Chapter 47: 49 The Gradually Spreading Mushrooms

The second floor of the dungeon.

A light breeze swept through the forest, carrying the pure scent of grass and trees, while the clear spring water of the gravel creek reflected the orange-white glow emitted by the firefly grass.

At first glance, this was a lush, natural woodland filled with flowing water.

But in reality, the small monsters in this forest were almost all adept at concealment and ambush, and many were poisonous.

For newcomers just starting out, it was normal to die inside if they weren't prepared with antidotes.

As a longsword pierced into the waist-high grass, Gray gave a light flick, and a green scorpion the size of a palm was skewered and pulled out.

"Isn't it said that after a monster tide, the number of monsters decreases significantly in the short term?

How long have we been walking, and I’ve already poked to death 3 spiders, 6 scorpions, and 4 small snakes..."

Calvin, who was checking the dungeon guide on the side, didn't even look up as he explained:

"A decrease in numbers refers to those high-level or large-sized monsters.

After a monster tide, the concentration of magic power in the dungeon increases significantly. Low-level small monsters benefit the most, so it's normal for them to emerge in large numbers."

As he spoke, he held the guide up to Gray's eyes and pointed to a spot: "Look, this floor originally had a common type of black-and-white python, but we haven't encountered any on this trip."

Gray swung his longsword upward, slicing a green snake hanging upside down above their heads into two, and took a moment to glance at the guide, complaining:

"That's 5 now... but this is too annoying. How much longer until the next floor?"

"Still quite a distance," Calvin paused for a moment, seemingly studying the map. "How about this, we'll take a detour. There's a natural cave we can take; there won't be so many annoying little things over there."

"What's in there?" Gray didn't believe it would be a completely safe passage.

"Spiders. Big spiders."

——

Gray held his torch high, illuminating the messy, tattered spider webs in the gray-white stone cave; it seemed this place hadn't yet recovered from the destruction of the monster tide.

"Where are the spiders?"

Calvin pointed to the ceiling. Gray looked up and, sure enough, saw small red dots hidden in the darkness.

"Don't worry, these guys are actually quite timid. As long as you don't get stuck in their webs, they won't dare come down to attack."

"How do you know?"

"It's written in the guide."

Gray nodded, then asked: "Then why don't they come down to eat this?"

As he spoke, he used the torch to drive back the darkness ahead, revealing a Puji struggling incessantly on a spider web.

"A Puji? Spiders are carnivorous, so it's normal they wouldn't eat it." Calvin wore a puzzled expression. "But why would there be a Puji here?"

"What's the problem with it appearing here? Didn't we encounter them on the first floor?" Gray didn't understand what was so strange.

"That's why someone like you who doesn't read books understands nothing."

Calvin leaned in to observe this strange Puji while explaining to Gray:

"The monster tide does cause monsters to drift into other floors, but it's always from the lower floors to the upper ones.

It's almost impossible for upper-floor monsters to run to the lower floors.

Besides, this Puji is so strange; it even grew tentacles..."

"Then maybe there are walking mushrooms on the lower floors too."

"But the guide says only the first floor has Puji."

"How old is this guide of yours? Is it outdated?"

"Three years old. It shouldn't be outdated..." Calvin began to feel uncertain. If the guide was truly outdated, they might encounter unexpected dangers.

Gray stepped forward and took the Puji off the spider web.

"Gray, what are you doing? This is a mutant species; it might be dangerous!"

Gray shrugged: "What danger could a walking mushroom have? I just want to see what it's doing here."

As soon as the Puji landed, its four fungal tentacles shot out, extending rapidly into the darkness above.

After a hiss sounded from above, a two-meter-wide spider was dragged down, smashed hard against the ground, and died on the spot.

Then, the Puji slowly dragged the spider's carcass and walked outside.

Gray turned his head and found Calvin staring straight at him.

"Alright, I admit it's a bit dangerous... want to follow it and see?"

Gray pointed to the Puji, which was about to turn a corner; the direction it was heading wasn't on their path.

Calvin's curiosity was piqued as well. He thought for a moment and nodded:

"We have plenty of time anyway, let's just follow it and take a look!"

Once they reached an agreement, the two followed the Puji all the way.

Watching it swat away an ambushing scorpion with a tentacle, then walk through two hidden paths, it finally entered a small cave located between rock crevices, where a faint light glowed from within.

The two arrived at the cave entrance and peered inside.

Inside the small cave, fungal threads covered every corner, and mushrooms of all sizes emitting a ghostly glow illuminated the entire space.

What made the two gasp even more was:

Bones covered the floor, spreading from the entrance—dire wolves, black-and-white snakes, large spiders, unknown dragon-beasts; the corpses of these monsters were mixed together.

Some remains were already covered in fungal threads, while others looked like they had just been brought in, the blood not yet fully congealed.

Several mutant Puji with tentacles worked together to move the newly arrived spider carcass to an empty spot, carefully avoiding damaging the fungal carpet on the ground in the process.

Gulp—

Exchanging a glance, Gray and Calvin both saw the shock in each other's eyes.

The two retreated on tiptoe, slowly, only relaxing once they were completely away from that cave.

As soon as they were out, Calvin complained: "Why... why were you so nervous? This is only the second floor, you're already LV31, what are you afraid of?"

"Weren't you the one who got nervous first?"

"Fine, fine, but it was so eerie, of course I was nervous. Where else have you seen such brutal Puji?

I'm going to tell my teacher about this when I get back."

As he spoke, Calvin looked back; there were no Puji behind them.

"For now, let's just hurry to the fifth floor."

——

Hmm?

Lin Jun, who was planting large mushrooms in the forest, suddenly received a scene from the second-floor substation—two human adventurers peeking.

Has the dungeon finally opened?

It seems I need to speed up the formation of the large mushrooms.

I also need to replenish the combat Puji; otherwise, if the defensive force isn't enough, it'll be troublesome if someone comes to cause trouble.

As for those two adventurers, Lin Jun didn't bother with them.

He never intended to hide this from humans; even if he wanted to, he couldn't.

Choosing a remote cave location was just to reduce harassment from monsters.

And in reality, even if he wanted to handle it, he couldn't.

Unlike the direct connection of fungal threads, signals transmitted through mushroom nodes had a slight delay; what he saw was likely the scene from 6 minutes ago.

The Puji outside all executed tasks autonomously once set.

Unless human adventurers attacked first or snatched the monster corpses in the cave, they wouldn't counterattack—this was Lin Jun's consistent policy of neutrality.

If someone really did destroy these substations, Lin Jun would just have to consider it bad luck and wait for them to reach the fifth floor to take revenge!

(End of chapter)