This Dungeon Grew Mushrooms

Before them was only a phantom condensed from magic. The Demon King’s legendary body, split into six parts, was still sealed behind the barrier, its true form impossible to behold.

As a result, Lin Jun was unable to view this Demon King’s status panel.

Which was a bit of a pity.

Still… the Demon King was actually a slime?

Lin Jun had never heard of any race called “magma-slime people.”

A slime that could stretch itself into a humanoid shape—at the end of the day, wasn’t it still just a slime?

With just that single glance, Lin Jun silently crossed out the option of “coexisting and cooperating with the Demon King” from his mind entirely.

Slimes were the worst pests in the world. As a hero, he would never show mercy toward pests!

Of course, Lin Jun did not reveal his hostility. He merely observed the other party’s movements with caution.

The humanoid slime phantom floated a bit closer, looking puji up and down while muttering to itself:

“As expected. The simpler the structure of the body, the greater the potential for variation. If only I’d realized that earlier.”

The Demon King looked full of amazement. Lin Jun even felt that if this weren’t a phantom, the other party would probably already have extended tentacles to grope around on puji’s body.

After marveling at puji, the Demon King’s featureless face swept across the three presences before it.

“Puji, demonkin, and… a mass made of puji stitched together into… what, exactly?”

“No, there’s something mixed inside as well… hm…” The Demon King hesitated for a moment before saying uncertainly, “A human?”

Inside Jida, Norris froze.

Then, a burning heat surged violently into his eyes.

He had long since abandoned any extravagant hope of being recognized. And yet… and yet there was actually a being that could tell at a glance that he was truly human!

Norris didn’t know the full story behind the Demon King’s sealing. He only knew that Boss placed extreme importance on this location.

If the humanoid slime before them were not an enemy, Norris would have almost wanted to leap out of Jida on the spot and swear brotherhood with him.

On the other side, the Demon King felt as though his horizons had been broadened.

Three hundred years had passed, and the world had become unfamiliar to this extent.

It was one thing for puji to have mutated into such an utterly different form, but even the demonkin he had personally shaped back then were now entangled with white filaments he had never seen before.

And most baffling of all was that thing hiding among the puji, its aura resembling that of a human.

Once he got out, he planned to study all these strange things properly.

The phantom turned toward Ming and asked, “Was it you who broke the seal?”

However, before Ming—still utterly confused—could organize a response, Lin Jun had already taken over the conversation.

For a child not yet a year old, and raised under a closed, sheltered form of education, lying was simply far too advanced.

On Jida’s arm, one puji quietly slipped free from Norris’s control and dropped to the ground.

Its excess parts rapidly degenerated. Its rounded body shriveled and collapsed, finally turning into a thin sheet like a piece of old, tattered cloth.

This transformation also drew the Demon King’s attention. The phantom leaned slightly forward, filled with curiosity.

The next moment—

“O Demon King!”

A horrifyingly mournful cry burst forth from the voice puji.

Ming and Norris both shuddered at the same time, while the Demon King’s phantom rippled violently, its outline nearly dispersing.

“The structure of this voice… how did you even manage to make it this unpleasant to hear?”

Tsk!

The voice puji squirmed a little closer to the Demon King.

“O Demon King, please, you must save us! The Empire has fallen into the hands of Motis and is declining by the day. All demons are suffering, and they even exclude aberrations like us! We… we can only place our hopes in you!”

“Motis?” The Demon King searched his memories for quite a while before finally dredging up the name from a forgotten corner. “Why is he the one who took over the Empire? What about Duke Rune?”

Duke Rune?

Whether or not he was the unlucky fellow mentioned by the Yellow Book as having been stabbed in the back by the current emperor, no one here knew.

In any case, Lin Jun and the others certainly didn’t.

“O Demon King, once you emerge, how should we act?”

This was Lin Jun’s true goal—to see if he could extract some information.

“Why, naturally…” The phantom deliberately drew out its words, then added with a trace of mockery, “I won’t tell an enemy.”

“Demon King?”

The phantom extended a pseudo-limb and patted Ming’s head through the air.

“This child is far too young. Everything he’s thinking is written all over his face.”

Realizing that he’d ruined things, Ming was on the verge of tears.

The Demon King turned toward the knight puji and continued its analysis at an unhurried pace:

“And besides, you’re holding a seal-breaking slab in your tentacles, yet you’re only maintaining the seal in a partially collapsed state… The one who truly came to unseal me has already been dealt with by you, hasn’t he?”

Despite the fact that only a phantom stood before them, Ming and Norris both felt an icy killing intent spread through the water.

Lin Jun fell silent for a moment.

“Since you saw through it, you still pretended not to know at first… Demon King, you old bastard, are you looking down on me?”

“I wouldn’t dare,” the Demon King replied. There was not the slightest hint of humility in its voice—only lofty arrogance. “To be able to transform originally useless puji into such a form, you must possess some ability, at least.”

Since the disguise had been exposed, Lin Jun no longer bothered to hide anything!

From the upper corridors came dense sounds of rapid movement. Louisa led the main force charging in at full speed, countless puji surging out of the passageways like a tide.

At the same time, from another hidden tunnel, the old fishman appeared in haste, carried on the back of a strong fishman.

“Using puji as familiars to command… that is interesting.” Even the Demon King, limited to a single phantom, did not immediately grasp the true nature of the mycelial network.

Its attention instead shifted more toward Louisa.

“A magic crystal battle armor? You can actually afford the consumption of a complete set of magic crystal armor? Has the sea route been reopened?”

Faced with the Demon King who paid no heed to puji at all, Lin Jun had already made up his mind.

If the seal could be repaired, then it would be sealed completely, leaving this Demon King to remain a prisoner forever.

If it couldn’t be repaired… then before the seal fully collapsed, he would gather all the strength of the Mushroom Garden and lay a net across heaven and earth.

One-sixth of a Demon King was all it was. He wanted to personally taste for himself just what flavor a Demon King had!

Things did not develop in the worst possible direction. The old fishman actually had a way to respond.

He stepped forward, raised the staff in his hand—embedded with half a divine artifact—and planted the tip firmly at the damaged portion of the seal.

The instant the staff touched bottom, a faint blue glow spread along its length.

The previously chaotic surrounding currents seemed to be drawn by an invisible force, beginning to wind along the complex patterns on the surface of the seal, as though blood were being constrained once more within ruptured veins.

Supported and wrapped by the flowing blue light, the damaged corner gradually stabilized. Though it was not directly repaired, it no longer continued to deteriorate.

“Half of the Ocean Scepter…” The Demon King’s phantom swayed slightly within the water, its voice tinged with helpless amusement. “Using it to maintain a seal is rather extravagant.”

As the internal and external magic connection was severed once more by the scepter’s power, the gelatinous phantom lost its support. Its outline blurred and faded, slowly dispersing into the surrounding waters.

Lin Jun’s gaze fell upon the temporarily stabilized seal, as well as the Ocean Scepter embedded within it.

This trip… hadn’t been for nothing, right?