This Dungeon Grew Mushrooms

“An envoy delegation?”

A dwarven officer with a captain’s insignia on his armor accepted the passage document Bromm handed over. He took out a rune-inlaid badge and pressed it against the lord’s seal, producing a faint ripple of magical energy.

“The travel permit is valid,” the officer said, returning the document. “However, this area is currently closed to passage. You’ll need to detour along the small trail at the southern foothills.”

That would add at least two extra days of rough travel.

“Why is the road suddenly sealed?” Bromm asked, confused. “People were still traveling back and forth to Ashfurnace City along this route just a few days ago.”

The dwarven officer swept his gaze over the delegation, hesitated for a moment, then decided to speak plainly.

“Those dungeon slag-things… fire elementals, that is, haven’t given up yet. A few days ago, we were forced back by a counterattack. A big one rushed out and self-destructed, scattering quite a few ‘embers’ around Goldflame City.”

He pointed toward the scorched, twisted wasteland behind him. “When those things are hidden, their magical fluctuations are extremely weak and hard to detect. But once triggered, they can spawn a complete fire elemental in just a few breaths. We’re putting all our effort into clearing them and don’t have the manpower to escort you through this area.”

The officer paused, his tone polite but leaving no room for negotiation. “If something were to happen to the delegation here, we couldn’t bear the responsibility. So please, take the detour.”

For a delegation that had come from afar, his wording was already courteous enough. The subtext, however, was clear: don’t cause trouble.

“We can protect ourselves,” Inanna said.

The dwarven officer looked at the pink-haired woman with some difficulty.

Naturally, he had noticed the well-equipped guards and mages in the delegation, who clearly came from a regular army.

The combat strength of this group was, at the very least, stronger than their own cleanup squads.

But was this really a matter of whether they could protect themselves?

If the delegation passed through on their own and anything went wrong, responsibility would inevitably fall on them afterward.

Who would willingly take on extra risk for no reason?

Just as the officer was considering whether to refuse more firmly, even somewhat forcefully, the surrounding magical energy suddenly surged toward a patch of scorched earth!

“Embers!” a dwarven mage shouted in warning.

Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, two fire elementals formed of surging flames burst up from the blackened ground, waves of heat rolling outward.

The delegation’s well-trained shield guards immediately stepped forward, protecting Ronan and Inanna at the center.

The dwarven warriors also swiftly formed up, readying themselves for battle.

Only the three puji remained unmoved.

The so-called “hidden” embers, in Lin Jun’s perception, were nothing more than two clearly visible panels hovering above the scorched ground, each marked with a 【Dormant】 status.

He had already finished reviewing their detailed information long ago.

Although Lin Jun hadn’t mentioned it to the others, the Sword Saint, through his qi-sense, had also discovered the two embers early on. He had simply judged that they posed no threat to the delegation and therefore didn’t act.

As for Number Four, who was comfortably lying in Inanna’s arms, if neither Fourteen nor the knight were moving, why should it be in a hurry?

Lin Jun was rather interested in this state the dwarves called “embers,” which the panel instead displayed as 【Dormant】.

By observing the full panel changes of the two fire elementals from the moment they leapt out to when they fully formed, he could tell that they hadn’t been born from raw magical condensation. Instead, some method had forced complete fire elementals into deep dormancy, turning them into “embers.”

However, after carefully reviewing the panels of these two fire elementals, Lin Jun didn’t find any related skills.

Clearly, whatever had transformed them into the “ember” state was another special type of fire elemental—most likely the large one the dwarven officer mentioned that had rushed out and self-destructed.

Lin Jun noted this down, planning to search for it later.

He only hoped that this special fire elemental would, like the flame demon in the deep layer back then, possess a core entity.

If it were a purely elemental form, Lin Jun wouldn’t even be able to eat it.

When the two fire elementals appeared, after his initial vigilance, the dwarven officer felt a trace of secret delight.

Just two ordinary fire elementals clearly posed no real threat to them. But this sudden attack would let the delegation witness the danger of this place firsthand.

That way, they would surely retreat in the face of difficulty and obediently choose to detour, sparing him the trouble of further argument.

“Wait!”

Just as the dwarves tightened their grip on their weapons, preparing to deal with the two fire elementals, Inanna suddenly spoke up, stopping everyone’s movements.

Aside from Ronan, who vaguely guessed what was happening, the rest of the delegation wore confused expressions.

Some dwarves didn’t bother paying attention to this unfamiliar human woman at all and continued their attack.

They were immediately blocked by Number Four, who jumped out and waved its tentacles.

“What are you doing? Looking for trouble?” the dwarven officer turned toward the delegation, irritation flashing across his face.

But before his question had even fully left his mouth, the scene before him choked the words back.

The two fire elementals, which should have charged living beings the moment they appeared, were behaving in an extremely strange manner.

After fully emerging from the scorched earth, they didn’t attack. Instead, they advanced slowly, inch by inch, with an almost cautious posture. Even their surging flames seemed to draw inward, as if afraid of disturbing something.

Then an even more astonishing scene unfolded.

Inanna gently parted the guards in front of her and walked alone to the front of the group, standing there completely unprotected.

The two fire elementals immediately reacted.

The flames around them visibly restrained themselves further, even the heat they emitted weakening significantly. They then began to slowly circle around Inanna.

They maintained a neither-too-close-nor-too-far distance. Flickering tongues of flame would occasionally stretch toward her, only to shrink back as if startled.

That posture…

It was as if they both longed to approach her, yet instinctively feared harming her!

The officer rubbed his eyes. These were not the fire elementals he knew.

Everyone looked utterly bewildered. Only Ronan, who understood more of the inside story, trembled with excitement, murmuring in a barely audible voice, “So this is… the favor of the elemental spirits? It’s almost like… they see her as their master…”

The two fire elementals gently circled a few more times, then finally settled down quietly at a slightly distant spot behind Inanna, the dancing firelight calming.

Inanna turned around.

Amid the soft crackling sounds of the flames burning, she looked at the utterly stunned dwarven officer and said politely, “Sir dwarf, you see, I think these fire elementals aren’t dangerous. Now… may we pass through here? I promise we won’t cause you any trouble.”

“Well…” the dwarven officer swallowed hard, his gaze flicking back and forth between the docile fire elementals and the calm pink-haired woman. Only after a long moment did he find his voice again. “In any case, please come with me to see our superior first and make a report…”

…

When General Duvalin, who was in charge of reclaiming the Goldflame City dungeon, was hurriedly led by his subordinates up to the walls of the temporary fortress and saw the long procession of nearly a hundred fire elementals, he almost thought the slag-things were launching an assault on the camp…