Chapter 62: 62 The Mysterious Ritual

At the fifth-floor entrance, the mage stumbled into the staircase range.

He looked utterly wretched now.

Wearing only his underwear, his robe and hat had vanished, and his staff, along with the two equipment rings on his hands, were gone without a trace.

The moment he entered, he fell to his knees in a daze.

"Actually..."

"Actually got robbed by Pugi!!!"

During the conflict in the cave, only he, standing at the very back, had seen it—a faint glimmer flashing briefly at that woman's sleeve.

In an instant, he connected it to Jinie's previous abnormal behavior.

However, the battle had already begun; even if he jumped out now to voice his guess, who would believe him?

Would those few temporary teammates, who had been played for fools, believe him?

Or would that group of adventurers on the other side, whom he didn't even know, believe him?

More critically, he saw Jinie turn her head and smile at him.

Without much hesitation, he quickly made his decision—sell out!

After all, they were just a temporary party; he wasn't willing to risk his life over a few days' acquaintance.

Besides, it was those few fools, bewitched by women, who were to blame themselves.

Up to this point, the mage felt his choice was not wrong.

The mistake was that he had fled too hastily and hadn't thought to take one of the monster corpses Wells was carrying before leaving.

As a result, a group of Pugi blocked him, refusing to let him pass.

He tried to force his way through but barely killed two before being wrapped up by tentacles.

He knew these Pugi were not weak, but he hadn't expected them to be so powerful; at the time, he thought he was going to die there.

Unexpectedly, the Pugi were magnanimous; they simply stripped him bare and let him go.

Truly...

"Damn it! Waaah..."

What the mage didn't know was that he had already counted as lucky.

————

Ralph's screams from not far away did not last long before ceasing.

Although, due to the events along the way, Wells held no good impression of this captain.

Thinking of his own current situation, it was hard not to feel the sorrow of a fox mourning a rabbit's death.

A moment later, a figure pushed aside the mushrooms and walked forward, illuminated by the glow.

"Jinie?"

Jinie glanced at him and smiled apologetically:

"You're awake? Was that Ralph's screaming?

Sorry, I'm actually not very skilled at the Sleep spell; I didn't expect him to wake up halfway through.

Don't worry, I'll cast the Sleep spell on you in a moment; I guarantee it will be painless.

After speaking, Jinie struggled to drag the bound Wells outward; lacking strength, sweat dripped from her forehead.

Wells felt his mind couldn't fully comprehend what Jinie was saying.

He only felt that the current Jinie was vastly different from the one in his memory.

There was no sweet smile; instead, there was a kind of... sincerity?

Wells didn't know why he felt that way.

But one thing he figured out was that he was probably going to be killed.

Dragged out, Wells saw Ralph and his dwarf teammate.

Both had no bloodstains on their bodies; they simply lay on the ground with serene expressions, their chests not rising or falling even once.

Wells wanted to struggle, but he had no strength left in his body now, let alone being bound; he could only try to beg for mercy.

"Ji... Jinie, we have no grudge between us; please let me go!

I swear I won't say anything; I can even testify for you that the two of them died from a monster attack!

You don't need to kill me; I have savings in the Adventurer's Guild that I can give you all!

I... I..."

Wells couldn't continue speaking because he found Jinie showed not the slightest wavering; she simply dragged him silently toward an unknown ritual array ahead.

"Evil... cult?"

Placing Wells on the ritual array, Jinie sequentially replaced the eight cracked small monster crystals around the perimeter with new ones.

Then, she gently lifted Wells from behind, letting him lean against her chest.

Wells' head sank into something soft, but now he could muster no interest at all.

Despair and fear made him curse loudly.

Jinie, however, ignored him completely, simply holding up the small bell in front of Wells and gently shaking it.

As if seeing layers of ripples, even though Wells resisted with all his might, his eyelids gradually drooped.

Before losing consciousness, Wells heard Jinie whisper softly, like telling a bedtime story:

"Silver light purifies the soul and husk; the ritual condenses the path of return. Do not worry, do not fear; Nevrera will embrace you, shedding the shackles of the mortal world..."

Wells fell into a deep sleep; under Jinie's manipulation, the ritual array lit up with silver light, and the monster crystals around it shattered one by one.

Lin Jun, who had been observing them, witnessed this miraculous scene for the third time.

On Wells' panel, skills disappeared one after another, as if someone were erasing them with a backspace key.

At the moment the final skill vanished, Wales, who was still at full health, saw his status panel disappear.

Or rather, he simply died.

After finishing everything, Jinie kissed the forehead of the peaceful-looking Wales, then dragged him aside as well.

She bent down again and cleaned away all traces of the ritual.

Then she left directly, taking not a single coin of the three people's belongings.

After she departed, several Pujis emerged from the Mushroom Forest.

They gathered up all the abandoned items on the ground—the three people's full sets of equipment, a pile of monster corpses in the cave that hadn't been processed in time, and a dog that had died from blood loss.

They couldn't understand what the woman was muttering.

But the entire ritual looked quite legitimate.

So... were the skills of these people really all gone?

Driven by curiosity and no longer caring about wasting mana, Lin Jun directly controlled the mycelium to accelerate the decomposition of the several people.

【Seven Sins: Greed Triggered】

【Plunder Skill: Human Common Language LV2 → LV3】

【Plunder Skill: Bite LV5 → LV6】

Hmm?

Bite?

Oh, the dog's corpse was mixed in as well...

Other than that, nothing.

The skills were truly deleted!

This is serious!

This is no longer an ordinary evil ritual!

That woman is not welcome on the Fifth Layer anymore!

But there are truly many strange and bizarre things in this world.

After stuffing the recovered A-rank Magic Crystal back into the Fat Man's belly, Lin Jun went to find the Pujis that had sealed the Yellow Book.

The Pujis had completely petrified, but a thin crack remained on the outside.

At Lin Jun's command, the Yellow Book was spat out from the crack.

Having finally seen the light of day again, it immediately began to pledge its loyalty.

【You finally agreed to let me out!】

【I will definitely, definitely be able to help you!】

【Please don't lock me up again, it was so dark in there.】

Hmm...

It feels like there are one or two more characters I can understand?

Not very sure; I'll check again when I reach LV4.

【???】

After testing its reading ability, Lin Jun stuffed the Yellow Book back into the crack.

What comes next is the real matter.

In the Mushroom Forest, Seeing Xiao Hei was playing a game of stepping on mushrooms.

He jumped up, kicked a mushroom tree until it snapped, then used his foot to stomp it to pieces from head to tail.

Watching this made Lin Jun twitch; this was already the third one today...

"Seeing Xiao Hei, do you want to go out and play?"

"Yes!"

Hearing that he could finally go out, Seeing Xiao Hei immediately stopped.

His two legs, covered in black scales, excitedly stomped back and forth, crushing the mushrooms on the ground even more.

"Go back and sleep first; once you wake up, I'll let you go out."

Hearing that he still had to sleep first, the scales on Seeing Xiao Hei's face instantly crumpled into a lump.

Only after Lin Jun repeatedly assured him was he coaxed back.

Hallucinogenic spores poured in continuously; only after giving Dylan fourteen times the dose did the hallucinogenic coma state appear on Seeing Xiao Hei's status panel.

After ensuring she wouldn't suddenly jump up and move around wildly, Lin Jun began to mobilize the energy stored throughout the mycelium of the Fifth Layer.

If anyone were to activate Mana Perception now, they would see the mana in the mycelial mat of the entire Fifth Layer receding like a tide, continuously converging into the Mushroom Forest.

Installing 【Mimicry LV4】 on Seeing Xiao Hei would consume far more than it did for Dylan that time...

(End of Chapter)