back, prepare to spend the night early."

From the first memory of paresthesias to the campsite, they walked on the fungal body for at least half a day without realizing it.

If this area can expand, sooner or later it will affect the town of Hudson.In other words, it has already had an impact, and they have heard complaints more than once that the output in the forest has decreased.

"That's right, this may be part of the 'male witchcraft'." Kraft answered Martin's question with a heavy tone. He never thought that such a scene would happen, and he couldn't figure out what was going on.

"You are insulting the most important quality of a knight." Turning back is an absolutely impossible option at this moment, and Barrow doesn't think there is any problem in the Westminster area that this team cannot solve. "Just to be on the safe side, I remember we Bring oil, right?"

"That amount is not used to set fire to the mountain. It can't finish this wet forest." It is also impossible to kill the mycelium hidden deep in the ground. "We have to find the source of these things."

It was supposed to be hiding deeper in the fungal forest, waiting for Kraft to unearth it, and answer a question that came with the new discovery.

[What does it need so many nutrients for? 】

Pushing an American drama-style novel "Anomalous Population Control Bureau", it feels a bit similar to "Abyss Syndrome", and also incorporates some scp elements.