This Dungeon Grew Mushrooms

“There are quite a lot of them…”

More than thirty “seafood monsters” of various shapes had gathered in the spacious altar hall, frantically destroying the towering statue at its center.

The statue depicted a goddess with indistinct facial features, her long hair composed of countless tiny tentacles. It looked like it was carved from stone, but its true material was unknown.

The monsters had clearly been vandalizing it for some time, yet they had only managed to destroy about a quarter of the massive statue’s base, which spoke volumes about its hardness.

Numerous corpses were scattered across the floor of the hall—mostly native underwater monsters from the Tidal Sanctum. Evidently, the invaders showed no mercy even toward the local creatures.

Among them lay a fishman corpse cut cleanly in two, the cross-section smooth, as if severed in an instant by something extremely sharp.

“Gurgle!”

The fishman guide, upon seeing the scene, was instantly filled with rage.

However, its anger seemed directed more at the desecration of the statue than at the brutal death of its kin.

It gripped its harpoon tightly, its body trembling with emotion, to the point that it even forgot to keep controlling the surrounding water currents to conceal the trio’s presence.

That slight disturbance was immediately picked up by several monsters in the hall that were highly sensitive to changes in water flow.

Norris sighed inwardly. He had intended to observe a bit longer, but now that they were exposed, there was no room for hesitation.

With the enemy’s exact strength unknown, the safest option was to fight while retreating, pulling back to the nearest hidden passage.

If necessary, they could sacrifice Jida to hold off the enemy while the rest slipped into the passage to escape.

These were all prearranged escape plans he had discussed with Blood Sister beforehand.

With a smooth flip, Norris dove into the open cockpit space at the rear of Jida.

“Follow my lead—fall back. I’ll cover!”

Almost at the same moment, a specially modified, pointed mushroom-cap puji mounted at Jida’s waist was launched!

【Wake Jet LV6】

A jet of air blasted from the puji’s tail, propelling it forward at high speed by recoil, shooting straight into the cluster of monsters charging at the front.

Immediately after—

【Self-Destruct LV10】

Boom————!!!

Not the thunderous explosion of land combat, but an extremely muffled yet organ-shaking detonation underwater!

A terrifying shockwave erupted from the blast center, violently compressing and spreading through the surrounding water.

That entire section of water instantly turned into a turbid slurry, mixing pale blue blood, shattered carapace fragments, chunks of flesh, and shredded mycelial debris.

The three monsters closest to the blast were torn apart before they could even react.

The violent shockwave raced through the dense water.

Inside Jida, Norris was fully protected—the shell and mycelial buffering layers absorbed all the impact.

Ming merely swayed slightly, seemingly unaffected.

The fishman guide beside them, however, let out a muffled groan, thin streaks of blood seeping from its nostrils and the corners of its mouth.

The underwater shockwave also sent the monsters farther back into disarray, throwing their formation into chaos and buying Norris precious time.

Seeing the new puji score an immediate success, Norris’s spirits lifted, and he shouted through the fungal network, “Now’s our chance—we—”

Before the word “retreat” could leave his mouth, a figure burst forward through the still-unsettled shockwaves!

“Jida really is amazing! Norris, big brother, I’ll work hard too!”

“Wait—dammit!”

Norris nearly choked. He couldn’t understand how anyone could see a numerically superior, strength-unknown enemy and still choose to charge in headfirst.

But then he remembered the kid was only a year old, and it almost made sense.

Whether for the mission or out of responsibility as a senior companion, he couldn’t possibly watch Ming charge into the fray alone.

Gritting his teeth, Norris drove Jida forward, the puji behind it firing jets to propel them in pursuit.

As for the fishman guide, after recovering from the shock, the fury over the statue’s desecration had completely burned away its fear of the enemy’s numbers.

It let out a low roar filled with hatred and battle intent, gripping its harpoon tightly and swinging its powerful tail as it, too, charged straight into the enemy ranks.

Ming lunged forward in an almost savage manner, tackling a crustacean enemy wielding massive pincers.

With one hand, he actually braced the giant claw—strong enough to shear steel—while his other hand formed a blade with his fingers and stabbed viciously toward the creature’s facial armor!

Crack!

The first strike fractured the carapace with a crisp sound.

Squish!

The second strike pierced through the defense, driving beneath the shell.

On the third, he twisted his wrist hard and ripped outward!

Dark-blue viscous fluid mixed with shattered shell gushed from the forcibly widened opening.

The monster’s violent struggle ceased as it went limp.

Ming shook the filth from his hand, the motion smooth, as if he had merely finished a routine training drill.

Another enemy seized the chance to attack Ming from the side, but a sharp mycelial spring-spike shot from Jida’s arm, piercing its abdominal joint and yanking it back.

Before it could struggle, Jida’s foot came crashing down!

The carapace burst apart, fluids splattering everywhere.

“The enemies don’t seem that strong…”

The thought had barely crossed Norris’s mind when a surge of danger flared from his side.

He didn’t even have time to think—pure reflex drove him to swing Jida’s arm, shifting the heavy rock-armor shield into place.

A terrifying slash, several inches deep, appeared across the surface of the sturdy shield.

If that blow had struck Jida’s body directly… it truly might have been cut clean in half.

The attacker was—

A bizarre creature with a streamlined, elongated body covered in fine blue-gray scales. On either side of its head grew two pairs of constantly flickering, icy compound eyes.

Its weapons weren’t tools, but its own arms.

The forearm bones had mutated into two pale bone blades that could fold backward when retracted. Their edges were as thin as cicada wings, and their sharpness made Norris wary to the extreme.

Just as Norris focused fully, preparing to use the last torpedo puji at his waist to deal with this clearly elite enemy, the bone-blade creature’s four eyes flashed blue—and it abruptly abandoned its standoff with Jida.

Its leg muscles contracted violently, leaving several vortices in the water as it pivoted with astonishing speed and lunged straight toward Ming, who was entangled with two other monsters!

“Ming! Watch out!”

Norris shouted a warning while simultaneously having Jida fire a volley of spring needles.

But the bone-blade monster’s movement in water was erratic and unpredictable, trailing afterimages as it easily evaded every attack.

In desperation, Norris made a bold decision.

He leapt out of Jida’s cockpit, and at the same time, the tentacles on Jida’s arm wrapped around him, hurling him forward like a thrown hammer, straight into the monster’s projected path!

Thump-thump-thump!

Norris’s heart pounded like a war drum. Blood surged through his body, and all his parameters spiked for a short time.

This was a new talent he had gained upon reaching gold rank—a form of “ordinary enhancement that stimulates physical potential,” as the boss had described it.

Pushed to its limit, it couldn’t cause a qualitative transformation, but it added a crucial margin for the impending life-or-death clash.

He flew through the water, magic rapidly gathering at the cannon port on his chest.

The enemy’s bone blades were sharp and its movements swift, but that slender body didn’t look like it could withstand a direct cannon shot.

As long as he could land a close-range hit, there was a good chance of finishing it off completely.

Of course, the enemy’s bone blades would probably cut through his body just as easily—this was a true fight to the death.

He had to intercept it before it reached Ming.

This was the only way Norris could think of to ensure Ming wouldn’t be sliced in half by those terrifying blades.

He didn’t resent Ming’s recklessness too much. Acting as the safety net for a first-time combatant was his responsibility as a senior—he only blamed himself for not communicating things properly in advance.

And yet—

“Ming! What the hell are you doing?!”

A scene that nearly suffocated him unfolded.

Facing Norris’s warning and the rapidly approaching enemy radiating danger, Ming didn’t retreat—instead, he stomped forward and charged!

At some point, he had picked up a sharp bone spike, still stained with blue blood, torn from the corpse of some fallen monster. He met the attack head-on, countering offense with offense!

Seeing Ming actively rush toward it, the bone-blade monster’s four eyes flashed blue. Without hesitation, the pair of pale blades on its arms snapped out together, carving two crossing arcs of cold light through the water—slashes nearly impossible to track with the naked eye—aimed straight at Ming’s neck and waist!

“No—!” Norris’s furious shout echoed through the fungal network.

Clang——!!!

The two unmatched bone blades shattered on impact the instant they struck Ming’s body, as if they had hit something utterly indestructible. The fragments sprayed outward in all directions.

Ming’s forward momentum was stalled for a split second by the tremendous impact, but he immediately pushed off again, surging forward once more!

Giving the enemy no chance to react, Ming drove the bloodstained bone spike straight into the head covered in compound eyes!

Squish!

Ming slowly straightened up and looked at Norris, who had just completed an awkward double-jump and hurriedly halted his charge.

A mist of pale blue blood drifted between them in the water like a thin veil.

“Norris, big brother,” Ming said with a clean smile that mixed a hint of shyness with eager anticipation, seemingly unaware of how close to death that moment had been, “did I do okay?”

Gurgle—

“Ah… yeah… you did… fine…”

Norris silently dispersed the magic he had gathered in his chest…