"Let me go! Who are you? Let me go now!"
Inanna, who woke up to find herself stuffed in a sack, struggled desperately to twist her body free.
"Pero, did you water down your knockout spell? She's already awake."
"Idiot, don't call my name. Her duke father has invested so many resources in her—how could her resistances be low? It's already impressive she only just woke up now."
Inanna suddenly froze. Both voices were familiar to her.
"Pero? And you, Ox! You ambushed me? You've betrayed my father?"
"It's all your fault for being so talkative—now she's recognized us," Pero said irritably.
Ox, however, seemed unconcerned: "What's there to fear? She won't have a chance to tell anyone."
What did that mean? This wasn't just a kidnapping?
"What are you planning to do?"
Realizing her life might be in danger, Inanna became even more agitated.
The sack over her head was yanked off, and the first thing she saw was Ox's twisted, malicious face.
"What are we doing? Young lady, today you're going to become a magical beast's dinner!"
Inanna looked around. The dim tunnel walls were studded with purple crystals of various sizes.
Had she been brought to the Amethyst Underground Dungeon?
"You two rat-skinned vermin! The old man has never mistreated you! How dare you betray him?"
"Because your old man is finished! Do you really think he can withstand the Empire's attack? Killing you will be the final straw that breaks him, and once your father's dead, I'll be able to get myself a noble title."
Thinking of the title promised by his backer, Ox couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"Stop laughing—you'll attract monsters and then we'll have trouble," Pero impatiently interrupted the laughter. "This is the spot. Put her down."
Inanna was thrown to the ground, still looking ready to bite.
Ox looked at Inanna's beautiful face with some regret: "Such a beauty, but she has the same temperament as her father. I was hoping to find out what a duke's daughter tastes like."
"This is the sixth floor. If you don't mind having your bare ass gnawed to pieces by monsters, feel free to have at it now."
"Just joking. Once I become a noble, what woman won't be available?"
Pero raised his magic staff, pointing it at Inanna as he began chanting an obscure incantation.
"Transformation magic?"
Inanna immediately recognized the magic Pero was casting. She kicked at him with her bound feet, trying to interrupt his spellcasting, but Ox grabbed hold of her.
"If you have the guts, kill me! You kill... me..."
As the transformation spell completed, Inanna gradually lost her ability to speak, becoming a creature with only a pair of short legs—a Poof, commonly called a Walking Mushroom.
After finishing the incantation, Pero somewhat regretfully took out a potion that sparkled with starlight and poured it over Inanna.
This scene made Ox click his tongue in amazement.
"Solidification potion—you're really willing to spend! If you ask me, why go through all this trouble? Just kill her and throw the corpse down to feed the monsters."
Listening to Ox's brainless suggestion, Pero felt like his stupidity-induced nausea was about to flare up.
"You kill her then. Let's see if you'll get marked with the duke's revenge curse. When he abandons his territory and comes after you, don't you dare give me up.
Positioning magic, revenge marks—there's no way she doesn't have them on her. Having the monsters on the lower floors eat her completely clean is the safest method."
As he spoke, he thoughtfully cast an extended-duration Feather Fall spell on the Poof that Inanna had become, so she wouldn't be killed directly from the fall.
"Pretend I didn't say anything." Ox wasn't angry despite being looked down upon. He walked up to Inanna. "Farewell forever, young lady."
With that, he kicked out, watching as Inanna was swallowed by the crevice.
This was a fissure that led straight to the dungeon's depths. No one who had ever fallen down had managed to climb back up, let alone a powerless Poof.
————
Bastards!
How dare they deceive me using the old man's name!
I'll personally slaughter those two beasts!
...
It's so... dark around here...
This fissure seemed truly bottomless—even the extended Feather Fall spell hadn't reached the bottom.
Feeling her falling speed constantly increasing, after her rage cooled, the sixteen-year-old girl who had never directly faced death finally felt afraid.
Was she really going to die like this?
*Poof—*
Inanna felt herself land on an elastic soft bed that bounced her high up again. After several bounces, she finally fell bottom-first onto the ground.
She wasn't dead! She truly was blessed by fate.
But where was this place?
Poofs had no facial features and couldn't see, but they could vaguely sense their surroundings.
What caught her seemed to be a... giant mushroom about three meters wide?
What was all that movement around her? These figures swaying in front of her seemed so familiar...
Weren't these Poofs just like what she had transformed into?
Why would there be so many of these bottom-of-the-food-chain Poofs in the dangerous depths of the dungeon?
And there were so many of them!
Uh, why were they surrounding her...
————
Lin Jun, the owner of the mushroom garden, felt he'd been too distracted lately, frequently making basic mistakes.
Case in point: there was actually a Poof in his mushroom garden that wasn't under his control. He wondered if it had grown to maturity but naturally fell to the ground before he could connect it to the Mycelial Network.
It even had a pink cap, making it particularly conspicuous among a bunch of Poofs with blue and gray caps.
Was this a mutation?
Fortunately, it was easy to fix—just connect it with mycelial threads and tune it to the Mycelial Network's frequency.
But why was it resisting so fiercely?
This uncontrolled Poof was actually running around everywhere when faced with the Poofs Lin Jun sent to establish connection.
Sometimes it knocked over several Poofs, sometimes it trampled randomly through the mushroom beds, turning the mushroom garden into chaos.
Getting annoyed, Lin Jun simply commanded a large group of Poofs to surround it, squeezing it so it couldn't move, and only then connected the mycelial threads.
"Ahhh! Get away! Get away!"
What the hell?
As soon as this Poof connected to the network, Lin Jun was bombarded by screaming that made his mycelial threads bristle.
"Quiet!"
The irrefutable command transmitted through the Mycelial Network to every Poof, and for a moment the entire mushroom garden ceased all activity.
"Damn it, wait—all sectors resume normal operations."
After quite some time restoring the mushroom garden's operations, Lin Jun finally focused his attention on this special Poof.
He finally realized this definitely wasn't one of his homegrown Poofs, but an outsider mushroom.
How strange—an outsider mushroom in his remote corner?
"Speak! Where did you break in from?"
"Who are you? How are you talking to me? Wait, how am I talking right now?"
Tsk.
This guy was clearly in chaos, couldn't even speak clearly. Lin Jun simply pulled up her status panel directly.
[Name: Inanna Saint-Clair]
[Race: Mushroom - Poof]
[Level: LV28]
[HP: 3280]
[Strength: 1]
[Agility: 1]
[Constitution: 1]
[Intelligence: 33]
[Spirit: 24]
[Racial Talent: Spore Dispersal (can actively spray spores in surroundings, triggers automatically upon death)]
[Permanent Effects:
- Church Blessing (provides Light Element Affinity LV4, Light Magic LV4)
- Revenge Mark (transfers to killer upon death, allows caster to track killer and deal extra damage)
- Tracking Mark (positioning marker)
- Fruit of Life (grants 3000 additional HP and Life Recovery LV4)
- Dragon Crystal Potion (provides comprehensive high-level resistances)
- Permanent Transformation (transformation effect persists permanently unless dispelled)
- Mycelial Network Connection (short-range telepathic network formed through magical resonance between mycelial threads)]
[Skills: Riding LV4, Elemental Affinity (Water, Light) LV4, Mana Storage LV3, Mana Control LV4, Light Magic LV4, Water Magic LV3, Cloth Armor Mastery LV2, Dagger Mastery LV2, Magic Resistance LV6, Physical Resistance LV6, Mental Resistance LV6, Corrosion Resistance LV6, Poison Resistance LV6, Paralysis Resistance LV6, Heat Resistance LV6, Cold Resistance LV6, Stun Resistance LV6, Underwater Adaptation LV6, Astrology LV1, Ancient Elven LV2, Life Recovery LV4]
Holy crap! A super pink Poof with over 3000 HP and full LV6 resistances!
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