Fifteen

In the conference hall, Farr sat upright in the main seat, with the maid Lillian standing behind him like a shadow. Besides the two of them, three others sat on either side—Judgment Wing squad captain Soralin, illusionist Aidin, and a man with two straight swords at his waist.

Among them, Aidin was someone Farr had invited through a special commission. While reviewing files, Farr had noticed this illusion master who had successfully completed fifth-floor reconnaissance missions—his abilities were quite useful. After seeing the generous compensation, Aidin immediately accepted the commission.

The other man with two straight swords at his waist was a friend Farr had asked to help.

As for the Church, they had dispatched four complete Judgment Wing squads to assist with the dungeon problem this time. Soralin, being the first to report the dungeon anomaly, was naturally selected to join.

Although there were only five Gold-rank and thirty-six Silver-rank Church warriors, the Judgment Wings excelled in formation combat, and their coordinated battle value could even exceed that of one or two Diamond-rank powerhouses.

While the Church rarely intervened directly in dungeon affairs, Farr clearly understood that their attention to dungeons was no less than that of the Adventurer's Guild. For instance, that long-term commission to purchase werewolf fangs and heart blood—the sponsor behind it was precisely the Church.

Farr was actually quite curious: what exactly did the Church intend to do with all those wolf fangs?

As far as he knew, the most valuable item that could be refined from wolf fangs was the "Wolf Transformation Potion."

This potion could dramatically enhance the user's physical attributes and sense of smell for a short time, at the cost of rampant body hair growth and bloodthirsty impulses.

In a sense, this potion did suit the Church—Church warriors generally had stronger willpower than ordinary soldiers or adventurers, making them better able to suppress the bloodthirsty side effects.

However, as a temporary enhancement method, moderate stockpiling was sufficient; excessive hoarding was meaningless.

The Church definitely had other uses for werewolf fangs that Farr didn't know about.

"President Farr, did you call us here because you've already decided on a plan?" Soralin spoke first.

Facing Soralin's inquiry, Farr shook his head: "Not that it's already decided, but rather I'm planning to discuss and come up with a plan together with everyone. What we're facing this time can't be treated as ordinary magical beasts—it likely possesses intelligence no less than that of humans."

"Intelligence?" Soralin frowned. She only knew the opponent might be some kind of collective consciousness, but wasn't clear about the intelligence aspect.

Aidin, dressed in exquisite noble attire, wore an expression of "just as I thought."

Farr didn't say much more, directly using his sword to cut open the body of the illumination puffshroom lying on the table, revealing the structure inside.

"This is..." Looking at the crooked, dyed-looking mycelial patterns inside the puffshroom's body, Soralin felt they looked familiar but still wasn't sure what they were.

It was Aidin beside her who spoke the truth: "Magic formation... the most basic illumination spell formation. This target's intelligence really isn't low."

After pausing, Aidin asked: "Forgive my bluntness, but isn't there really some mage controlling all this from behind?"

Although Aidin had suspected those puffshrooms possessed certain intelligence during the last mission, he still found it hard to imagine puffshrooms studying magic formations.

If all this was being controlled by some mage behind the scenes, that would make sense—the opponent had probably used some method to control this group of puffshrooms.

The ability to control magical beasts, while rare, wasn't nonexistent. However, being able to control such a vast number of magical beasts was unheard of.

"We can't rule out that possibility, so we need to first figure out what exactly our target is.

Is it a magical beast with collective consciousness, or is someone pulling strings behind the scenes?

If it's a person, where are they hiding?

If it's a magical beast, does the collective consciousness have a main body, or is the consciousness distributed among all the puffshrooms?

Regarding reconnaissance, what are everyone's opinions?"

Although Farr was asking all three present, his gaze was directed at Aidin.

Aidin didn't rush to propose methods, but first asked: "Can consumable items used during the mission be reimbursed? Is there a limit on the amount?"

"Don't worry about money," Farr replied casually.

Truly worthy of being the young master of the Isaacs family, Aidin muttered to himself while stating his plan: "Then I suggest using miniature illusion reconnaissance bodies to complete this. This method has no flaws other than being expensive, and what most needs investigation is undoubtedly the fifth floor..."

Aidin described his plan while Farr and Soralin nodded from time to time in agreement. Only the man who hadn't spoken a word the entire time, sitting motionless in his chair, was naturally ignored by everyone.

Just when the preliminary plan was about to be finalized and the meeting was about to end smoothly—the puffshroom stood up!

The discussion had reached the stage where Aidin was reporting the required materials and Lillian was taking notes, when no one noticed that the wound on the illumination puffshroom lying on the long table had somehow healed.

After two flickers, orange-yellow light brightened in the conference room, the sudden change catching everyone completely off guard.

The puffshroom arched its body, using its mushroom cap to touch the ground and stood up on its two short legs.

According to Lin Jun's settings, it should now try to return to the fat puffshroom to recharge.

But as soon as it took its first step, its bouncy body silently split into four pieces, scattering across the cold table surface.

The perpetrator merely gripped the sword hilt at his waist, as if he had never even drawn the blade.

So fast!

This lightning-swift strike not only escaped the perception of Soralin, who was Gold-rank, but even Aidin couldn't react at all!

In the entire conference room, only Lillian alone had clearly seen the man's sword-drawing process.

"Farr, so you really did call me here to cut down puffshrooms!"

"...After listening for so long," Farr's voice carried a hint of helplessness, "that's all you understood?"

The man smiled somewhat awkwardly, too embarrassed to admit he'd been spacing out the whole time.

Soralin suddenly asked: "President Farr, you haven't introduced us yet—this person is..."

After witnessing that sword strike, Soralin and Aidin naturally couldn't continue viewing the person before them as ordinary.

"He's my friend Fifteen. Of course, perhaps you'd be more familiar with the title 'Disciple of the Sword Saint.'"

Disciple of the Sword Saint!

Sword Saint Elvien Slaine—this name itself, to Soralin and Aidin, symbolized a living legend.

He was fond of teaching others, and would give pointers to anyone with sword talent he encountered. As far as Soralin knew, a vice-captain in the Judgment Wings had also received his guidance.

However, only three people could truly be called his disciples.

And this Fifteen before them was actually one of them—no wonder he possessed such level of swordsmanship!

Although Farr didn't provide more introduction, both Soralin and Aidin felt more confident about this operation, especially Aidin.

He had originally worried that without more participants, he as a Diamond-rank illusionist—even if not skilled in direct combat—might be pulled in to fill the battle power gap.

Now it seemed he had overthought it; he only needed to provide good support.

---

The strategy team was full of confidence, while their target Lin Jun was currently somewhat puzzled.

Just now, the signal from an illumination puffshroom had suddenly appeared in the Adventurer's Guild. He remembered the puffshroom that had been taken away earlier and shifted his vision over to see what was happening.

Then he witnessed the horrific scene of the illumination puffshroom being dismembered on the spot, right there on the long table—how cruel.

But... what exactly was this little president up to?

A bunch of people surrounding a puffshroom clearly had no good intentions, not to mention Aidin was among them—that "acquaintance" who had left a deep impression on him. The time was too short to check their status panels.

To be safe, Lin Jun decided to be more careful recently.