Chapter 1: 1 The Duke's Daughter Who Turned Into a Mushroom

"Let me go! Who are you people? Let me go at once!"

Inanna, who had just woken up to find herself stuffed into a burlap sack, struggled with all her might.

"Pero, did you water down the paralysis spell? She's already awake."

"Idiot, don't say my name. Her duke father poured so many resources into her, do you really think her resistances would be low? It's already impressive she's only waking up now."

Inanna suddenly froze; both of these were voices she recognized.

"Pero? And you, Oakes! You ambushed me? You betrayed my father?"

"It's all your fault for running your mouth; she recognized us," Pero said, annoyed.

Oakes, however, seemed unbothered. "What are you afraid of? She won't have the chance to tell anyone."

What did that mean? This wasn't just a kidnapping?

"What are you going to do?"

Realizing her life might be in danger, Inanna became even more agitated.

The sack over her head was ripped off, and the first thing she saw was Oakes's hideous face.

"What are we going to do? Young Lady, today you're going to become a monster's dinner!"

Inanna looked around; the walls of the dim tunnel were scattered with purple crystals of various sizes.

Had she been kidnapped to the Amethyst Dungeon?

"You two rats in human skin, did the old man ever treat you poorly? How could you betray him?"

"Because your father is finished. Do you really think he can hold off the Empire's invasion? Killing you is the final straw that will break him. Once you're dead, I can even land myself a noble title."

Thinking of the title promised by the mastermind, Oakes couldn't help but laugh.

"Stop laughing, you'll attract monsters," Pero interrupted impatiently. "This is the place. Put her down."

Inanna was tossed onto the ground, still looking like she wanted to bite someone.

Oakes looked at Inanna's beautiful face and said with a hint of regret, "Such a beauty, why does she have the same temperament as her father? It's a pity, I wanted to see what a duke's daughter tasted like."

"This is the sixth floor. If you don't mind a monster chewing your bare ass off, go ahead."

"Just a joke. Once I'm a noble, I'll have all the women I want."

Pero raised his magic wand, aiming it at Inanna, and chanted an obscure incantation.

"Transmutation?"

Inanna immediately recognized the magic Pero was using. She kicked her bound feet at him, trying to interrupt the spell, but Oakes grabbed her.

"If you have the guts, kill me! You killed... me..."

As the transmutation spell finished, Inanna gradually lost the ability to speak, turning into a Puji with only a pair of short legs, commonly known as a Walking Mushroom.

After finishing the chant, Pero took out a bottle of starlight-flecked potion with a pained expression and poured it over Inanna.

Oakes watched this scene with amazement.

"Solidification Potion? You're really generous. Why go through all this trouble? Why not just kill her and throw the body down to feed the monsters?"

Pero listened to Oakes's brainless suggestion, feeling his "idiot-aversion" flaring up.

"You kill her, then. See if you get tagged with the Duke's Mark of Vengeance. When he abandons his territory to come kill you, don't you dare sell me out."

"Tracking magic, Mark of Vengeance—it's impossible she doesn't have them on her. Letting the monsters on the lower levels eat her clean is the safest method."

As he spoke, he thoughtfully cast an extended-duration Slow Fall spell on the Puji-Inanna, so she wouldn't die from the fall.

"Never mind what I said." Oakes wasn't offended by the disdain and walked up to Inanna. "Farewell, Young Lady."

With that, he kicked her, watching as Inanna was swallowed by the rift.

This was a rift leading straight to the depths of the dungeon; no one had ever climbed back out after falling in, let alone a Puji with zero combat ability.

————

Scoundrels!

Daring to use the old man's name to trick me!

I will kill those two animals with my own hands!

It's... so dark around here...

The rift seemed truly bottomless; even the extended Slow Fall spell hadn't reached the end.

Feeling the falling speed constantly increasing, once her rage cooled, the sixteen-year-old girl who had never faced death finally felt fear.

Was she going to die just like this?

*Poof*—

Inanna felt herself land on a bouncy, soft bed, which bounced her high into the air again. After a few rounds, she landed on her bottom on the ground.

Not dead! As expected, she was favored by fate.

But where was this?

A Puji had no facial features and couldn't see, but she could vaguely perceive the things around her.

The thing that caught her seemed to be a three-meter-wide... giant mushroom?

What was with the movement around her? These figures flickering before her were so familiar...

Weren't these Puji, just like she had become after the transformation?

Why would these Puji, the absolute bottom of the food chain, be in the dangerous depths of the dungeon?

And there were so many of them!

Uh, why were they surrounding her...

————

Lin Jun, the owner of the mushroom garden, felt he had been too distracted lately, leading him to make frequent low-level mistakes.

Look at this—there was a Puji here that wasn't under his control. He didn't know if it had fallen naturally before it could connect to the fungal network after growing up.

It even had a pink mushroom cap, making it stand out among the pile of green and gray-capped Puji.

Had it mutated?

Fortunately, it was easy to fix. He just needed to connect it with mycelium and tune it to the fungal network's channel.

But why was it resisting so fiercely?

This uncontrolled Puji was running around everywhere when faced with the Puji Lin Jun sent to connect it.

One moment it knocked over a few Puji, the next it was trampling through the mushroom patch, making a mess of the garden.

Annoyed, Lin Jun simply commanded a large group of Puji to surround it, squeezing it until it couldn't move, and only then did he connect the mycelium.

"Ahhh! Get away! Get away!"

What the hell was this?

As soon as the Puji connected, Lin Jun was bombarded by screaming, so loud it made his mycelium bristle.

"Quiet!"

An irresistible command was transmitted through the fungal network to every Puji, and for a moment, the entire mushroom garden stopped moving.

"Damn it, no, everyone back to work."

After it took a long time to restore the garden's operations, Lin Jun finally focused his attention on this special Puji.

He realized it now: this definitely wasn't a Puji produced by his garden, but an outsider.

It was truly strange; how could there be an outsider in this remote corner?

"Speak! Where did you break in from?"

"Who are you? How are you talking to me? No, how am I talking right now?"

Tsk.

This guy was clearly in a state of confusion and couldn't even speak clearly, so Lin Jun simply pulled up her panel.

[Name: Inanna St. Clair]

[Race: Mushroom - Puji]

[Level: LV28]

[HP: 3280]

[Strength: 1]

[Agility: 1]

[Constitution: 1]

[Intelligence: 33]

[Spirit: 24]

[Racial Talent: Spore Diffusion (Can actively spray spores into the surroundings; triggers automatically upon death)]

[Fixed Effects:

Church Blessing (Provides Light Element Affinity LV4, Light Magic LV4)

Mark of Vengeance (Transfers to the killer upon death; the caster can track the killer and deal extra damage)

Tracking Mark (Location marker)

Fruit of Life (Grants 3000 extra HP and Life Recovery LV4)

Dragon Crystal Potion (Provides high-level resistance in all aspects)

Permanent Transmutation (Unless the magic is dispelled, the transformation effect will last permanently)

Fungal Network Connection (Short-range mental network formed by magic resonance between mycelium)]

[Skills: Riding LV4, Element Affinity (Water, Light) LV4, Mana Storage LV3, Mana Control LV4, Light Magic LV4, Water Magic LV3, Cloth Armor Mastery LV2, Dagger Mastery LV2, Magic Resistance LV6, Physical Resistance LV6, Spirit Resistance LV6, Corrosion Resistance LV6, Poison Resistance LV6, Paralysis Resistance LV6, High-Temperature Resistance LV6, Cold Resistance LV6, Stun Resistance LV6, Underwater Adaptation LV6, Astrology LV1, Ancient Elvish LV2, Life Recovery LV4]

My god, a super pink Puji with over 3000 HP and LV6 resistances in everything!

(End of Chapter)