Chapter 132: 131 Master and Maid

【Race: Red Reef Fruit Tree】

【Skills: Deliciousness Lv2, Paralysis Toxin Lv2, Photosynthesis Lv1】

Lin Jun thought for a moment and used his tentacle to knock down a fruit.

"Dilan, try this."

A fruit with a spiral red shell was curled toward Dilan.

"No wonder you're the boss—found food this fast!"

Dilan took the fruit the size of a bowling ball; Lin Jun had already sliced it open for him.

Looking at the gelatinous flesh inside, Dilan took a tiny lick.

"Mmm!? Delicious!"

Dilan immediately devoured it greedily, and by the end, even tried scraping the sticky flesh off the inside of the shell with his fingers, leaving not a trace.

But before he could scrape twice, he suddenly lost control of his body and collapsed onto the ground.

Scout Pukji flipped him over to prevent him from suffocating face-down.

Judging by his reaction, 【Deliciousness Lv2】 was truly delicious—too bad Lin Jun couldn't taste anything.

No worldly desires. jpg

Lin Jun cared about this skill mainly because he had seen it in his upgrade talent.

Taking it would mean excluding it from his next skill selection, giving him more chances to draw a useful skill.

But to obtain this skill, he still needed to bring the fruit back to the dungeon.

And this deserted island clearly had no idea when a passing ship might appear.

After thinking it over, Lin Jun had Scout Pukji scatter spores randomly.

It wasn't for expansion—newly grown mycelium here wouldn't fall under Lin Jun's mycelial network control.

Lin Jun scattered these spores only to grow more mycelium for utility…

——

Oath City, Adventurers' Guild Headquarters.

This four-story building, covering over thirty thousand square meters, wasn't just a typical guild hall for accepting missions—it also contained functional areas absent from other branches.

The east wing housed warrior training grounds; the north side featured a magic target range; the second floor had an adventurer trading zone; the basement contained a perpetually hot forging area and an alchemy zone steaming with colored mists…

Paired with the massive stone wall encircling the guild, it could rightly be called a city-within-a-city with specialized functions.

In fact, it truly was.

If one traced its history, the land occupied by the Adventurers' Guild was the original Oath City.

People forced to migrate south by demonic invasions carved out their first territory here.

The massive stone wall surrounding it—stronger than Oath City's current walls—was the result of a tenth-rank mage personally cutting and reinforcing the stones.

The foundation extended countless magic-conducting channels, part of the defensive array built into the wall, still functional today, though rarely activated to avoid wasting funds.

Everyone knew the Adventurers' Guild Headquarters was the most fortified building in Oath City, second only to the Council Hall.

But few knew that within the headquarters lay a residential area, located on the smallest fourth floor.

A select few important guild members lived there, and as a residential zone, the fourth floor was fully equipped.

The muffled thud of a knife blade striking the shell echoed through the kitchen.

The red reef fruit's shell split into a cross-shaped pattern; the maid used her knuckles to pry open the crack, spilling the translucent gelatinous flesh onto a silver platter.

She sprinkled crushed orchid leaves and a hint of refined elf ice wine over it—this dish of exotic flavor was complete.

But one final step remained.

Magic gathered in the maid's hands; the purification spell's glow bathed the silver platter, completely removing the paralysis toxin from the red reef fruit.

She prepared a small bowl of clam broth and placed it alongside the platter.

A few minutes later, the maid knocked on a door on the fourth floor.

"Master Fal, it's time for breakfast."

The white-haired youth lying in a starfish pose on the balcony, basking in sunlight, lifted his head.

"Lilian, just put the breakfast on the table."

Maid Lilian set down the platter but didn't leave—she stood beside him, watching the white-haired youth.

"Why are you hovering over me?" "If I leave, Master will skip breakfast again—and I have documents to give you."

Fal finally noticed the stack of papers in Lilian's arms.

"What a nuisance…"

Though grumbling, Fal sat at the table, ate half the fruit with slow spoonfuls, sipped a small amount of broth, and considered breakfast done.

Even food with the 【Deliciousness】 attribute seemed to hold no special appeal for Fal.

When Fal pushed the platter away, Lilian spread the documents one by one before him.

"Most are materials prepared by the Guildmaster for your appointment to the branch—information on the people of Mute Wind Town, surrounding factions, and notes on the Purple Crystal Dungeon."

The Guildmaster Lilian mentioned was naturally the current Guildmaster—and Fal's father.

Yet Fal showed little gratitude, frowning as he flipped through the documents, displeased: "Meddling fool. Does he think I can't even gather this level of information?"

"The old man is just…" Lilian seemed about to defend the Guildmaster, but was abruptly interrupted.

Fal held up an unopened document with silver-edged borders, puzzled: "Why are there documents from the Church? Are they planning a heresy trial inside the dungeon?"

"Master, you shouldn't speak of the Church of Light in that tone—it'll cause trouble if it gets out," Lilian warned.

Fal glanced at her. "Who else is here? Or do you think I'm an idiot and say this outside?"

Lilian's lips curled slightly; she said nothing more.

Soon after finishing the documents, Fal suddenly sighed: "They really are planning a heresy trial in the dungeon."

"Aren't dungeons full of monsters?"

"They are monsters," Fal explained, his voice much louder than before, seeming very interested in the matter. "An exceptionally talented squad leader of the Wings of Judgment submitted a report stating that a dungeon might have been occupied by a hive mind."

"Occupy a dungeon? How is that possible?" Although Lilian was not an internal member of the Guild, her long-term exposure meant her understanding of dungeons surpassed that of most people. "Wouldn't staying inside a dungeon lead to assimilation and binding? Even a hive mind could control at most one floor, right?"

"Generally, yes, but if someone utilized the dungeon core, it might not be. The possibility mentioned in this report actually matches the intelligence coming from the Guild."

"Controlling the dungeon core... is anyone truly capable of such a thing?"

Leaving aside the difficulty of reaching the core's location, even if one found it, the core is not some switch or button that changes the dungeon according to one's will with a single press; it is the entire operating logic of the dungeon.

By analogy, maintaining the defensive core of Oath City requires over forty specialized personnel daily, and fully activating it demands as many as three hundred people operating simultaneously.

Yet the dungeon core is far more valuable than Oath City's, and its origin remains a mystery to this day.

Both the human and demon high command know that dungeons have so-called cores, yet they pay no heed to them. Could it be that they do not wish to control the dungeons?

They simply cannot.

Even taking a step back, even if new technology existed to control them, it should not be something one or a few individuals could accomplish.

As for large quantities of personnel and supplies entering the Amethyst Dungeon right under the nose of Silent Wind Town?

No matter how negligent the people there are, they should not have reached such a degree of failure.

Therefore, Lilian could not believe the Young Master's speculation.

"Lilian, you misunderstood. I said 'utilize,' not 'control.' Dungeons are not perfect; they too have had loopholes."

"Had?" This time, Lilian precisely grasped the emphasis in Fal's wording.

"Exactly, had. For instance, over a hundred years ago, someone discovered that chest respawning involved swapping two chests via teleportation.

Thus, someone stuffed themselves into an opened chest and, upon respawning, arrived in a space he called the Treasure Vault.

After successfully obtaining a large amount of top-tier equipment and items from inside, he used the same method to teleport out.

Some of that equipment even survived to the present day."

"And after that?" Lilian knew the matter certainly wasn't that simple.

Fal did not keep people in suspense and bluntly revealed what followed:

"The follow-up was that he never returned after his second attempt. Not only him, but all the opportunists who imitated him also vanished within the dungeon. Clearly, the dungeon does not like thief-like behavior."

"Then if this is also a loophole, why hasn't the dungeon patched it?"

"That is why I speculate it might be related to the core. Monsters being stratified is the most basic rule of the Amethyst Dungeon. Breaking such a fundamental rule implies a problem within the core's logic.

Of course, in the end, these are all just speculations. It is also possible the Church's intelligence is wrong, or some other coincidence caused this situation.

But regardless, this time it should not be boring!"

(End of Chapter)