Chapter 78: 78: Want Some Mushrooms?

The next morning.

"Four mid-grade healing potions, three low-grade mana potions, three bottles of all-purpose antidote. It's all here, dear customer. Please keep them safe."

The clerk pushed the potion box wrapped in oil paper across the counter, and Vera took it and carefully tucked it away.

Fei Ling had gone off to buy food and small props like flint, and Fei Yin said she needed to prepare some medicinal powder, so by the time they got back she should be about done.

Pushing open the wooden door of the shop, just as Vera was about to head back, a thug-looking fellow came up to her on his own.

"Young man, you look like a stranger?"

Vera's brow furrowed slightly. She stepped back two paces, trying to go around him.

Does she really look that easy to bully?

Where do these random idiots who come up to her out of nowhere even come from?

But the thug, as if he couldn't take a hint, actually stepped forward two more paces and sidled right up next to Vera.

Vera's hand was already on her scimitar — if this weren't within the town's limits, she would have already drawn the weapon.

"Whoa whoa, young man, I don't mean any harm."

The thug hurriedly gestured that he meant no threat, while Vera just stared at this annoying fellow, waiting for him to continue.

"Sigh, I just wanted to ask if you, young man, need a little of Mute Wind Town's local specialty."

Local specialty?

It's not as if Vera hadn't stayed in Mute Wind Town before.

If you had to name a specialty, wouldn't everything in the dungeon count as a specialty?

But none of them really stood out enough to represent the whole of Mute Wind Town, right?

Surely it can't be referring to that bar in the Rotten Willow tavern that's already shut down?

Vera would learn the answer soon enough.

The thug slipped his hand inside his clothes, fumbled around for a bit, and pulled out a small bag that didn't look all that clean.

"Want some mushrooms?" he said, revealing the crumbled bits of green mushroom inside the bag.

……

……

……

Mushrooms — mushrooms, everywhere.

That was Vera's current impression of Mute Wind Town.

That bowl of mushroom soup yesterday wasn't that restaurant's specialty; now practically every eatery in Mute Wind Town has this "delicacy" on the menu.

The reason was also very simple — cheap.

It barely cost anything. Anyone who ran a lap around the first floor of the dungeon could easily gather a huge haul of mushrooms.

This point hit home most directly for the three of them after they entered the dungeon.

The ground was still fine — probably because of the constant foot traffic, it had stayed as it was.

But the ceiling and the cracks in the walls were completely covered in mycelium and glowing mushrooms.

From the first floor all the way down to the fourth, it was the same: anywhere there was a gap, or anywhere creatures weren't likely to step, there was sure to be mycelium and mushrooms.

Not only was each floor like this, even the staircases connecting the different floors were the same — great swathes of mycelium spreading along the circular walls, as if top and bottom had merged into one.

Still, this situation didn't cause the adventurers much trouble.

On the contrary, if you didn't mind eating glowing porridge every day, you could enter the dungeon without preparing any food at all.

You just had to be careful not to accidentally cook the green mushrooms in — all the mushrooms glowed, and if your eyesight wasn't great you could mix them up.

And the green mushrooms weren't completely useless either. Just like that thug earlier, they used the green mushrooms as cheap "sleep-aid powder."

If you really had to name one inconvenience the mushrooms brought to the dungeon, it would probably be the disappearance of the firefly grass.

At least for the first five floors, that was the case.

Without the firefly grass's warm orange glow, the mushroom fluorescence that took its place had bumped the dungeon's creepiness rating up by several whole levels!

The way it looked now, even if a few ghosts suddenly popped out, it wouldn't feel out of place at all.

Walking along the spiral passage leading to the fifth floor, the ghostly glow of the mushrooms lit up the steps underfoot.

Fei Ling couldn't help but say, "They should just rename this place Mushroom Dungeon."

Fei Yin nodded in agreement. "It's all mushrooms, and Puji."

Along the way, they had already run into two battles between Puji and slimes, and even picked up a little loot from the aftermath…

Partway through the second half of the passage, they heard a hubbub of noise coming from below.

At the bottom of the stairs, some twenty-odd adventurers were scattered about in small groups, resting. Some had even gotten campfires going — it looked like they'd been here for quite a while.

The three of them arriving didn't really draw much attention from the other adventurers; several gazes swept over them briefly before looking away.

"What are they doing?" Fei Ling asked in a quiet voice.

Vera shrugged — how would she know.

Still, she noticed a sign standing at the exit.

She walked up to it.

"Fifth Floor Rules…"

This set of rules looked like an expanded version of the "strategy guide" she'd gotten back then.

The fact that the adventurers tacitly accepted this sign standing here instead of destroying it meant the rules on it should be correct.

Except for the very last one: if you see an all-black, winged humanoid creature, immediately flee back the way you came.

Someone had scratched a line through it, and in its place, in the blank space below, carved with a knife in a different hand: Do not enter at night.

Do not enter at night?

Vera finally noticed that almost all these adventurers were carrying Moonshadow Stones.

But... judging by the time they entered the dungeon and their progress, it shouldn't be night yet, right?

She felt she needed to find someone to ask.

Vera looked around and locked onto a dwarf who was diligently wiping his axe.

As she approached, the dwarf warily lifted his axe.

But when Vera stated her purpose and handed over a silver coin, the dwarf began chatting with her as if he had met a long-lost friend.

"So, everything written on that sign is true?" Vera asked after declining the mushroom soup the dwarf offered her.

The dwarf didn't mind, took a swig himself, and left a large patch of fluorescence on his beard.

"Of course it's true. Some kind-hearted adventurer put it up.

At first, some didn't believe it, but after being stripped clean by the Pujis one by one, they learned their lesson."

As he spoke, the dwarf seemed to recall that scene and chuckled softly.

Vera nodded and continued, "Then what about the last one? What danger is there on the fifth floor at night?"

The dwarf, looking as if he knew she would ask this, leaned close to Vera and lowered his voice: "The Great Black Mushroom!"

"The Great Black Mushroom?"

"That's right! A Pujiji one person tall, with particularly thick black scales!

It's incredibly powerful; even a Gold-rank adventurer can't defeat it. Every night, it roams the fifth and sixth floors.

You might not encounter it, but if you do, it might rob you!"

Vera's eyes widened in shock. "It can roam two floors? Doesn't that mean it can enter the stairway?"

"I understand your shock," the dwarf patted Vera's shoulder; he had been through it too, "but that is the fact. This is probably one of the aftereffects of the Demon Tide."

The aftereffects of the Demon Tide.

Adventurers attribute most of the changes currently in the dungeon to this so-called aftereffect, including the mushrooms spreading across the entire first five floors.

"You said it might rob you; why 'might'?"

"That depends on whether you have anything shiny on you. Rings, magic crystals, glass beads; if it likes them, it will snatch them.

That's why they say it's better not to go out at night. If you don't meet it, you're safe."

"Then why are you all resting here? It isn't night yet, is it?" Vera asked her final question.

The dwarf chuckled and didn't hide it: "Because we are going to hunt it down!"

(Adding a picture of the trio)

(End of this chapter)