"Now that's what I'm talking about."
The light coalesced, twisted, and deposited something into her outstretched palm.
It was a heart—or something like one. Fist-sized, pulsing with a faint bioluminescent glow, its surface textured like the cap of a fly agaric. Veins of deep crimson threaded through pale fungal flesh, and with each pulse, a tiny puff of luminescent spores escaped from pores along its surface.
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[ EPIC DROP! ]
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[ Spore Lord's Heart ]
— Consumable (Alchemical Reagent) —
Rarity: Epic
Type: Synthesis Material
DESCRIPTION:
The still-beating heart of a Spore Lord, saturated with centuries of accumulated mycotic essence. It pulses with corrupt vitality, each beat releasing spores that carry the blueprint of madness itself.
EFFECT:
Cannot be consumed directly. Must be processed via advanced alchemical synthesis.
[ LORE ]
► Tap to expand
Six frowned at the floating screen.
"Alchemical reagent? What am I supposed to do with—"
She tapped the lore description.
The screen expanded, new text scrolling into view.
[ LORE — The Spore Lord's Heart ]
The Spore Lords are ancient beings—fungal colonies that achieved singular consciousness through centuries of growth and consumption. Their hearts are not organs in the traditional sense, but nexuses of mycotic energy where the colony's collective will resides.
A skilled alchemist with access to a proper cauldron can use this heart to synthesize a curative compound capable of reversing Red Spore corruption in affected creatures. The process requires;
Six read the list of ingredients, all of which she possessed back at her gingerbread cabin.
The resulting elixir, was known as the ''Clarifying Drought.'' Which could cure even long-term corruption if administered before the subject's psyche is completely destroyed.
Six stared at the screen.
She read it again.
She read it a third time.
"Holy shit," she breathed.
"My Queen?" Gorm leaned over her shoulder, squinting at the floating text he couldn't read. "What does it say?"
Six turned to face him, the pulsing heart clutched against her chest, her eyes wide with dawning realization.
"Gorm. This thing—" She held up the heart. "It can be used to cure the madness."
"Yes? Is bad thing. We destroyed bad thing."
"No, you don't understand." Six was grinning now, exhaustion forgotten, pain forgotten, everything forgotten except the impossible hope blooming in her chest. "The corruption has a cure. And this heart is the key ingredient to making it."
Gorm's brow furrowed. Then his small eyes went wide.
"Cure? Cure for... for madness?"
"For all of it. Every creature Farquat's ever poisoned. Every twisted fairy tale monster stumbling through this nightmare world." Six clutched the heart tighter, feeling it pulse against her palms. "If I can get this back to my cabin—back to my cauldron—I can synthesize an antidote. I can fix them, Gorm."
The ogre was silent for a long moment.
When he spoke, his voice was rough.
"Could... could cure have saved Gorm's wife? If Gorm had found sooner?"
Six's excitement faltered. She looked up at the ogre's face—at the desperate hope warring with old grief in those small eyes.
"I... I don't know," she admitted softly. "The lore says it works if the subject's psyche isn't completely destroyed. If she was still fighting, still her underneath the madness..."
She trailed off.
Gorm nodded slowly, processing this.
"Then cure must not go to waste." His jaw set with determination. "Must save others. So, no one else loses wife. Loses family. Loses self."
Six reached up and placed a hand on his massive forearm.
"We're going to make this right, Gorm. All of it." She looked down at the heart, watching it pulse with stolen life. "But first, we need to get out of here and back to the Black Forest. I've got a cauldron waiting, and—" She checked the lore again. "—fourteen days before this thing goes inert."
"Then we move. Now." Gorm grabbed his club and turned toward the far corridor—the one the aristocrat had used to exit. "Gorm will carry Queen if needed. We do not stop until we reach Black Forest."
Six tucked the Spore Lord's Heart carefully into her pack, cushioning it between her softer items.
Six looked into the distance, "Let's hoof it."