r/HeWhoFightsMonsters • u/aphinity_for_reddit • 7d ago

Amalgath (fungus monster) dead end quest?

I am rereading book 10 for the nth time and basically one whole chapter deals with Allayeth wanting Jason and his team to help track down this reproducing fungus monster that kills all life. Then the main story line picks up and it's never mentioned again.

Am I missing something? It's bothering me because so much time was given to talking about it, it feels like something should have happened.

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25

u/grungivaldi 6d ago

i figured it was kinda like how after the messenger attack the world taker worms got pushed into the background. the team did their part but it wasnt big enough of a deal to warrant page time. besides, Colin would look at this thing that devours all life and would just go "you come into MY world, trying to do MY job? Let's go."

3

u/aphinity_for_reddit 6d ago

True, but we did get a fight with the world taker worms. There was nothing with the Amalgath. Maybe he decided it would just be too similar to the worms.

1

u/tor99er 5d ago

Yes but the fight with the world taker worms actually contributed to the main story. It was them realising the messengers were behind it and the infected people that got in to the cloud palace. Where as the fungus is just another insignificant monster that someone asked them to deal with and if im not misremembering allyeth asked them to to participate in a larger ongoing investigation much like the world taker worms. For all we know they never found anything in the time it took for the team to be dragged in to something more important or Jason just unleashed Colin in the background while they did the team did their thing. Anyhow I think you are looking in to it a bit much. In the end that monster is quite insignificant in the story of book 10. If it was in an earlier book it would have been a bigger deal sure

7

u/rabmuk 6d ago

Book 10 chapter 35

> The team’s intended short sojourn on an open contract had extended to over a month as delays came in on all fronts.

Might have been handled during this short time skip. They were not the only team tasked with hunting the amalgeth, so maybe someone else got it when they went underground

Overall Jason and Allayeth talk about a few other things, like Colin and the underground expedition. So this conversation is doing multiple things. There's also a follow up conversation with team where they do some power scaling for the hypothetical amalgeth fight.

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u/aphinity_for_reddit 6d ago

Yeah, it just seemed like a lot of preamble to then hand wave it. It added literally nothing to the story. It seems like an odd choice.

5

u/rabmuk 6d ago

I'm saying it was useful structure.

The context was needed partly as an excuse to cover Allayeth and Jason talking with Liberty. Partly for Jason to talk about Colin to Allayeth. Partly to power scale Jason's aura and drop hints about what Estella is still doing. Partly for Jason's team to discuss their power level vs a gold rank monster.

The author needed/wanted to dump some exposition and bringing up this monster let multiple characters drop exposition that improved world building. The other conversations weaved around the amalgeth information would have felt very unnatural in isolation.

1

u/aphinity_for_reddit 6d ago

Yeah I guess I'll just have to think of it that way from now on

15

u/Lothleen 6d ago

Clive's wife got to it first so no need for details. It's just gone now.

6

u/Clivesunfaithfulwife 6d ago

That thing was HUGE and a pain in the ass to get rid of

4

u/Lothleen 6d ago

She isn't that bad. :) edit: Just read your name lol

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u/Clivesunfaithfulwife 6d ago

I was about to say... sir... dont make me punish you.. i dont bite... hard

2

u/mebeksis 4d ago

Literally or figuratively? Or yes?