This Dungeon Grew Mushrooms

The Frost Knight’s six-meter-tall ice-crystal body showed no clumsiness at all. The greatsword wreathed in freezing mist swept out again and again, each swing whipping up a violent storm.

Cassinar dodged continuously beneath the unending sword pressure, while also splitting his focus to manipulate blood to shatter the ice crystals shot down from above by the Snow Attendant.

Those seemingly thin ice shards would instantly freeze anything they grazed.

The coordination of two sanctum-level frost spirits actually managed to suppress the marquis for the moment—and that was when Number Four saw an opening.

He violently broke free of Number Ten’s restraint, curled his fungal body into a ball, and used the rubble-strewn terrain to roll along a sharp arc, bursting out directly along Cassinar’s retreat path!

“Eat this—Blade Storm!”

Unfortunately, Number Four had misunderstood one thing: the frost spirits were not under Inanna’s control.

They were drawn to her, followed her, protected her, and restrained their aggression around her.

But that didn’t mean they cared about anyone else besides Inanna.

The frost greatsword smashed into the ground and sent Number Four flying—and, as if by cruel fate, he was immediately struck by an ice crystal.

In the blink of an eye, Number Four turned into a frozen lump and fell straight down into the pitch-black collapse beside them.

Even the marquis, who had been preparing to defend himself, almost lost his composure at the sight.

“Number Four!” Although she knew he could revive, Inanna still felt a sharp pang of pain seeing him hurt.

Number Ten slammed a tentacle hard into the ground. “That idiot!”

It quickly assessed the situation. Although the blood race marquis seemed suppressed, his posture was far from desperate—clearly, this wasn’t anywhere near his full strength.

Number Ten decisively activated the mana crystal within itself—

Mass Invisibility!

Not a skill, but a proper spell.

While other puji were still debating which skills were stronger, Number Ten had already started teaching itself magic.

It immediately grabbed the pink puji and prepared to retreat.

But Cassinar was never going to let such a treasure escape.

The mere fact that Inanna could move freely through the ruins by drawing frost spirits to her was enough for him to pay any price to capture her.

The marquis suddenly stopped retreating. Dark-red bloodlight that had long been gathering in his palm shot out instantly, striking both frost spirits.

The blood arrows plunged into their ice-crystal bodies and exploded into countless barbs, pinning the Snow Attendant and Frost Knight firmly in place.

The frost spirits struggled violently, but breaking free would take several minutes—more than enough time for Cassinar.

With a wave of his hand, a surging curtain of blood sealed off Inanna’s escape route.

Even without seeing her, Cassinar could roughly lock onto her position through the keen perception of blood.

As for the last puji, it was surely close to the woman as well…

Wind rushed past his ears—the invisible Number Ten was right there.

Mud Spell!

Mushroom Cannon!

Self-Destruct!

Number Ten knew the gap in strength all too well. Aside from self-destruction, there was no way it could injure a blood race marquis.

The Mud Spell was only meant to delay him slightly, and the real target of the Mushroom Cannon was the blood curtain blocking Inanna’s escape!

“Run!” came Number Ten’s final transmission through the fungus network.

Holding back tears, Inanna turned and fled through the breach in the blood curtain.

Before the blast’s aftershock had even dissipated, Cassinar slowly emerged from a shadow at the far wall.

Half his face had been blown open, looking utterly miserable—but the actual injuries were not severe.

Creatures like puji, with no blood in their bodies, were indeed hard to track amid chaos, but charging in required movement—and that gave him the chance to detect them in advance.

Almost the moment Number Ten self-destructed, Cassinar had already retreated into the shadows, suffering only superficial wounds.

“You can’t escape, human!” He transformed into a streak of crimson light and shot toward Inanna’s retreating direction. “Don’t worry, I won’t kill you! I’ll turn you into a blood thrall—you’ll become my most obedient and useful tool!”

“You want to steal my stuff?”

A terrifying voice seemed to rise from the depths of an abyss. Cassinar shuddered involuntarily, his movements slowing for a split second.

Then—BOOM!

The rock wall to the side exploded outward as a gigantic beast puji, curled into a ball, smashed through.

At the same time, Number Four’s excited voice rang out through the fungus network:

“Hahaha! Pink puji, don’t be scared—I leveled up and came back to save you!”

This beast puji had been summoned by Lin Jun using the puji buried in the rubble. Since Number Four had piloting experience, he’d been stuffed inside as a bonus.

Number Four was clearly delighted to have such a massive mushroom body again. “Mushroom Slam!”

Cassinar was forced to brake and retreat, his path blocked by the suddenly appearing beast puji.

“What kind of monster is this…?” he muttered, utterly unable to comprehend the creature before him.

How could something like this even exist?

A fragment of the Dragonroar Valley battle reports flashed through his mind.

Could it be that Duke Sigmund hadn’t exaggerated to excuse himself… and those absurd descriptions were actually true?

He couldn’t be blamed for doubting it—the reports were far too outrageous. Without seeing it himself, who would believe them?

Cassinar quickly steadied his mind.

Dodging the wildly flailing tentacles of the beast puji, he counterattacked intermittently with blood blades—and soon noticed the problem.

His attacks vanished into the creature like mud into the sea. Even fully charged strikes seemed incapable of causing real damage.

Compared to this thing, even a troll’s regeneration looked crippled.

But after calm observation, it wasn’t hard to see that the creature was actually quite clumsy.

No—rather, that made sense.

He had been momentarily frightened by Sigmund’s battle report. Sluggish movement was what a giant should have.

Cassinar stopped engaging and melted into the shadows, bypassing Number Four to charge straight at Inanna.

“Playing dirty, huh?!”

Sensing the vampire’s intent, Number Four shot out a tentacle, wrapped up the startled Inanna, and stuffed her wholesale into his body.

He even used another tentacle to nudge her into a better position, making sure she was tucked into the safest spot possible.

Then the massive beast puji curled into a ball and simply… stayed still.

Several razor-sharp blood blades struck the fungal body, carving gashes several meters deep—yet the mushroom flesh visibly wriggled and healed, restoring itself in moments.

Cassinar slowly emerged from the shadows, his usually sharp mind momentarily at a loss.

Lin Jun, meanwhile, seized every chance to taunt:

“Hehehe… out of options? Thinking of running? Too late!”

“I already destroyed the teleportation array—you’re not going anywhere, old bat!”

“Don’t worry, I won’t kill you either! I’ll turn you into a mushroom thrall—you’ll be my most obedient and useful tool!”

“…Wait, no, that probably still counts as killing…”

Cassinar finally located the source of that nauseating voice—not far away atop the rubble, a writhing, rag-like sack.

Hearing that the teleportation array was destroyed sent a chill through him.

If the enemy knew about that escape route, then this was no bluff.

Still, he didn’t flee.

He had noticed how much these enemies valued that human.

Which meant… he still had a chance.

Abandoning all pointless attacks, the marquis recalled all his blood, layering it tightly around himself while activating shadow power. His body twisted and compressed, finally transforming into a sharp black-and-crimson lance!

He would pierce straight through the beast puji and seize the human as a hostage in one strike!

The Dragonroar Valley reports had mentioned that giant puji could self-destruct—this was tantamount to throwing himself into a trap.

But he was gambling—gambling that these enemies cared about that special human so much that they wouldn’t dare blow themselves up along with him!

Yet he didn’t even get to take the first step.

At some point, his feet had already frozen solid to the ground.

Then the blood surging around his body—those crimson liquids froze instantly into translucent dark-red ice crystals, preserving the flow of the last moment.

A pale blue figure drifted down slowly from above.

A gown formed of pure cold brushed the air lightly, every ice crystal upon it blooming into frost flowers the moment it touched the ground.

The Frost Elemental Lord descended just like that—no sound, no pressure—only the temperature steadily dropping.

It exhaled softly.

Cassinar frantically forced his power to surge. He shattered the ice on his legs, only for fresh frost to spread up to his waist. He tried to slip into the shadows—only to find that even his shadow was frozen solid.

In this hopeless tug-of-war, the marquis’s movements slowed more and more, ice piling thicker across his body.

At the critical moment, it was Number Four—acting under Lin Jun’s command—who rushed in to shield him in time. Otherwise, Cassinar would have died on the spot.

Lin Jun was a mushroom of his word. He had just said he wouldn’t kill him—how could he let the guy die now?!

The problem was…

That Frost Elemental Lord, light as if weightless, was now slowly approaching Number Four—and the Inanna wrapped inside him. Even without attacking, frost was already creeping over the surface of the beast puji.

Crack—

The constant-temperature pendant around Inanna’s neck finally met its end before true extreme cold.

It shattered.