Chapter 778: The

Dozens of days later in the dream.

Jier's face was somewhat gaunt at this moment, and he was lying motionless behind a horizontal tree root, squinting his eyes as he observed several Mushroom Boys singing and dancing not far away.

His mouth was bulging, as he was chewing on a mouthful of Glowing Moss.

This stuff was barely edible, non-toxic, but extremely bitter. It was also the rare source of moisture for his survival in the dream recently; the toxic ale had long since been finished, and as for his own urine in the silver jar, it had been sitting for so long that the smell was too strong, and he simply couldn't bring himself to drink it.

He could only barely rely on gnawing on the moisture-rich Glowing Moss to replenish his fluids.

This was the bad news, but the good news was that in the dream, there was plenty of Glowing Moss.

Once his body's hydration was barely sufficient, the next step was naturally to solve the food problem.

At first, Jier had thought about eating some newly grown poisonous mushrooms to sustain his life, but one time, while eating poisonous mushrooms on a mushroom carpet with healing abilities, Jier accidentally ate a Mushroom Boy that had hands and feet. Only then did he discover that although these Mushroom Boys were also poisonous, for some unknown reason, they were very filling after being eaten.

A fist-sized Mushroom Boy could sustain Jier's physical exertion for an entire day.

Needless to say, Jier immediately launched a hunting operation.

However, after Jier captured and ate the Mushroom Boys, the other Mushroom Boys somehow discovered this, and they all fled from the Yingdi. This forced Jier to search for and hunt them in the boundless Silent Deep Forest surrounding the Yingdi.

These Mushroom Boys liked to hide themselves in the shelter of tall, thick moss, making them very difficult to find.

But this didn't stump Jier; he dismantled some useless wooden boards from the Yingdi and placed them around the area as bait.

These Mushroom Boys, who loved to eat dead wood, could not resist this temptation.

Thus, Jier would lie not far from the bait, in a place where the Mushroom Boys couldn't see him, waiting for the bait to lure one, two, three, or several Mushroom Boys. Once they had rooted their mycelial feet into the wooden boards to eat their fill and then started dancing collectively, Jier would catch them all in one fell swoop.

Just like now—

After confirming that the bait wouldn't lure any surrounding Mushroom Boys, Jier waited for them to carelessly start playing before suddenly leaping out from behind the tall, horizontal tree root. While in mid-air, he kicked out heavily, sending the largest Mushroom Boy flying, causing it to crash into a nearby tree trunk and die on the spot.

"Waha! The Mushroom Hunter is here!"

Jier let out a strange cry. After kicking one away and landing, he reached out with quick hands and eyes to grab two medium-sized Mushroom Boys, lifted them up, and smashed them together heavily, causing them to let out a squeak of agony and pass out.

Finally, the smallest Mushroom Boy was about to sneak away, but Jier had already been eyeing it. He threw the sheathed Dagger in his hand, using not the blade but the sheath to knock it to the ground.

Jier then jumped over, grabbed it, and stuffed it into the Backpack on his back.

The two unconscious medium-sized Mushroom Boys were also stuffed into the Backpack. Finally, Jier grabbed the large Mushroom Boy he had kicked to death in his left hand, and with his right hand, he picked up the broken wooden pieces the mushrooms hadn't finished eating, keeping them for later use.

"Hey, don't blame me; I'm doing this to survive."

Jier muttered, leaving this remote and dim place and walking toward the light emitted by the Pond not far away.

The trunks of the towering trees, whose tops could not be seen, were all marked by Jier with his Dagger to indicate the direction of the Yingdi and the Pond, just to avoid the possibility of him getting lost here.

These days, these Mushroom Boys had become increasingly difficult to catch. It wasn't that they had become smarter, but that they were gradually sensing danger, and their range of activity was moving further and further away from the vicinity of the Pond and the Yingdi.

Jier didn't know what would happen if he went too far here. Would he be completely lost in the boundless, deep forest? Or was there an outermost boundary here, and what magical thing would happen if he touched it?

Would he fall out of the lady's dream? Or be lost in the chaotic dream?

Or would he simply leave this place?

Jier didn't dare to try, so he never truly strayed far from the Pond and the Yingdi, always operating in places where he could see the light emitted by the Pond.

He calculated that if he finished these Mushroom Boys and still couldn't get out, would he only be able to survive by eating moss?

Or should he go beg the little fairy to conjure up some more Mushroom Boys?

Returning to the Yingdi, Jier took out the three Mushroom Boys from his Backpack, used a sturdy rope to tie them firmly together, and hung them up high. Then, carrying the large Mushroom Boy he had kicked to death, he followed the route he knew by heart to the place that appeared every time he entered the dream.

There was a small patch of "carpet" made of mushrooms with healing effects. As long as Jier sat on it, they would provide him with healing, including the poisoning symptoms caused by eating poisonous mushrooms.

Sitting down on the slightly elastic mushroom carpet, Jier patted the cap of the dead Mushroom Boy apologetically, then used a Steel Dagger to cut the Mushroom Boy open, first into thick slices, then into strips.

Finally, Jier licked the toxic mushroom juice off his fingers, and a savory flavor washed over him.

If it weren't for the fact that this thing was poisonous, it would be a very delicious mushroom ingredient.

Jier divided the mushroom strips into several piles according to his daily consumption. A Mushroom Boy this big was enough for him to eat for about ten days, while the few small Mushroom Boys he had just caught were not meant for consumption—even though they were indeed edible.

Those Mushroom Boys were to be used to test whether the Demon Flame outside the dream had extinguished or not.

While thinking that he must store several years' worth of food in the Yingdi in the future, Jier viciously tore into the soft, tender poisonous mushroom strips with his teeth.

As he ate, the Healing Fluorescent Mushrooms with Mysterious Patterns beneath his buttocks performed their function, relieving the Human sitting on their caps of the toxic symptoms in his body.

Soon, Jier finished today's mushrooms, then collected all the cut mushroom strips, preparing to return to the Yingdi.

As he walked, he casually plucked clusters of large Glowing Moss from where he passed. Although these mosses were bitter, the moisture inside was something Jier could not do without.

Chewing the moss, Jier swallowed the tiny bits of moisture squeezed out by his teeth and tongue, and in this state, he returned to the somewhat messy Yingdi.

Every day now, besides looking for food, he was either sleeping or resting here to reduce physical exertion, and he could no longer be bothered to tidy up the Yingdi.

And at least more than half of the mess in the Yingdi was caused by the little fairy's pranks.

When it played, it didn't care how much trouble it caused.

However, these days, besides helping Jier test the safety outside the dream, it also had to guard against Jier, this guy, eating its somewhat intelligent mushroom subordinates.

Those were the mushrooms that lived with it in its little house.

Ever since Jier started eating Mushroom Boys, his gaze toward those somewhat intelligent mushrooms had changed.

The little fairy could not let Jier, this guy, eat its subordinates.

"How about it? Shall we use this Mushroom Boy to test the situation outside again?"

Jier, carrying a small Mushroom Boy tied up with a rope, arrived outside the little fairy's house.

The little fairy's house was situated on the cap of a rather large, fat-headed Mushroom Boy. In order not to annoy the little fairy, Jier didn't touch this fat-headed Mushroom Boy, which looked like it could be eaten for a long time.

However, his eyes swept over this fat-headed Mushroom Boy, causing it to tremble uncontrollably.

It looked like a poor creature that could be eaten at any moment.

This guy was different from the other Mushroom Boys who could flee to the surroundings; the little fairy wouldn't let it leave the Pond and the Yingdi, so it had to wander around the Yingdi trembling every day.

The little fairy walked out of the house yawning. Upon looking up and seeing Jier eyeing the intelligent mushroom subordinates in the house behind it, it immediately widened its eyes and firmly closed the little door of the house.

"Ha!"

It shouted, as if telling Jier not to have any designs on its subordinates.

As for the other stupid Mushroom Boys it conjured up with its magic, the little sprite didn't pay much attention.

For instance, right now, the little sprite reached out and pointed at the tiny Mushroom Boy Jier was holding; with a soft 'pop', that Mushroom Boy vanished.

The poor Mushroom Boy was teleported outside the dream, to the very place where Jier had entered.

The next moment, the little sprite clapped its palms again, and that tiny Mushroom Boy reappeared on the roof of the little sprite's house.

The roof of the house was made of metal and did not fear the Demon Flame that could burn the soul. Even if the returning Mushroom brought the Demon Flame back with it, the brief high-temperature scorching of the Demon Flame would do nothing to the metal roof.

But this time, the returning Mushroom Boy was different from its other unlucky friends; it did not return as a miserable, flaming, roasted mushroom, but rather, it was exactly the same as when it had left!

Jier and the little sprite hadn't paid much attention at first, since for the past few dozen days, the result had been identical every time; although Jier was still experimenting almost every day, even he himself didn't have much actual confidence. It could only be said that he was holding onto a sliver of hope.

He was not a person who gave up easily; the moment he started using the Mushroom Boys as food to survive, he had prepared himself mentally to hold out here for over a hundred days.

But as Jier sat on the ground chatting and laughing with the little sprite, that tiny Mushroom Boy, tied up with a Rope, rolled off the roof of the little sprite's house with a 'plop'.

"Hmm?"

Jier noticed, then reached out to pick it up and said to the little sprite: "Come, let's use this small mushroom to test the situation outside today!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a bit strange, as if he had said similar words not long ago.

But he immediately thought that perhaps it was because the recent days had all been similar and boring, so it wasn't impossible that he had developed such an illusion?

The little sprite, meanwhile, had a strange smile on its face—the kind where one is suppressing laughter—and once again reached out and pointed at the tiny Mushroom Boy in Jier's hand.

Pop!

That Mushroom Boy vanished.

The next moment, that Mushroom Boy reappeared on the roof of the little house, completely unscathed.

The roof was flat, but it couldn't stop the tiny Mushroom Boy, tied up with a Rope, from rolling left and right; before long, it rolled off the roof.

Plop, it rolled all the way down and finally landed on the Elf Silver Plate that paved the ground in the Yingdi.

Jier was stunned for a moment and was about to pick it up again, but when he reached out to lift the Mushroom Boy from the ground and saw the little sprite looking like it could barely hold back its laughter, he was completely bewildered.

"Uh, uh."

His intuition reacted, but his brain hadn't caught up yet; he didn't know if it was because he had been eating some unnutritious mushrooms lately, causing his brain, lacking the rich nutrients provided by fats, to be a bit sluggish.

"Mushroom?"

He said tentatively.

The little sprite could no longer hold it in; it clutched its stomach and burst into loud laughter on the ground. That thin, sharp laughter finally made Jier react completely: "Mushroom! Cough, cough, no, it's that the mushroom came back alive!"

He was at a loss: "This, this, this? Does this mean, does this mean! The flames outside the dream, the Demon Flame! Have they gone out?"

The little sprite was still rolling on the ground laughing; Jier's performance as a Human at this moment was truly too funny to it, not at all as shrewd and brave as before.

Jier held the tiny Mushroom Boy in front of his eyes and carefully examined this lucky little fellow; it was completely unscathed, without a single trace of having been burned by flames on its body. It just seemed a bit emotionally agitated, and as its mycelium feet kicked, it landed right in Jier's eye.

Jier let out an 'ouch' and crouched down, covering his eye, while the mushroom in his hand was also flung away with a burst of force: "Go! You're free! Haha, since it came back alive, that means I'm free too?"

"Right? Am I right?"

Jier hurriedly said to the little sprite, who was lying on the ground laughing and spread its hands speechlessly.

It didn't know either.

Seeing this, Jier had no choice but to shamelessly plead: "How about this? Could you help me go out and see for yourself? Anyway, those Demon Flames can't do anything to you."

Upon hearing this, the little sprite hurriedly covered the pockets on its clothes and pants with its hands; it still remembered that after going out last time, the large amount of Mushroom Spore stored in the storage space in its clothing pocket had all been burned clean by the Demon Flame.

Now its pockets were cleaner than its face, all thanks to that last incident.

Many of its favorite Mushroom Spore had been burned away; the loss was huge.

Jier rolled his eyes: "You weren't prepared last time; this time, take some precautions, or, just change into a set of clothes without anything in them, right?"

That was indeed a good idea; the little sprite flipped over and stood up, then flew into the Giant Snail Shell parked outside the door of its little house.

This Snail Shell was the place where it stored all sorts of things, and of course, it was also its favorite mount.

After a clattering, banging commotion inside the Snail Shell, the little sprite jumped out; this time, it had changed completely.

Originally, it wore a vest and bloomers, a tall star-and-moon hat on its head, and a pair of long-toed, short boots with pointed tips on its feet, looking strange and peculiar, not like the attire of the people of the Saint Hors Kingdom today.

Now that it came out again, the clothes on its body had been changed; it was the common farmer attire of Kendall, and one didn't know when it had gotten hold of this set of farmer's clothes.

"You made this set of clothes yourself, right?"

Jier said after examining it for a while, because although it was a farmer's outfit, the clothes were very new, clearly never worn before.

Hearing this, the little sprite put its hands on its hips triumphantly, puffed out its chest proudly, and let out a 'hee-hee-hee' laugh.

Jier understood and complimented it: "This outfit is made so well, it's exactly the same as what the farmers in Kendall County wear! You're so clever! If it weren't too small, I'd want you to help me make clothes in the future."

Unexpectedly, the little sprite patted its chest triumphantly and boasted with a few shouts; although he couldn't understand, the general meaning wasn't hard to guess—this little fellow actually thought that making a set of clothes that a Human could wear for Jier was no difficult task.

With its sprite abilities, this was just a trivial matter it could handle with ease.

Jier slapped his forehead and brought up the real business at hand: "Right, those are small matters for later; please help me go out and take a look, see how the situation is outside?"

The little sprite gave a mischievous smile and rubbed its fingers with its right hand, meaning that if he wanted it to do something, he had to satisfy its demands first. What was the demand? Very simple, a prank!

Jier rolled his eyes, curled his lips, and muttered: "What time is it now? Sigh, come, come, come! I'm afraid of you."

Seeing that Jier had agreed, the little sprite blew a sharp, thin whistle. The next moment, the door of its house opened, and the clever Mushroom subordinates who had been hiding inside for a long time walked out trembling; as soon as they saw Jier, the Human, sitting not far away, they were immediately scared and huddled together, shivering.

But the little sprite flew onto Jier's head, jumped hard on Jier's messy hair, and signaled for the Mushroom companions to come over and play.

Jier rolled his eyes and let the fellow mess around.

The experiences of these days had worn away much of his former urgency and restlessness; no matter how he cursed, raved, or attacked like a madman in the Yingdi of the dream, he could not leave this place safely.

Anger and fear, anxiety and impatience, had all been released by him in the first few days.

After all, the dream was an extremely quiet place; no matter how much he shouted or acted out, he was the only one there.

Sometimes, Jier even wanted to call out to the owner of the dream, Lady Apolifina, to have that lady help him get through this difficulty.

But every time he wanted to open his mouth to call to the sky, he couldn't say it.

Calling to the lady last time could still be called a last resort when near death. But now he was merely trapped here, and just because the place to go out was surrounded by deadly flames, he was asking the lady to manifest and help him.

Jier would not dare.

He feared that the lady who had already helped him so much would look down on him, feel that the abilities and resources she had invested in him were invested in the wrong person, and thus take it all back.

Then he would be completely finished.

After all, inside his chest at this moment, he did not even have a heart; he relied entirely on the Elf Ring the lady had once used to help him circulate blood throughout his body.

So, facing the little sprite's prank at this moment, Jier snorted a puff of air through his nose, closed his eyes, and let the little sprite mess around.

It was just a bunch of Mushrooms having a party on top of his head, what was the big deal?

A piece of cake.

If they thought just dancing on his head was too monotonous, it was not as if Jier couldn't help by whistling a few playful tunes to liven things up for everyone.

However, this matter did not actually succeed; those clever Mushroom Boys did not dare to jump onto Jier's head to dance, for while jumping now might be fine, if they angered this Human and he found an opportunity to eat them later, they would be done for.

Therefore, compared to their own lives, their little lives were more important than dancing joyfully and wantonly.

There was no help for it; in the end, this prank could only be completed by the little sprite alone.