They Wanted a Hero. They Made a Monster: Born at the Bottom
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 9: When the Fiend Stirs
“Don’t these need to be buried?”
“I’m not a plant.”
Did people in this world truly not know the difference between plants and fungi?
The pack Puffcaps had carried every Ember Gnat carcass and fragment of larva back to the Mycelial Garden.
Ember Gnats relied on Agility and Dodge rather than physical resilience. A hit from Spore Cannon or the armored cap of a Puffcap rarely left an intact corpse.
Their remains now lay in an even layer across the Nursery. Hyphae had already begun to sprout from the first load.
Decomposing a monster carcass provided Evan with both skill proficiency and mana. A single Ember Gnat held very little mana, but there were hundreds of them.
Evan intended to spend every bit of that mana on new Puffcaps.
Through natural mana absorption, the Mycelial Garden could support roughly 300 Puffcaps. A hundred belonged to the logistics group and kept the garden functioning. Only the remaining two hundred were available for combat.
This time, Evan planned to exceed the limit and produce 400 combat Puffcaps at once. He would commit all of them to the Earthborer hunt.
If too many survived, he could always reduce their numbers afterward. Maximizing the chance of success mattered more.
There was no second Ember Gnat Nest nearby to provide so many nutrients so easily. If the hunt failed, Evan had no idea when he would be able to assemble another force.
“Evan, look! I think I gained a new talent!”
Elara had conjured a Water Serpent nearby. Evan had watched her use the spell during the battle. Calling it invincible would be inaccurate. Calling it useless would be much closer.
Its range was short and its power poor. Even a direct hit had failed to kill an Ember Gnat. Its sole advantage was that the caster could adjust its course after launch, but Elara’s dreadful control had somehow turned even that into a liability.
Compared with Ice Blade, the spell was hopeless.
Elara seemed to have reached the same conclusion. After using Water Serpent twice at the beginning of the battle, she had abandoned it.
Now, however, the conjured serpent moved gracefully around her, coiling like a small guardian.
That was far beyond Elara’s normal ability. Evan immediately opened her Status Panel.
As expected, she had reached LV30. Even the small share of XP she received from hundreds of Ember Gnats had raised her by two levels.
A new Permanent Effect had appeared: [Favor of the Elemental Spirits: elemental spirits assist with spell control].
“Try attacking that rock with Ice Blade.”
The target Evan selected stood three hundred yards away. When they first encountered the Ember Gnat scouts at the same distance, Elara’s Ice Blade had missed by an absurd margin.
“What? All right, I’ll try.”
Evan knew the spell had gone wide the instant she launched it. In flight, however, the blade miraculously corrected its course and clipped the corner of the rock.
“I ... I hit it!”
Even Elara sounded astonished.
If her initial aim had not been quite so terrible, the spell might have struck the center. Correcting such a wild shot enough to graze the target was impressive work by the Elemental Spirit.
Evan also noticed that the Water Serpent remained active while Elara used Ice Blade.
Was this something like assisted control by artificial intelligence, except the Elemental Spirit performed the work?
So Elemental Spirits actually existed in this world. Until now, Evan had assumed magic was simply magic.
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