Keylynn stood face-to-face with one of the most daunting challenges yet: a new gnomish espresso machine. She can operate the elvish espresso machines, the dwarven coffee percolators, and the orcish cold brew pots, but the gnomish contraption is a new swamp.

  “I can see in those fear-filled forest green eyes that you are new. May I be the first to welcome you to the bountiful break room of floor seven,” a small, tinny voice echoed around her. She looked around the break room and saw no one. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m the break room brownie, Gil, of the Gamesh family.” A small goblinoid fey bowed at her, standing beside the gnomish contraption.

  Keylynn curtsied. She's met many brownies in her time back home. They come in all ranges of miniature fey creatures. The goblinoid brownies are known for being protective of their territory and take immense pride in their work and themselves. “It’s been far too long since I’ve met a goblinoid brownie. You do us a great honour. You have my many thanks.”

  The little winged goblin beamed with pride. “As part of my bountiful break room, please allow me to handle the vacuum press percolator. It’s new to the floor and the Gamesh family’s pride and joy. How would you like your coffee today?” He asked, flying up to the complex-looking machine. Keylynn couldn’t make sense of the impressive machine. It was a series of glass tubes, siphons, and pressure gauges. She saw there was a large container in the back that holds the roasted beans. There was a large glass container filled with water connected to a smaller one through a spiralled glass tube.

  “It’s for Eugene, my slime mould. It's coffee addiction puts Dauven’s to shame,” she explained, then paused. How would Eugene like their coffee? They usually drink anything. “Can you make something special to welcome them to the floor?” She asked, hoping a good cup of coffee would motivate Eugene to behave well.

  Gil got to work immediately. He flew up and hit one switch, causing water in a bottom glass cylinder to bubble. The heated water travelled up through an inner coil of a glass tube and flowed up into a second cylinder holding freshly ground coffee. He flew around and pressed another switch, resulting in a loud pop, sending coffee rushing down the path the water took, leaving the grounds behind. She will never understand how water was able to travel through what looked like solid opaque glass.

  Gil poured the cylinder of coffee into a fresh coffee mug, poured in a splash of milk, and topped it with both whipped cream and chocolate shavings. “Here you are. May your slime enjoy caffeine bliss.”

  “That was magical. I will be sure to inform you of their joy. I do hope you like making coffee. They have a thirst that I think won’t be quenched easily,” she smiled, smelling the coffee. Dauven is going to exclaim joyously when he discovers Gil and this new coffee machine.

  “I look forward to the challenge.”

  Keylynn gently poured the coffee into Eugene’s bowl. They moaned in ecstasy in response to the coffee, surprising her. She will have to check her matrix when she has a moment, because Eugene is different.

  “That’s not your desk.” A tall, willowy woman with her hands planted on her hips like firm oaks leered down at Keylynn. Everything about her screamed elven ancestry. Her soft, perfect, sun-kissed skin. Her long, elegant, pointed ears indicated common elven ancestry contrasting with Keylynn's. Forest elves are known for having short, stout, pointed ears and a range of skin tones that match the forest. Keylynn felt the elf sneering at her skin's natural dirt spots that she's always prided herself in. Dirt spots on Forest Elven skin indicate how close to the forest one is.

  Despite her desire to sound more casual, she still slipped into a more formal tone. “My deepest apologies, is this your desk? I’m sure Akzer was mistaken in informing me that it is mine.”

  She flipped her long golden hair and glared at Keylynn. “As the prospective leader of this team, I require this secondary desk for all of my additional duties. I don’t need some country bumpkin making a mess of my synergy.” She stared at her expectantly with her arms crossed.

  A couple of bees began to buzz around, and Keylynn attempted to shoo them away. A pseudopod shot out from Eugene and engulfed them both.

  “I am having confusion at this time,” Keylynn said calmly. “The floor manager informed me personally that this is to be my desk, as I am being assigned to this team for my leadership training program.” She used her HR representative voice and her conflict resolution training.

  The elven woman leaned down close to Keylynn’s face. “Then let me clear this up for you: go back to your forest, you hick, and leave my team and desk alone.”

  She leaned back away from the woman’s face. “Then be welcome to bring this to Akzer and inform them of their error.” The key to conflict resolution if one party refuses to see reason is to send them to someone higher on the corporate ladder. They are more likely to listen to someone with more authority.

  She glared and stomped towards Akzer’s office. Keylynn grabbed a pen and made a note on her desk notepad. She noted down everything about their interaction just in case she needed to file an HR report later.

  The only empty desk at the cluster was the one in front of her own. To her immediate right sat a large muscular human who gave her an apologetic smile before resuming his work. There was something about him that reminded her of a gentle bear. Across their desk sat someone lean and exceptionally well dressed. There was just something about them that felt as if their appearance of being human was a falsehood. On her left sat an elemental humanoid whose skin resembled smouldering coals and hair resembled molten rock. Seated across from them was the opposite elemental humanoid, with the skin of a churning ocean and hair resembling waves.

  Having nothing else to do but wait for the desk resolution, Keylynn chose to use her time to check her matrix. She skimmed through her attribute points. She wasn’t surprised to see the slight increases in wisdom, constitution, and willpower. Those three are the ones she passively uses the most. Her remaining attributes—strength, dexterity, intelligence, and charisma—showed no change. Her intelligence was likely going to begin to grow due to her new position in the leadership training program.

  She then read through her traits, abilities, and corporate title and duties tab. She wasn’t expecting any changes in her traits but did expect an improvement to her hyphal connection ability and her corporate traits and abilities.

  Traits:

  Elven Serene Grace: Due to their old magic ancestry and their elongated age, many find elves oddly stoic or serene. Elves have an unnatural innate control of their emotions. Elves often need less sleep than other humanoids. Adding to their unnatural demeanour, most humans politely describe elves politely as aloof.

  Fungoid Colony Cultivation: A druidic trait developed through a keen connection to nature, specifically fungi. This gives a druid an understanding of decay and an appreciation of creatures that are often reviled or ignored. A unique series of fungi or insect species can be cultivated with enough patience and love.

  Forest dweller: Some elves are found in thriving cities, while others are found deep in the woods and are happy to be there. These elves are most at home with their toes buried in the soft loamy soil of a forest surrounded by trees and woodland creatures. Clothing is optional.

  Abilities:

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Spellcasting: From an intensive connection to nature, see spell list for a full comprehensive view of spellcasting capabilities.

  Fungoid Cultivation: The ability to cultivate unique fungoid species can be further developed to cultivate insects and lichen. See Fungal Colonies tab for current fungal colony development.

  Hyphal Connection: Developed from a deep connection to fungi, allowing them to interact with the world on their behalf. An innate understanding of fungal species has been developed. Further development possible: further reach of hyphae, deeper connections with cultivated fungi, and more cultivation variants possible.

  Wild shape: A key druidic ability that allows them to morph and shapeshift into various animals. Some druids are more adept at this than others, adopting many forms ranging from insects to dragons.

  Corporate Granted Titles and Duties:

  HR Consultant: You have levelled up your corporate lingo and have handled many crises with cool sophistication. Moving to floor seven didn’t hurt either. Consultants can have individual clients within RADAWC, provided it doesn’t take away from their duties. No, this improvement doesn’t come with a pay increase.

  Seniority: You have proven yourself over your many years of service, as well as have been diligent in your continued education. Because of this, you have earned a heart filled with thanks from the board of directors as well as the authorization to conduct and lead complete assessments without the necessity for supervision by your team lead. Should your performance record decline, they will be rescinded. This honour comes with a salary bonus of 0.02% per year of service.

  Floor Seven: Welcome to floor seven. This grants you the ability to be a consultant in your respective field (if you are so qualified). Floor seven is responsible for testing most lower-grade quests within the present dimension and annual reviews and assessments of most quests with good standing, adventurer guildhalls, and academies. Being the first floor to allow both consultations and annual reviews, this floor is not for the faint of heart. Welcome to the floor seven family. You earn the initial salary for all floor seven workers. Bonuses and salary increases are determined by performance reviews at the floor manager's discretion.

  Team leadership training program: You have been accepted into the team leadership training program. Congratulations. All your hard work has finally paid off into something tangible. Upon successfully finishing this program, you will be qualified to be a team leader. Every mentee (you) has a mentor (Dauven) and an assigned team. The assigned team must be one without an official team leader. Accompanying authorizations: team management of unnamed team, team administration, team member matrix assessment, and guidance. All authorizations are subject to change at any time. This comes with a 0.001% salary increase. All increases are based on team performance.

  Current team(s):

  Floor Five Team: Leader Dauven, HR consultant Keylynn (you), accountant Riv, health and safety consultant Gwen, and arcane research and dungeon design consultants Barnibus and BEEG.

  Unnamed: Team leader (in training): Keylynn (you), Undeclared Discipline Demetra, Safety and Quality Assurance Zukykov, HR, and Administration Ragna, Quest Testing Tsunami and Inferno.

  She read through her hyphal connection ability, and she discovered that it explained a few of the things she’s noticed. Her colonies have become more connected to her and in tune with her thoughts and feelings and are reacting accordingly. Looking through her corporate titles and duties, she was pleased to see that she has finally been upgraded to consultant instead of remaining a representative. That will give her even more authority when it comes to filing file requisitions, emergency assessment requests, conflict resolution recommendations, and more. She just needed her new matrix tablet before she conducted any team matrix assessments; it just doesn’t feel right to do that while they can clearly see that’s what she’s doing. She opted to skip over her corporate qualifications tab as she wasn't expecting any changes. The only time something is added is when she completes a training program.

  Next she clicked on her fungal cultivation tab, elated to see all of the growth her variants had. Her puff shrooms had the most pronounced growth, being the ones she carried with her the longest.

  Fungal Cultivations

  Puff Shrooms: the fruiting bodies grow into large round white balls of soft spongy tissue that swell and puff when eaten. Their spores are released in a large exhale along the vents dotting the top of the mycelial cap.

  Current development variants:

  Spores: the spores of this fungus have developed various harmful effects as a protection mechanism: Yellow spores induce heavy sleep; orange spores cause numbness and loss of motor function over prolonged exposure; red spores cause searing pain and will burrow into flesh upon prolonged exposure; purple spores cause extreme nasal discomfort when exposed to nasal tissues, and black spores will cause large black pustules to develop on any flesh they are exposed to.

  Further development variants possible: flesh of the fruiting body upon ingestion, spore variants, and improved malady afflictions.

  Slime mold: A large group of highly adaptable moulds that, as the name suggests, grow as a slime and move through the formation of pseudopods. Their hyphae are incredibly small and hard to see, unlike other fungi, their hyphae are the smaller part of the organism, dwarfed by the slime body.

  Current development variants:

  Chitinous Slime mold: Capable of hardening to form an outer layer akin to insectoid chitin, forming a formidable natural armour that is both rigid and flexible. Has developed the ability to form shelf mushroom fruiting bodies, adding extra offensive capabilities to the armour they produce. Further development variants possible: thickened chitin, rapid growth, mucus covering, and insectoid appendage development.

  Telepathic Slime Mould—Brown: A slime mould that developed mild telepathic abilities through touch. Known for a strong memory. The slime body can be divided and separated from itself. Upon reuniting the missing slime body pieces, all that piece learned is now known by the original slime body. Excellent at transmitting information. Has developed visual and auditory information receptors. Further variant development: enhanced sensory acquisition, telepathy across a distance, touch no longer required, and hive mind.

  Telepathic Slime Mould—Eugene: A variant of the brown slime mould that has been cultivated for telepathy abilities. This slime mould developed the caffeine addiction trait. More research is needed to understand the impact of the caffeine addiction trait. Has potential for distance telepathy.

  Water slime mould: These slime fungi are at home in the aquatic environment; specifically, their slime body is typically translucent and filled with excess water.

  Current development variants:

  Frog Spawn Variant: This water slime resembles frog spawn with large clusters of clear orbs fused together. Within each orb is a dark sphere. Unlike other water slimes, this one is highly nutritious when ingested. The taste resembles that of algae. Further development variants possible: more water slime mould research is needed to narrow the list. Further development variants possible to cultivate novel slime mould variants.

  Pine Mushroom: Possessed a fruiting body that grows upwards with a pointed cap akin to pine trees. These fruiting bodies are unique in that their spores are released as small needles. The flesh is filled with several natural agents that deter ingestion.

  Current development variants:

  Burning Pine Mushroom: Characterized by its red striated stem and cap resembling the shape and size of flames. Ingestion induces an extreme burning sensation throughout digestion. Repeated ingestion in a short period of time can cause severe burns to the digestive system.

  Further development variants possible: increased variation of ingestion sensations and fruiting body colours and spore needle effects.

  Bell Caps: Little is currently known about this colony. The fruiting body makes the soft chime of a bell when moved. More development is needed to learn more and discover variant possibilities.

  Corpse Flower Mushroom: A carnivorous fungus. More development and research are needed.

  Keylynn spent the rest of her day experimenting with Eugene to see if different types of coffee affected it while reading through the information packet. It held a lot of useful information, such as all teams on floor seven having a team name as well as the minutes of the previous month's floor-wide meetings. It also introduced her to the team leadership program, all of the training courses she would need to conduct on her own time at work, as well as all of the assessments she will need to complete with Dauven and the hours she will need to be an acting leader for a team under Dauven’s supervision.

  To her surprise the irate elf and Akzer were absent from the desk cluster. Every hypha of her HR training knew that was a bad omen.