This Dungeon Grew Mushrooms

Chapter 553

“The third corner has a fishman lying in ambush,” Gero warned Tanaka.

“Understood!”

When the fishman, gripping its trident, burst out once again from the shadow of the corner, Tanaka’s prepared duplicate sidestepped lightly, using the flow of the water to easily evade the straight thrust.

The white light of 【Memory Deletion】 followed immediately.

The short sword slipped into the fishman’s completely unguarded neck. Seeing the white filaments drifting out from the wound, Tanaka frowned in disgust and quickly backed away.

This time, Gero did not have Tanaka continue deeper along the original route, instead instructing him to turn into another, even more circuitous hidden passage.

However, an accident still happened.

Before he even reached the exit of this new hidden path, he ran headlong into another fishman, as well as two half-demon soldiers leading a small puji squad!

The instant Tanaka saw the glaring LV10 skills on the puji panels, he knew things had gone terribly wrong.

White light flashed almost on instinct as he turned to flee back the way he came.

But it was already too late. Several mycelial tentacles sealed off all escape routes and pierced straight through his body!

The duplicate did not immediately dissipate. The intense pain made him thrash uselessly in the water for a few moments.

Seeing no chance of escape, Tanaka could only actively cancel the near-death duplicate.

…

Smack!

Third round.

On the floor in front of Gero, another small tuft of white fur had appeared.

Opposite him, a new Tanaka duplicate had just finished forming and was reaching out to push open the cabin door.

This time, Gero changed his strategy. He had the duplicate return to the vicinity of the exit of the original hidden passage and hide there, attempting to wait until that half-demon patrol team passed before taking action.

However, under the guidance of a fishman guide who hurried over, that half-demon squad directly opened the hidden door from the outside.

The wall slid open, revealing the Tanaka duplicate hiding on the other side, posture not yet adjusted, wearing an awkward expression.

The outcome was obvious.

Fourth round, fifth round, sixth round…

No matter how Gero adjusted the routes or calculated time gaps, Tanaka’s duplicates were always intercepted.

It was as if they were being hunted with deliberate intent!

…

…

…

Twelfth round.

Smack!

A dull clap echoed inside the cabin.

“I’m inside—holy shit! Why have you shed so much fur?” Tanaka, just about to report that he had entered the dungeon, turned around and was startled by the conspicuous layer of white fluff on the floor beneath Gero.

From the time his duplicates entered the water until now, it had only been ten minutes or so. How had this fox lost so much fur already?

Tanaka subconsciously raised a hand to touch the not-very-thick hair on his own head.

So beastfolk had to worry about hair loss too…

Meeting Gero’s shifted gaze, Tanaka returned a look that was three parts understanding and seven parts consolation.

Gero ignored Tanaka’s completely mistaken expression. He was thinking about where things had gone wrong.

The other side had almost sealed off every possible path. This was clearly not a coincidence of patrol routes, but a confirmed discovery of Tanaka’s duplicate.

But when had they been exposed?

There was clearly no fungus carpet spread underwater yet!

Gero’s thoughts drifted back to that time in the simulations, when he tried to enter the United Kingdom’s territory to unseal the Demon King’s avatar inside the Amethyst Dungeon.

Back then, no matter how he chose routes, timing, or disguises, he would ultimately be captured by puji.

After more than three hundred simulations, he finally confirmed that the fungus carpet was puji’s all-pervasive eyes and ears.

As long as one was within its coverage, any plan was useless.

But at this point in time, according to the original trajectory, the fungus carpet should not yet have been laid inside the Tidal Sanctum.

Although Tanaka had encountered combat puji, he had repeatedly confirmed that he saw no trace of fungus carpet along the way.

To get to the bottom of things, Gero changed tactics this time. He asked Tanaka to describe, in exhaustive detail, everything the duplicate had seen, leaving nothing out.

And when Tanaka mentioned that the fishman he killed had white filaments drifting from the wound, and that the status panel had shown the word “Parasitized”—

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Gero’s fox ears snapped upright.

“Huh? You asked, I answered! What do you mean earlier?” Tanaka looked baffled. He had no memory of the prior simulations.

Gero, however, had already figured it out.

Those individuals parasitized by mycelium shared some form of mutual sensing within a certain range!

When the first fishman was killed, it must have alerted other parasitized individuals nearby, leading to the subsequent waves of encirclement!

That explained all the anomalies!

However…

Gero’s heart sank.

Another deviation had appeared.

The fishman population being parasitized should, in the early simulations, have happened several months later.

The ripple effects of his own trajectory changes, combined with some uncontrollable random events, had ultimately caused reality to drift further and further from the original path.

Fortunately, the deviation was not too severe.

Fortunately, the scale of the deviation did not seem large for now.

If at this moment the sea surface and waterways had already turned into a glowing ocean like in the future, that would truly have been an unsolvable dead end.

…

Smack!

Thirteenth round.

Beside him, Tanaka focused his attention on the duplicate, which had likely already followed the mercenary group into the first room.

Before long, Tanaka’s duplicate once again slipped into a hidden passage.

“The third corner has a fishman ambush. Be careful. Subdue it quickly, but do not kill it!”

“Understood!”

This time, after Memory Deletion, Tanaka closed in and used the metal scabbard of his short sword rather than the blade, smashing it hard into the back of the fishman’s head.

Before the fishman could recover from the dazed blankness of erased memories, its vision went dark. Its body went limp, losing consciousness, and slowly sank with the current.

This time, when he emerged from the hidden passage, he indeed did not encounter any search teams.

At the same time, within this intricate underwater labyrinth, several reconnaissance squads were active throughout the waterways.

They were the eyes and ears of the army led by Louisa.

Further back, Marshal Louisa herself was commanding the main force—composed of Puji Fort soldiers, various combat puji, and fishmen—steadily advancing along the planned attack routes.

The reconnaissance squad leaders maintained communication with Louisa through the local fungus network.

“Team Two reporting. Left-side branch corridor fully scouted. No enemies found.”

“Team Three reporting. Right corridor is clear, but there’s a structurally weak section. Recommend the main force detour.”

“Team One reporting. Main corridor ahead. A small enemy cluster detected, approximately eight to ten units, currently destroying a stone statue.”

“Team One, stand by. Wait for the main force to arrive and roll over them!” Louisa ordered.

After the routine reports, the captain of Team Two added an extra note: “But something’s a bit strange. That fishman who just joined the fungus network—when I called it several times just now, there was no response. I can clearly sense it’s not far ahead…”

Another captain chimed in, “Probably just not used to speaking through the fungus network yet. That’s normal. I was the same when I first entered symbiosis—everything was clear in my head, but nothing came out.”

His words immediately drew agreement from the others.

Even so, out of caution, Louisa instructed another nearby fishman to go check the situation, though this time it was not as urgent as in Gero’s previous simulations.

When news finally came back that the fishman had been attacked and found by its companions, Tanaka’s duplicate had already slipped into another hidden passage, steadily moving farther away from the area.

And it was also at this moment that, after clearing out another batch of mist monsters occupying a room, Louisa’s main force discovered several figures hiding around a corner, secretly observing the snakefolk mercenaries.

Outsiders!

The incident of the fishman guide being attacked was almost instantly linked by Louisa to these uninvited outsiders.

Without hesitation, under Louisa’s concise and forceful command, the army split into multiple units and began encircling the area where the snakefolk mercenaries were located.

Chapter 554

A snakefolk mercenary swam back in a sorry state to the hall they had temporarily occupied, his scales cracked and damaged, his breathing ragged. He brought with him chilling news.

They had encountered a force of unknown size, composed of half-demon warriors, a small number of fishmen, and a large number of combat puji. The enemy’s reactions were swift, their coordination tight, behaving exactly like a regular army.

“Half-demons? Combat puji? A regular army?” Ironjaw’s vertical pupils shrank to needle points in shock. His first instinct was to deny the report, but he knew his subordinate had no reason to lie.

It was simply impossible to connect those three words together no matter how he thought about it.

As a snakefolk who had taken part in the landing battles and fought all the way into the western regions of the United Kingdom, Ironjaw naturally knew about the new profession known as a puji tamer.

A snakefolk unit had been smashed to pieces at Gold Valley City, its formation completely broken. That incident had already spread throughout snakefolk circles.

But as far as Ironjaw knew, there were no puji tamers within the Empire yet.

So where did these half-demon puji tamers come from?

And the term “regular army” made Ironjaw’s heart sink even further.

It was not just concern over the enemy’s combat strength, but fear of what that implied.

The most likely explanation was that this was a secret force under some powerful Imperial lord, one who acted in the shadows.

Their ships were hidden or anchored far away on purpose, avoiding attention.

And they had likely been here for quite some time already.

After all, when Ironjaw’s group arrived, there had been no other ships on the sea surface. The other party was clearly not just dropping in and leaving like them.

Yet even knowing that they might all be under the Empire’s banner gave Ironjaw no sense of security. Instead, the chill in his chest deepened.

Such secrecy meant they were carrying out work that absolutely could not be exposed.

And his newly established mercenary group had blundered straight into it at the worst possible moment.

Silencing witnesses.

Based on his understanding of how those noble lords operated, eliminating a mercenary group that wandered in by accident would not cost them a blink.

If roles were reversed, he would do the same.

“Boss, what do we do now? The employer is still—” a trusted subordinate swam closer, lowering his voice, unease clear in his eyes.

“The employer?” Ironjaw forced out a hoarse hiss through clenched teeth, the muscles on his finely scaled face tightening. “In a situation like this, who the hell cares about the employer?! Staying alive comes first! Stop breaking through that reinforced wall. Retreat the way we came. Now!”

“They’re coming!” a mercenary guarding the passage shouted, then added tremblingly, “The numbers… there’s no way to count them!”

Ironjaw cursed under his breath. A flash of pain crossed his golden pupils. He coughed violently, forcing out a bead from deep in his throat, a pearl that glowed with a faint, eerie blue light. It was a treasure he had seized during the war.

This was no time to hesitate.

Gritting his teeth, he hurled it with all his strength toward the passage where the pursuers were closing in.

The pearl struck a mural and shattered.

Space tore open at the point of impact, and an extremely unstable rift blossomed into existence out of nowhere. A terrifying suction force poured out from within, dragging in the surrounding seawater and forming a massive vortex that nearly filled the entire corridor.

Several puji swimming at the front were sucked straight in, shredded before they even reached the rift itself.

The half-demon soldiers who followed were halted by the sudden change, forced to struggle against the pull and retreat repeatedly, unable to approach at all.

Water currents went wild, visibility collapsed, and the passage was completely sealed off.

“Move!” Ironjaw cast one last glance at the treasure he had sacrificed, then surged forward along the return path.

The other snakefolk mercenaries followed close behind, leaving only the partially destroyed hidden-wall section behind them.

They rushed back in haste, the dungeon gate already in sight, when Ironjaw suddenly raised his arm in an urgent stop signal.

Though confused, the surviving mercenaries immediately took advantage of the terrain and assumed defensive positions.

【Blood Manipulation】

A dense web of blood sealed the gate shut, blooming into petal-like shapes traced in crimson lines.

Bloodkin! Just as he thought—Imperial forces!

Louisa had arrived faster than the snakefolk. Even after taking a longer route, she still intercepted them before they could escape.

Behind her, the expeditionary force poured out from other passages, vast numbers of puji filling every gap.

Even behind the mercenaries, after the rift finally closed, the soldiers who had been held back caught up as well.

A regular army indeed!

The puji tamers moved in perfect order, silent and disciplined. Ironjaw could tell at a glance that this was not just a regular army, but elite troops among them.

Combined with their numbers, his mercenary group of barely a hundred had no chance at all. At best, he himself might escape alone by relying on his strength.

But if he did that, he would never again have the face to stand among his people.

“Friends ahead! Please, stop!” Ironjaw called out, struggling to keep his voice steady, though tension inevitably crept in. “We are the Ironjaw Mercenary Company, hired to explore this place. We entered by accident!”

He paused briefly, as if choosing his words, his tone becoming even more cautious, even deliberately humble.

“We did not know this place already belonged to… your side. This is all a misunderstanding! We are willing to withdraw immediately, never return, and never speak a single word of what we saw! Please let us go. If there is any task in the future, we will serve without hesitation. I, Ironjaw, swear this by my scales and my reputation!”

His vertical pupils stayed locked on Louisa, clearly the leader, trying to catch even the slightest change in her expression.

“You… seem to have some strength?” Louisa’s voice carried through the water.

“Somewhat. Sanctum-level,” Ironjaw replied hoarsely. The leisurely tone in her voice made his heart sink, but he still clung to the hope that she might hesitate because of his strength.

Instead, Louisa nodded in apparent satisfaction. Her tone remained unhurried, yet the last trace of hope in Ironjaw’s chest was snuffed out.

“Not bad. My boss doesn’t like unnecessary casualties. How about this—I’ll give you a chance. Defeat me, and I won’t stop you from leaving.”

Ironjaw could not gauge Louisa’s true strength, but from the situation alone, he knew his group was facing near-certain doom.

The fact that she dared to challenge him after hearing he was sanctum-level meant she was confident.

Still… this might truly be the only hope left.

“Do your words count?” Ironjaw asked hoarsely, staring straight at her.

Louisa tilted her head slightly. A teasing glint flashed through her blood-red eyes, like a predator toying with its prey.

“Do you have any other choice?”

In truth, if Little Pig lost, she really would keep her word and stop blocking their escape. At that point, however, the one giving orders would be Lin Jun himself.

But Ironjaw was no naïve fool.

Knowing the battle was unavoidable, the humility drained from his face in an instant. He slowly straightened, the restrained aura he had been suppressing bursting free like an unsheathed blade, turning cold and razor-sharp.

The fine scales along his body flared slightly as his muscles tensed. His pupils locked onto Louisa, all trace of submission gone, replaced by the ferocity of a wild hunter.

He understood now. The only path to survival was to defeat and capture this arrogant bloodkin. Only by taking her hostage could he carve out a sliver of hope for his mercenary group.

Seeing him enter combat stance so quickly, Louisa smiled and flicked her dark cloak aside, revealing the form-fitting, boldly revealing magic crystal battle armor beneath.