This Dungeon Grew Mushrooms

Gale winds howled and arcs of electricity flashed through the passage of the underground chamber.

Between broken stones, cracks in the wall, and shadowed corners, Night Owl darted through those shadows, pushing her speed to the limit. Each transit narrowly avoided a violent lightning strike, and the black blade in her hand would skim the surface of a storm spirit, dealing damage.

But the diamond-rank storm spirit’s body was enormous, almost filling the entire tunnel. Night Owl’s black blade couldn’t reach its cyclone core, making lethal strikes difficult.

If it came down to attrition, Night Owl—who hadn’t slept for days—would be at a severe disadvantage. She couldn’t maintain full power for much longer.

The storm elemental let out a low hum. The air pressure in the tunnel spiked; countless tiny sparks leapt from its body and wove into a net of electricity that covered the whole passage.

Night Owl balanced on her toes and melted into the shadow by the wall.

The instant the electric net swept past, she reappeared, preparing to exploit the opening after the elemental’s skill. Her right foot suddenly went weak—she nearly fell.

Her right foot had been grazed by lightning a moment before. Though it had caused no obvious injury, it inflicted a paralysis effect, and in her exhausted state Night Owl hadn’t noticed it immediately.

“Crap…” The thought barely formed before blinding lightning filled her vision.

Night Owl slammed into the stone wall, black smoke rising from her body; the air carried the smell of seared flesh.

Another arc struck; Night Owl’s silhouette vanished again, leaving behind a smear of red.

Inside the chamber, Night Owl—unable to hold on any longer—fell out of the shadows and rolled twice, spitting a mouthful of blood.

She cursed herself, thinking she must have caught Ivan’s madness—otherwise, why would she do such a stupid thing? She should have retreated the moment she saw the diamond-rank elementals and dragged any one of the three injured away; at least two lives could have been saved.

Now she’d tried to be a hero and nearly cost herself her life.

At death’s door, she started muttering in Elvish, swearing and scolding in a string of filthy words Lin Jun would recognize if he were here.

She berated everyone—from the squad leader down to herself—and even the absent Aiden wasn’t spared.

“How are you?” Nova staggered over, supporting himself against the wall.

At the moment, besides Night Owl, only he could still move a little.

“What difference does ‘better’ or ‘worse’ make? Either way soon… cough… we’ll be dead!” Night Owl finished, spraying Nova with blood as she forced the words out.

Nova asked, “Is the Heartwood still with you?”

Night Owl dug through her damaged garments and pulled out the stick. “What, take one thing with me before I die? It’s an elemental core, not a demon artifact—pointless.”

Nova took the wood core and gripped it hard. The barbs on the branch bit into his palm; blood dripped down the shaft.

Night Owl fell silent, staring at him in confusion.

Nova whispered an explanation: “This thing has another use…”

The next moment, to Night Owl’s horror, Nova thrust the branch into her arm.

“Nova! What the hell—” she began.

Before she finished, a surge of vigorous life flowed into her along the branch.

This was not ordinary healing but pure vitality.

Her wounds and exhaustion rapidly receded under the force of it, while the price showed: Nova’s hair visibly and rapidly turned gray.

Night Owl jerked away sharply, horrified at the sensation of someone else’s life being siphoned.

Nova looked at Night Owl—now restored to vigor—and slowly sat against the wall. “Gaal’s too badly injured. Without my healing to keep him alive, taking him would be suicide. Drag Ivan and get out…”

He pushed the Heartwood toward Night Owl; the implication was clear.

“Nova…” Night Owl didn’t argue. She took the Heartwood and moved toward Ivan, about to slip into the shadows, but then she froze.

Where had that storm elemental gone? Why hadn’t it entered?

She hesitated for a moment, then crept back into the tunnel to check.

And then she saw it.

The entire passage was thick with spores.

……

“Yeah, like that—don’t stop!”

Under Lin Jun’s direction, the puji under Aiden’s command all flexed their caps and expelled clouds of spores.

These particles, carrying faint mana, billowed like dense fog and flowed continuously into the narrow tunnel.

In this relatively enclosed space, the spores could not be dispersed; the arcs of lightning could not sweep them all away.

Soon, everywhere but the immediate ring around the storm elemental was filled with the spore fog.

In the storm elemental’s [Mana Perception] it was as if the whole tunnel were cloaked by mana spores, obscuring what sat within.

Its [Airflow Perception] was equally confused: the cramped terrain caused winds to curl and rebound everywhere, producing chaotic readings.

This was exactly what Lin Jun intended—he had all those scouting senses himself and, having used them so long, knew exactly how to counter them.

With both main detection methods disrupted, the crystalless knight puji swaggered to within eight meters of the storm elemental and stopped.

A straight-up ambush.

When the artillery shot burst forth, the storm elemental barely reacted in time—and ate a fully charged mana cannon.

The violent energy impact made its colossal body tremble, lightning splintering.

Still, it wasn’t fatal. Once it detected the attacker, the storm elemental wrapped itself in lightning and surged forward.

The knight puji didn’t flinch; [Blade Storm LV8] activated, its whole body turning into a high-speed rotating blade gyroscope and charging head-on.

[Magic Resistance LV9]

[Regeneration LV7]

[Mycelial Reformation LV8]

Electric serpents writhed and mycelial strands flew.

The two furious “gyroscopes”—one huge, one small—collided in a raw, brutal contest. A series of impacts left the entire tunnel trembling.

This kind of pure brute-force clash didn’t faze Lin Jun at all.

After all, he could read the status panels—pull them up and check the HP drain rates, and he’d know the outcome.

Sure enough, as time passed the storm elemental fell behind.

Its arcs grew fewer; the rotational speed of its gale slowed.

The knight puji, though bloodied, still held ample mana and, supported by rapid regeneration, was in much better condition than the elemental.

Night Owl, arriving at that moment, jumped straight into the fight.

Despite some scrapes, she pierced the loosening outer storm with her black blade and stabbed it into the elemental’s core cyclone.

The diamond-rank storm elemental gave one last trembling roar and violently exploded, flinging Night Owl backward.

The blast wasn’t huge—she rolled a few times in succession to dissipate the force.

But as she neared the puji, Lin Jun’s mycelial tendril lightly hooked her; off-balance, she fell and ended up rolling in the dirt.

Aiden, who had followed into the passage, saw the scene and hurried to explain.

“Boss, she’s a member of the Silverthorn Squad,” he said quickly, afraid Lin Jun might mistake her for an enemy.

Night Owl—how could Lin Jun forget her? “I know. This one cut down some of my puji before!”

Seeing her battered, bloodied face, still confused about what had happened, Aiden began to seriously recall how, before he joined the guild, he’d accidentally killed a few puji…