Chapter 49

Underground City Level 2.

A light breeze swept through the woods, carrying the clean scent of grass and trees, the clear spring water of the stony stream reflecting the orange-white glow of firefly grass.

At first glance, this was a lush, flowing natural woodland.

But in reality, the small demonic creatures here were nearly all skilled in concealment and ambush, many even venomous.

Newcomers unprepared with antidotes would die here—it was perfectly normal.

Gray thrust his longsword into the waist-high grass, gave a light flick, and a green scorpion the size of a palm was skewered out.

"Wasn't it said that after the demonic tide, the number of demons would drop sharply in the short term?"

"We've only walked this long, and I've already stabbed three spiders, six scorpions, and four little snakes…"

Calvin, checking the underground city guide beside him, didn't look up as he explained:

"The reduction in numbers refers to high-level or large-bodied demons.

After the demonic tide, the demonic energy concentration in the underground city surges dramatically—low-level small demons benefit the most and will emerge in large numbers, which is normal."

As he spoke, he held the guide before Gray's eyes, pointing to a section: "Look, this level originally had a common black-and-white python—we haven't encountered a single one on our way."

Gray swung his longsword upward, slicing a green snake hanging above their heads into two pieces, then glanced at the guide and complained:

"Five already… but this is too annoying—how much longer until the next level?"

"Still quite a ways," Calvin paused, as if studying the map. "How about we take a detour? There's a natural cave we can use—fewer of these annoying little things over there."

"What's there?" Gray didn't believe it could be a completely safe path.

"Spiders. Big spiders."

—

Gray raised his torch high, illuminating the gray-white stone cave, revealing tangled, broken spiderwebs—this place still hadn't recovered from the demonic tide's destruction.

"Where are the spiders?"

Calvin pointed upward; Gray looked up and indeed saw tiny red dots hidden in the darkness.

"Don't worry—these things are actually quite timid. As long as you don't get stuck in their webs, they won't dare come down to attack."

"How do you know?"

"It's written in the guide."

Gray nodded, then asked: "Then why don't they come down to eat this?"

He pushed back the darkness ahead with his torch, revealing a pukki struggling helplessly in a spiderweb.

"Pukki? Spiders are carnivorous—it's normal they won't eat it." Calvin frowned. "But why is there a pukki here?"

"What's strange about it appearing here? We saw them on Level 1 too." Gray didn't understand the concern.

"That's why you—someone who never reads—know nothing."

Calvin leaned closer to examine the strange pukki, explaining to Gray:

"The demonic tide does cause demons to migrate between levels—but only from lower to higher levels.

Demons from higher levels moving downward almost never happens.

And this pukki is strange—it's grown tentacles…"

"So there must be walking mushrooms in even lower levels too."

"But the guide says pukki only appear on Level 1."

"When was this guide published? Is it outdated?"

"Three years ago… shouldn't be outdated…" Calvin wasn't sure anymore—if the guide was outdated, they might face unexpected dangers.

Gray stepped forward and pulled the pukki off the spiderweb.

"Gray, what are you doing? It's a mutant—could be dangerous!"

Gray shrugged. "What danger could a walking mushroom have? I just want to see what it's doing here."

The moment the pukki touched the ground, its four fungal tentacles shot out violently into the darkness above.

A hiss echoed from above—a giant spider, two meters wide, was yanked down and slammed onto the ground, dead on impact.

Then the pukki slowly dragged the spider's corpse away.

Gray turned and found Calvin staring directly at him.

"Alright, I admit—it's a bit dangerous… should we follow it?"

Gray pointed toward the pukki, now nearly turning a corner—its path didn't align with theirs.

Calvin's curiosity was now piqued; after a moment's thought, he nodded:

"We've got plenty of time—let's follow it and take a look!"

With agreement reached, the two trailed the pukki.

Watching it swat away a scorpion that ambushed it, then enter two hidden narrow paths, finally arriving at a small cave nestled between rock fissures, faintly glowing from within.

The two reached the cave's edge and peered inside.

The small cave was entirely covered in fungal threads; mushrooms of all sizes, emitting a faint glow, illuminated the entire chamber.

What made both of them gasp was:

From the cave entrance, a carpet of bones spread across the floor—wolves, black-and-white snakes, giant spiders, unnamed dragon beasts—all mixed together.

Some skeletons were completely overgrown with fungal threads; others looked freshly brought in, their blood still not fully congealed.

Several mutant pukki with tentacles worked together to drag the new spider corpse to an empty spot, carefully avoiding damaging the fungal carpet beneath.

Gloop—

They exchanged a glance; both saw shock in the other's eyes.

Slowly, silently, they retreated until they were far from the cave, only then relaxing.

As soon as they emerged, Calvin complained: "What the hell—why so tense? This is just Level 2—you're LV31, what are you afraid of?"

"Didn't you get nervous first?"

"Alright, alright, but it's so bizarre, of course I'm nervous! Where else have you seen such brutal Pujis?"

"I'm going to tell the teacher about this when I get back."

As he spoke, Calvin turned back for a glance; no Pujis were behind the two of them.

"For now, let's hurry to the fifth floor."

—

Hmm?

Lin Jun, who was planting large mushrooms in the forest, suddenly received a feed from the second-floor outpost—two human adventurers peeping.

Has the dungeon finally opened?

Looks like I need to speed up the maturation of the large mushrooms.

I'll need to replenish the combat Pujis too; otherwise, the guard force won't be enough, and it'll be trouble if anyone causes a disturbance.

As for those two adventurers, Lin Jun didn't bother with them.

I never intended to hide this from humans anyway; even if I wanted to, I couldn't.

The cave was chosen in a remote location just to reduce monster disturbances.

Besides, even if I wanted to manage it, I couldn't.

Unlike the direct mycelium connection, signals transmitted through mushroom nodes have a slight delay; what I'm seeing is probably footage from six minutes ago.

The Pujis outside are set with missions and execute autonomously.

They will only counterattack if human adventurers initiate an attack or try to seize monster corpses inside the cave—this is Lin Jun's consistent neutral policy.

If anyone really destroys these outposts, Lin Jun can only consider himself unlucky, then retaliate after they descend to the fifth floor!

(End of this chapter)