Chapter 50: 50 Almost Accidentally Killed Someone

The parchment booklet had been worn to a frayed edge; Calvin checked the guide for the third time but still couldn't link the fifth floor described in it to the scene outside the stairs.

Was this really the brightest floor as promised?

Not even a single clump of firefly grass was visible; in the pitch-black fifth floor, the ghostly glow of mushrooms was the only light source.

And right along this path leading out of the stairs, rows of glowing mushrooms stood on either side, as if deliberately laid out.

Calvin felt this scene was even more eerie than what he had seen in that small cave on the second floor.

Even Gray was starting to lose heart: "Your guide is way off! Should we... still move forward?"

"Since we're already here... let's take a look at the situation."

Only after the two stepped out did they realize that even the dome was covered in mushrooms, their glow merging into a single expanse like a canopy.

Calvin felt constantly uneasy, as if someone was watching him, making him regret the decision he had made just two minutes ago.

However, when he told Gray about this feeling, Gray shook his head, saying he felt nothing at all.

Calvin couldn't just decide to turn back based on a feeling; that would be too arbitrary.

"Are we really going to follow this path?" Gray asked, pointing at the mushroom path before them.

The path did look suspicious, but it coincided with the direction of the forest written in the guide.

Although the guide was outdated, the terrain shouldn't have changed completely.

After much deliberation, Calvin took out his small staff.

First-tier spell—Light.

A ball of orange-yellow light hovered at the tip of the staff.

"Let's walk on the outer edge of the path."

Squelch—

With the first step off the path, the two felt the stickiness beneath their feet.

Only when they bent down to investigate did they realize that the area outside the path was entirely covered in translucent mycelium.

From beneath them all the way to the edge of the darkness, everywhere they could see was mycelium ground!

"I told you the ground color felt strange; it turns out it's all this stuff!" Gray stepped back with disgust. "Shouldn't we just walk on the path?"

Calvin could only nod.

The path itself was clean, as if the mycelium had been blocked by the glowing mushrooms on both sides.

The surroundings were quite quiet; not a single trace of the monsters mentioned in the guide was seen.

The only thing they encountered was a corpse the size of a small hill, mostly decomposed by mycelium, so broken that its original form was unrecognizable.

Everything made the two grow increasingly uneasy; they remained on high alert around them, even falling silent.

It wasn't until they saw the forest that the two stopped.

"Is that the 'forest' you mentioned?"

In the direction Gray pointed, countless giant glowing mushrooms stood tall, with mycelium hanging from their caps, forming a mushroom forest amidst the varying heights.

Only a few massive trees were squeezed into the gaps between the giant mushrooms.

It was obvious that the information in the guide was even outdated regarding the terrain!

Before Calvin could speak, a strange sound echoed from within the forest.

Plop—

Plop—

The heavy sound was especially clear in the quiet environment.

A three-meter-tall, fat Plop slowly emerged from behind a giant mushroom, four thick mycelium tentacles swaying in the air.

Beside this giant Plop, a dozen smaller Plops, identical to the one on the second floor and also bearing tentacles, followed along.

The Plops seemed to have spotted the two and stopped one by one.

"Calvin! Let's retreat!"

"Calvin?"

Gray then realized that the light from the spell beside him had vanished at some point.

"Calvin, you—"

The next second, Gray found his body turning transparent, and Calvin's voice came from beside him.

"What?"

"You... you did well, reacting even faster than me!"

"Tsk!"

There was no time to argue further; Calvin crouched low, grabbed the hem of Gray's clothes with one hand, ensuring the two wouldn't get separated.

"Retreating, retreating, this place is too weird."

"Then what about your assignment?"

"What else can I do? I'll just have to use my savings to buy one from a black-market merchant."

His already meager little treasury was about to shrink again; Calvin felt his heart bleeding.

In his grief, Calvin didn't notice the pull on his hand and bumped headfirst into something.

"Ouch!" His forehead seemed to have cracked open; he could even feel blood flowing.

However, he soon had no time to care about such a minor injury.

A humanoid creature covered in black scales stood right in front, tilting its head and staring at the two invisible figures.

"D-D-D-Dragon..." Calvin couldn't finish speaking before the monster, which wasn't even as tall as him, grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up.

The two's invisibility spell, lacking support, instantly failed.

At that exact same moment, a thunderous shout came from beside them!

【Rage LV4】

【Brute Force LV4】

It's Grey!

Seeing Calvin under attack, he instantly activated his buff, raised both hands with his sword, and slashed straight down.

【Heavy Slash LV5】

Clang—

Half of the broken sword flew into the air. Grey trembled, maintaining his downward-slash posture, while blood flowed from his split tiger-mouth.

He couldn't understand why his high-steel longsword couldn't even slice off a single scale on the opponent's shoulder.

Before entering the dungeon, he had clearly checked his equipment thoroughly.

Isn't this the Fifth Floor?

The monster used its other claw to pinch Grey's neck. Grey still wanted to resist, but his numbed hands couldn't even lift up.

Feeling the force from the claw grow stronger and stronger, Grey's breathing gradually became difficult.

Calvin beside him was even more purple-faced, on the verge of suffocation.

As if in an instant, or perhaps an eternity, at some moment, the pressure on the neck suddenly vanished.

Grey lay on the ground in a wretched state, greedily breathing in the air.

After catching his breath, he looked up and realized that terrifying monster had disappeared, while Calvin lay motionless on the ground, his chest no longer rising and falling.

"Calvin? Calvin! Wake up!"

Two slaps landed on Calvin's face, yet still failed to wake him.

Hurriedly opening his small personal bag, Grey wanted to take out a healing potion, but was interrupted by the Pujis swarming around.

Instinctively wanting to grip his sword, he grasped at empty air, only then remembering that only the broken sword remained on the ground nearby.

He was quickly tied up.

"I'd rather you had just strangled me to death just now..."

As Grey was wondering how he would be killed, he saw one of the Pujis opposite extend a hollow fungal tentacle, stabbing it directly into Calvin's mouth.

The tentacle, moving along with the Puji's body, bulged and contracted rhythmically.

Bound and struggling, Grey could only watch helplessly, unable to do anything.

Suddenly, Calvin's eyes widened, and he wretchedly tore the fungal tentacle from his throat.

"Cough—cough—cough cough—gag—"

After coughing, Calvin collapsed on the ground as if half his life had left him—in fact, his health points had indeed dropped by half.

Pfft—

Heavy footsteps approached; the fat Puji finally sauntered over.

It rummaged inside its belly, pulled out four items, and tossed them in front of Grey.

Afterwards, the Pujis released Grey, turned, and left, disappearing into the mushroom forest within moments.

Grey looked at the ground: the longsword, fruit pit, magic crystal, and a bottle of healing potion left by the Puji. For a moment, he couldn't react.

Was this... being saved by a Puji from the monster?

Quickly gathering the items, Grey hoisted the weak and powerless Calvin onto his shoulder and hurriedly fled back into the floor passage.

—

Damn, I forgot to tell Seeing Xiao Hei that humans aren't monsters!

(End of this chapter)