Chapter 60: 60 Patching the Mushroom Garden

"This is way too uncomfortable."

Wells stepped barefoot onto the mycelial mat, like stepping into gelatinous honey, with every toe gap packed full of slippery active matter.

Lifting his foot even left strings...

The others were much the same; everyone's shoes had worn through at the Poison Lake.

"I say, how about we go back to the Mushroom Path? There's no mycelium there."

The captain cut off Wells's complaint: "Show some grit! You're an adventurer too! You'll see the forest soon; we can switch back to the path then."

"Tsk." Wells felt the captain was always subtly or overtly belittling him now, a petty little guy.

As if venting his anger, he stomped hard onto the mycelial mat ahead.

"Holy crap!"

A sharp shard of stone jabbed into Wells's sole, and he immediately squatted down in pain.

"Are you okay? Let me see!"

Hearing the scream, Jenny came over, cupping Wells's sticky foot in both hands, showing no disgust at all.

"No big deal, just a small wound; I can handle it quickly."

Saying this, she reached out and pulled the stone shard out, then used her staff to cast Potential Excitation on Wells.

Sure enough, Wells stopped hurting quickly, the wound gradually healed, and he even felt more energetic overall.

"Jenny, thank you."

Hearing the thanks, Jenny gave Wells a smile.

The captain standing nearby couldn't take it anymore: "If you're fine, let's go quickly; don't pull any more stupid stunts like getting hurt by stones."

The mage standing behind wanted to say something, but some puchi figures appeared faintly in the distance.

"It's a patrol team again."

These puchi, numbering around ten, roamed randomly across the mycelial ground.

Almost all were mutated varieties with tentacles, scales, or cannon mouths.

This was already the third wave on the way; would following the Mushroom Path reduce the numbers?

No one wanted to clash with puchi; even before the Demon Tide, adventurers had known that Level Five puchi were strong and dropped nothing.

After fighting hard to carve out from a pile of puchi, besides taking two chewier mushroom slices to roast and eat, there was absolutely no other gain.

A pure loss-making business; naturally, you avoid it if you can.

The mage first extinguished the Illumination Spell, then cast Invisibility on the group.

Just like the previous times, everyone stayed put, waiting for the puchi patrol team to leave.

But this time, something seemed to go slightly wrong.

A puchi with the most ordinary appearance, having neither tentacles nor scales, suddenly broke away from the formation and took a few steps toward the group.

Afterwards, the puchi patrol team, which had been about to leave, was actually led by this ordinary puchi to turn around and walk straight toward the group.

Seeing this, the captain cursed under his breath: "What lousy luck. Wells, monster corpse!"

Wells took a bag off his back, selected a canine-type monster from inside, and threw it out.

The monster corpse immediately attracted the puchi squad's attention; the puchi swarmed it, wrapped it with tentacles, and changed course toward the swamp.

Seeing the puchi disappear, the group finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, nothing went wrong on the rest of the road; otherwise, the monster corpses would probably have fed the patrol team.

But upon seeing the forest, or rather the Mushroom Forest, the squad had to stop.

"How did the forest turn into this?"

"What is this?" Wells touched a giant mushroom, feeling the fluffy texture transmitted to his hand. "I've never seen mushrooms grow this big..."

"Such a huge glowing mushroom... ah... ah-choo... what is that?"

The captain suddenly sneezed.

The mage seemed to think of something, looked up, and saw pale green spores constantly rustling down from the folds under the giant mushroom cap.

"Everyone step back; it might be poisonous."

Hearing this, the group retreated to thirty paces away before stopping.

"If the whole forest is like this, even drinking antidote potions won't be enough, right? Should we still go in?" Wells asked.

"I think we should forget it; look at that."

Following the dwarf's finger, Wells squinted his eyes into a slit, but still saw nothing.

Isn't it just a corner of the Mushroom Forest? What's so special about it?

But the people beside him had already let out "ooh ooh" exclamations.

"What exactly is it?" Wells asked Jenny quietly.

Jenny glanced at him and whispered secretly: "Look closely under the mushroom trees."

Wells forced himself to endure the tingling sensation in his ears and looked over again.

This time, he seemed to see a... puchi exactly the same color as the mushroom stem?

Standing under the mushroom trees, you couldn't tell at a single glance!

"Mimicry?"

The mage nodded: "It should be. Who knows how many puchi are inside.

The information on that sign seems to be all correct.

I suggest abandoning exploration here and going down directly."

The captain seemed somewhat unwilling: "Didn't the sign also say there's a small path where you can find a Fat Puchi to trade for things?"

Hearing this, the group looked around and indeed saw a small dirt path.

Seeing the situation, the captain's mood seemed to improve a bit.

"Let's take this path to check it out. Anyway, there are still a few demon corpses over at Wells's place.

If we can confirm they're exchangeable, we can carry some extra back when we return from the sixth floor."

Anyone adventuring in the dungeon wants to earn more, so naturally no one objected.

Wells even felt a little anticipation: "I wonder what we can exchange for? It shouldn't be too bad, right!"

When they walked all the way to that cave entrance seven or eight meters high, they found someone had already arrived before them.

A startled cry came from inside the cave:

"A-rank magic crystal!"

————

【Mana Perception LV6】 + 【Airflow Perception LV7】 + 【Light Perception LV4】 【Sonic Detection LV6】

Another scouting Puji has freshly landed.

Let's see how those who like to play at stealth still smuggle themselves through!

If you've got the skill, fly straight past the fifth floor!

After patching up the fifth floor's security, Lin Jun checked his own panel again.

【Mimicry LV4】

After these days of tireless effort from a hundred or so Puji, it had finally leveled up — a few days later than expected.

After Xiao Hei's disguise, she no longer needed to be confined to the mushroom grove. These past days she'd been required to stay in her nest, and she was clearly growing more and more irritable.

Lin Jun had even thought of sending Dylan to soothe Xiao Hei — a man who has a daughter himself should know how to coax a little girl, right?

But in the end he gave up, afraid that Dylan would end up in someone's stomach halfway through the coaxing.

Luckily Dylan wasn't needed now — he could upgrade Xiao Hei right away.

Lin Jun was about to call Xiao Hei when a preset message came through the mycelium network, sent by Fatty Puji.

The grand prize had already been drawn?!

The mushroom garden had reopened, and to create a publicity effect, Lin Jun had stuffed an A-rank magic crystal into the fatso's place.

He just hadn't expected it to come out this fast.

A truly random lottery — he really was too good-hearted.

Lin Jun shifted his gaze over; he was curious too about who was so lucky.

Hm?

Two teams?

And they're arguing?

How did it turn into a fight?

Damn it, don't hurt my fatso!

(End of chapter)