The Life, Death, and Relife of the Mushroom Mage

Chapter 12

Mally had progressed to rank D. This was a relief for many reasons. They were getting sick of fetch quests, and they wanted to fight some monsters. However, they didn't anticipate the monsters would be small frogs that breathed sparks.

They were an invasive species, bought as pets by the upper class during a craze about fifty years ago and abandoned in the area outside the capital as a result. The problem was that they caused wildfires. There was magic to deal with the wildfires specifically, but the correct motion was to cull them, which Mally was doing. The problem? The guild sold them to the upper class so they could eat them as delicacies, which meant Mally couldn't just poison them all. Honestly, frog legs.

Mally could suffocate them, though, so that was what they were going to do. They had walked this time, leaving Rat in the stable so the stablemaster could work him, and now here they were, a backpack on their shoulders as they looked at the sea of frogs in the stagnant pond, flopping here and there and croaking up a storm. They were pretty things, colored bright red and purple, and Mally could understand why there was a craze about them.

A frog croaked loudly, and they sighed and sat down. They felt a little bad for this, but they were an invasive species. With another sigh, they activated their magic.

The frogs all panicked, spewing out sparks, and Mally blinked as they realized that they were just going to burn through the mycelium. Oh. That wasn't going to work. With a sigh, they drew their boot knife and got to work.

It was tedious, hunting down each individual frog and slitting their throat neatly. They found themself in the water, sloshing through it, getting their pants wet and getting water in their boots. They actually hated this, they thought grimly. They caught one, two, three, all the way up to thirty, which was what the request entailed. They had planned on going home with more than that, but catching them individually was just not working. There were closer to fifty frogs in this pond, but it was fine. It was fine.

They sloshed their way out of the water and stood in annoyance at the bank, soaked and with their backpack bursting with dead frogs. Honestly. Rich people. They would have never gotten a damn invasive species.

"Alright, let's go home," they muttered under their breath and started the long trek through the woods to the capital. They had no idea who was the quest giver for this one. Probably some rich asshole hosting a party. Who needed sixty frog legs? They were big boys, too. Really big. And heavy. They wished they had just brought their spatial bag, but they knew better. The spatial bag was well hidden, in a spatial pocket in their pants, and they didn't bring it out in front of other people, ever. Really, they needed to get a bank account. But, it would definitely raise eyebrows if Mally opened a bank account and deposited that amount of money. Geeorgina's allowance had been hefty.

They supposed they could deposit it slowly, over time. People would think they were up to no good, but adventurers got extra money all the time. Actually? They would wait until they were B-rank.

With a sigh, they looked up at the sun baking down on them. They hadn't needed to join a party yet, but that would change at some point. They weren't looking forward to it. Fungal magic was powerful. Honestly, they had been given an OP skill in this life. They had been given a very OP skill. They didn't want to show it off to anyone. They just wanted to chill.

They made it out of the trees, and headed for the road. Another group of adventurers were heading into the forest, and they waved at Mally.

"Mally!" one of them called, and Mally lifted a hand in a wave. "What are you doing?"

Mally didn't know any of their names, and found it a bit strange that they knew theirs, but they stopped anyway as the adventuring party made its way over to them.