Chapter 61: 68 Traces

"Please stay, a routine check is required."

Aiden straightened the copper badge on his chest, his iron gauntlets and chainmail gleaming coldly as he blocked five adventurers who had just come out of the dungeon, their leather boots still sticky with mycelium.

"Check? Why?"

Several adventurers frowned; no one liked having their luggage checked, but they didn't choose to ignore Aiden, just waiting for him to give a reasonable reason.

Aiden also knew that this task was unpopular, so he patiently explained: "We recently received a report about a raider attack incident."

Aiden took out a piece of parchment and unfolded it, the Guild's seal clearly visible.

"We are searching for equipment left behind by the victims. Please cooperate, finding the raiders is good for everyone."

The female mage in robes in the team sneered and wanted to say something, but was stopped by the captain.

They unloaded their heavily worn cowhide packs, the metal buckles hitting the stone floor with a dull thud.

Aiden nodded to the two guards behind him, while he opened the record book with a parchment cover, squatted down, and began to compare the items in the packs one by one.

Soon, a dwarf helmet covered in copper rust was pulled out from the bottom of the pack by a guard.

Also found were a pair of iron shoulder pads.

Aiden stood up calmly and took two steps back, quietly holding up three fingers to the commander who was wiping his sword under the shade of an elm tree.

After the gold-rank strength commander walked to his side, Aiden straightened his back and said:

"This helmet and shoulder pads match the equipment held by the victims, I'm afraid we'll have to delay you all a bit longer for questioning."

"What!?" Sure enough, this remark drew an instinctive reaction from the adventurers.

A heavy axe warrior even angrily questioned: "You mean, we are raiders?"

"I am not suspecting you all, I am just acting according to orders, please cooperate with the Guild."

Aiden stood behind his own gold-rank, speaking neither humble nor arrogant, like an emotionless law enforcement machine.

And that commander drew his sword at his waist by a few inches, the meaning quite clear.

Seeing that a dispute was about to break out, the adventurer's leader hurriedly blocked his teammates.

He was just an ordinary adventurer team, how could he dare to really clash with the Guild.

"Everyone calm down, calm down.

Guys, we exchanged this from that big fat Puji on the fifth floor, we are really not raiders."

Seeing that his attitude was still okay, Aiden spoke to comfort them:

"I guess so too, don't worry, there were some adventurers in the same situation as you before.

But routine questioning still has to be done.

We won't wrong you, the previous groups were also released after questioning."

Hearing that they were not the first batch to be stopped like this, several adventurers felt much more at ease.

They were indeed not any raiders.

On the side, Dylan, carrying a large pack, didn't stop to watch the fun like the others.

Instead, he bypassed the few people and entered the dungeon directly—entering the dungeon didn't require a check.

Aiden rubbed his nose; he seemed to smell a bit of blood, but the smell of blood was clearly not something worth noting.

This was the dungeon entrance; it was too normal for adventurers coming out to have some blood smell on them.

He had even smelled ones with the smell of dung!

——

On the first floor, Dylan squatted on the ground, his fingers scraping across a wall crack.

He hooked up a large clump of mycelium.

And like this, mycelium growing in wall cracks could be seen everywhere on the first floor now.

Is the Boss planning to slowly occupy the first few floors too?

Dylan guessed while walking along the passage with the most mycelium.

About half an hour later, he finally found a patch of mycelium carpet in a remote compartment far from the strategy route.

He threw his backpack on the ground and stretched fiercely.

He was getting on in years, and he still had to carry such heavy things; it was really suffering.

He threw the things in the pack onto the mycelium carpet.

The mycelium would naturally handle the remaining steps.

To be honest, if the other party only wanted two more gold, he would have swallowed this loss.

Opening his mouth and asking for 20 gold?

Some retired adventurers didn't even have that much retirement money saved for themselves!

Of course, that information broker asking for 20 gold was just a lion opening its mouth, waiting to bargain.

However, this attitude of wanting to squeeze him dry at first glance made Dylan really have no interest in entangling with him.

Now it was fine, he got the information, and even earned 8 gold coins for nothing...

But Dylan really couldn't be happy.

Because Bella really went to the archipelago...

According to the information, Bella seemed to have come to Dumbwind Town before the magic tide to inquire about his whereabouts.

At that time, Dylan was still pulling spores on the fifth floor, living in seclusion, and there were few people in the whole Dumbwind Town who knew him.

Even people who knew him like the tavern owner Cole didn't know his whereabouts at all.

Anyway, in the end, Bella gained nothing.

But it was also thanks to Bella staying in Dumbwind Town for a period of time.

That information broker successfully collected her subsequent whereabouts—Silver Sand Bay.

One of the three major slave owners in the archipelago, Glossa's territory.

A villain notorious for illegal human trafficking.

The news said the daughter went to save someone!?

This undoubtedly made Dylan worried.

Going to that kind of place, who could she be saving? It must be some unlucky guy who became a slave!

What if the daughter and Glossa had a conflict...

Could he only stay here and pray, hoping his daughter would be safe and sound?

After throwing away the things in the pack, Dylan simply threw the pack into the corner and was about to leave.

"It seems your life outside is also quite colorful."

"Boss!?"

Hearing the Boss's voice in a place other than the fifth floor was the first time.

However, what followed was a silence of more than a minute; just when Dylan started to suspect he was hallucinating, the Boss's voice sounded again.

"The delay is still too high, so I won't chat with you.

Since you are on the first floor, do me a favor while you're at it.

Go out from here, turn right after passing three intersections, and then turn right again.

There is a large slime there, go kill it."

"No problem." Dylan nodded and agreed.

This was the first floor, the highest level of monsters was LV5, Dylan could naturally solve it easily.

But he didn't think so when he got there.

Two scaleless Puji were besieging a super-large blue slime that was almost as wide as the entire corridor.

Mushroom cannons shot out, exploding a small piece on the big slime, which seemed painless.

Inside the slime floated another Puji that had melted halfway.

This scene made Dylan alert—this slime was this strong?

He tried to use [Spinning Slash LV5] at the extreme distance of the attack.

The large slime was not only cut open but also scraped by the sword wind so that its core was exposed.

Dylan stepped forward in disbelief and added a sword, ending it.

So it wasn't that this slime was too powerful, but that these Puji were too weak?

He knew the power of the cannon mushrooms very well; the power was so small just now that it made him think the slime had neutralized all the damage.

So what was the Boss doing?

Why were the first-floor Puji so weak?