This Dungeon Grew Mushrooms

As dawn approached, a rare crowd had gathered outside the city gates.

The reason was simple: a new metal pillar had been erected beside the gate, with a vampire bound to it.

Recently, the green-skinned vampire hadn’t been screaming much anymore, and Gatecall had lost its old flavor. Now that a new vampire had arrived, it was a rare treat.

Especially after hearing that this guy was the culprit behind the deaths of over seventy soldiers, no one was willing to miss his “first scream.”

The only pity was that this newcomer had his head covered and mouth gagged, so he probably wouldn’t be able to produce that satisfyingly unrestrained wail.

“Mmph! Mmph—!”

Cassinar felt the malice radiating from the surrounding onlookers. Panic drove him to struggle wildly, but the binding formation behind him and the barbed hooks piercing through his collarbones nailed him firmly to the pillar. Every movement only brought piercing agony.

“First time?” a calm voice came from the side, sounding especially out of place amid the sea of malice.

His blood sense told him that the speaker was the only other blood race member present besides himself.

Unfortunately, Cassinar couldn’t answer. Lin Jun hadn’t granted him permission to communicate through the fungal network.

“Relax. It’s not as scary as you imagine.”

Scary? What was scary?

“The important thing is to learn how to enjoy the pain, to accept it… only then can your body and soul be purified and elevated.”

“Mmph?! Mmph—!!”

Before Cassinar could understand what that meant, the first ray of morning light pierced the night.

“Mmm… ah…” The green-skinned vampire beside him let out a satisfied murmur, as if his soul had already drifted to the heavens.

Cassinar, however, was far less composed. At first he clenched his teeth and endured, but after Lin Jun thoughtfully placed a heating puji beneath his feet, the double roasting finally broke him. He began to let out muffled cries of “Mm! Mm!”—and once he started, he couldn’t stop.

The residents of Puji Fort watching nearby burst into satisfied laughter. They chatted cheerfully over the fungal network, like people who had just enjoyed a wonderful performance, and filed back into the city under the gradually brightening sky.

The green-skinned vampire, savoring the moment, spared a glance at the marquis trembling in agony, as if seeing his own past self when he first arrived. He shook his head lightly.

“Sigh. Newbie…”

…

Norris sat atop a broad bioluminescent mushroom, his entire body bathed in a faint, ghostly blue glow.

A silver-gray scale at his shoulder blade was curled up at the edge, bits of flesh still clinging to it. Scales like this could be seen all over his body.

In truth, Norris’s fatal injuries had mostly healed by the next day, but that recovery only covered flesh and bone.

The regeneration of his scales, governed by the Scales skill, would take more time.

A pitch-black claw reached over, its tip poking at the half-detached scale, tugging at the newly grown tender flesh beneath and drawing a sharp hiss from Norris.

“Stop, stop, stop! Big Sis Gray, be patient, don’t touch it! In a couple days it’ll fall off on its own, and I’ll give them all to you then!”

Only after Norris pleaded did Big Sis Gray reluctantly withdraw her claw.

Norris tried to get up, but a thick black tail wrapped around his waist without any discussion and pressed him back onto the mushroom.

Norris let out a heavy sigh. Every time he was badly injured, this was when Big Sis Gray was closest to him—so close that even when delicious mushroom folk passed right in front of her, she wouldn’t let go of Norris to go hunt.

After repeated negotiations, he finally managed to convince her to only wrap her tail around his left hand, so at least he could move around a bit.

If there was any upside to this state, it was that he didn’t need to worry about Karen attacking him for the next few days.

In the mushroom garden, most people were rather afraid of Big Sis Gray. Werewolves, with their keen instincts, were especially so.

Werewolves far weaker than her would feel uneasy just standing nearby.

His performance in this battle had been outstanding. The boss had given him rare high praise and even agreed to reinforce and upgrade his newly assigned Jida mech.

Even Number Four had acknowledged him during an internal mushroom folk meeting and voted in favor of the proposal to “grant Norris the title of Honorary Mushroom Folk,” though the motion ultimately failed.

Norris honestly didn’t care much about being an “Honorary Mushroom Folk.”

What puzzled him was that the duke’s daughter seemed to have the right to attend those meetings as well…

After finishing his daily special-issue core member potion, Norris lifted his gaze and spotted Louisa heading toward the training grounds.

Almost reflexively, he turned his eyes away.

Even though Louisa herself didn’t mind at all, that new set of equipment was simply too… stimulating for Norris.

The defined abdominal lines that flickered between the magic crystal slots, the boldly designed leg armor—he had no idea where he was even supposed to look.

If Norris knew that beneath that seemingly revealing equipment were forty-eight spikes buried deep in flesh… his embarrassed shyness would probably turn into bone-chilling dread.

…

At the training ground, Number Four puji lay sprawled at the edge with a look of utter despair. Several draft-puji had just finished extracting the “life water” stored in its body and were now ambling away.

Ever since the Lord of Fungus forbade it from rampaging around in its giant beast body, it had been so bored it felt like it was about to sprout mushrooms.

Seeing Louisa step into the training ground, Number Four finally managed to perk up a little. Sparring with Louisa was one of the few joys it had left lately.

They didn’t start fighting right away. A draft-puji trotted over to Louisa and pulled out more than ten cut B-rank magic crystals from its body, each one sized perfectly for the slots in the armor.

Louisa embedded them one by one. Each crystal snapped into place with a crisp click, faint light flowing along the etched patterns.

When the final crystal was seated, the complete magic circuit was formed.

The entire suit of armor lit up with purple-red veins. The blood swirling around Louisa surged outward, quickly filling the hollow gaps in the armor and condensing into a crystalline blood guard. A pair of broad wings formed from blood crystal burst open behind her back.

What had once been an armor with many exposed areas was now a full-body suit of ferocious blood armor, like a demon crawling out of hell.

But such a terrifying form couldn’t scare Number Four, which had no concept of fear. Seeing Louisa ready, it eagerly pounced forward, unleashing every skill combination it had been tinkering with while spacing out.

Louisa, meanwhile, was completely immersed in the power brought by the magic crystal armament.

Surging magic flowed through the spikes buried deep in her flesh, strengthening every inch of her muscles and nerves.

Her strength skyrocketed. Blood Manipulation became as natural as breathing, flowing blood like an extension of her limbs.

The only problem was that this power made her fighting style far more savage and brutal than before.

Sometimes she could clearly evade an attack, yet chose to crash straight into it, trading injury for injury.

The mental side effects were clearly still present, though for now they remained within an acceptable range.

…

Leaving them to continue sparring, Lin Jun shifted his attention elsewhere.

All items related to the war constructs in the ruins had been transported out in batches. Lin Jun had specifically designated an area within Puji Fort as a research base for studying them.

The dwarf named Thorin was a member of the Deepforge Clan and had some knowledge about war constructs, though it still wasn’t quite enough.

But with no better candidates available, Lin Jun could only have him continue researching for now, with assistance from mages like Xīnghuǒ.

Naturally, Lin Jun offered generous compensation for this—not only to Thorin, but also to Glenm and Barrok, which made the two dwarves temporarily abandon their plans of returning to the mountains.

Now there was only one problem left.

The Frost Elemental Lord was a little too fond of Pink Puji—so fond that it wouldn’t allow her to leave the ruins, nor allow anyone else to approach.

Even feeding Pink Puji had to be done by tossing food from a distance.

Most critically, Pink Puji had already been in the ruins for over ten days. Over in Mordu, Fahl—who felt like the sky was falling—had begun nervously dispatching rescue teams to search for her…

[Why not just build a teleportation array and send her out directly?]

The Yellow Book, now promoted to canine-headed military strategist, offered a suggestion.