"Since the mission was posted three days ago, only 25 Silver-rank and 2 Gold-rank adventurers have confirmed participation. No Diamond-rank personnel," Mirabelle reported.
Hearing this, Farr frowned.
The absence of Diamond-rank adventurers wasn't surprising—recently, major cities had been issuing lucrative bounties for capturing demon spies. For Diamond-ranks, dealing with spies who were at most Gold-rank posed zero risk; the only challenge was rooting them out. It was natural that no Diamond-ranks had signed up. Even Eding had been recruited through a special commission.
But 25 Silver-ranks and 2 Gold-ranks was significantly lower than his expectations, especially considering the hefty reward offered.
"So few people—what's the reason?" Farr's voice betrayed no emotion.
"Based on indirect inquiries and casual conversations with some applicants," Mirabelle said carefully, "the general feedback is that the historically heavy casualties are intimidating. Moreover, many adventurers question the target's actual threat level, and some... some even believe the puffshrooms' existence is beneficial and disagree with subjugation efforts."
"Understood," Farr nodded. "Proceed as planned—gather the personnel and prepare to depart."
Though fewer adventurers had joined than expected, this didn't affect Farr's plans. In truth, he would act even without any adventurers.
The mission's essential purpose was to inform the adventurer community that the guild was taking action—those who didn't want to be affected could choose to stay away.
In fact, if Eding's phantom insects hadn't been discovered, Farr would have chosen to charge straight down to find the Puffshroom King immediately. But since they'd been detected, and knowing the puffshrooms possessed considerable intelligence, reaching the fifth floor would take at least half a day—the Puffshroom King would have fled long ago if it intended to.
So there was no rush now. Farr had even mentally prepared for the possibility of not finding the Puffshroom King this time.
...
At the dungeon entrance.
Behind a formation of forty church warriors followed adventurers wielding crossbows and staves. Eding and Fifteen brought up the rear.
Besides the mission team, numerous spectating adventurers had gathered nearby. Priest Noah even waved at Aimee, the ranger in the group.
Seeing everyone assembled, Soralin commanded: "Move out!"
As guild master, Farr naturally wouldn't enter the dungeon. Since he wasn't going, his ever-present personal maid Lillian remained by his side as always.
This left only Fifteen and Eding as the truly high-end combat power for this dungeon expedition, with Eding being a support-type illusionist.
However, Farr felt little concern. On one hand, the church's dispatched temple warriors were well-trained and especially skilled in formation combat. When their sacred shield walls closed ranks, they could unleash power far beyond ordinary adventurer parties.
On the other hand, in Farr's view, having Fifteen alone as the spearhead was already sufficient. After all, he was someone who had truly emerged from the bloody storms of the borderlands—worthy of being called a "Hero."
...
Lin Jun immediately noticed the entering team.
He'd expected one or two Diamond-rank groups, but instead—a bunch of church Gold and Silver-ranks? He didn't even take them seriously, let alone the trailing adventurers.
Lin Jun was surprised that the illusionist had actually come down in person this time. After thoroughly checking his status panel, judging by his skills, he was indeed a sneaky character.
Now Lin Jun wasn't considering whether he could win, but rather how much force to use without triggering an escalation where "hitting the young brings the old." After all, this was an official team—he couldn't handle them as casually as ordinary adventurers.
This relaxed, cheerful mood lasted until he opened the final person's status panel.
[Name: Fifteen]
[Race: Human]
[Level: 61]
[Skills: Swordsmanship Mastery LV10, Dual Wielding Mastery LV10, Evasive Steps LV9, Parry LV8, Trample LV8, Wind Pressure Slash LV8, Ground Shrinking LV7, Qi Sense LV7...]
[Titles: Demon Slayer, Army Breaker (attributes boost during charges)]
Hiss—!
So this was the new guild master's confidence? Level 61 was even higher than Little Black! And this array of skills was clearly a complete set—leagues beyond Little Black's wild fighting style. Compared to him, Little Black only had higher base attributes.
No wonder he dared come down like this!
After some thought, Lin Jun sent Little Black to the deeper levels too, and didn't call up Little Pig and Norris either. He felt that whether a dragonman or vampire appeared in this situation would only complicate things further. And if Little Black lost, that would be even worse.
Let the puffshrooms handle this attack on puffshrooms. If he couldn't win, he'd just play hide-and-seek. They couldn't burn down the entire dungeon, could they?
...
The dozens-strong raid party was a bit much for the dungeon's corridor width, so the formation stretched into a long line.
Since they'd come looking for trouble, Lin Jun naturally wouldn't let them descend to the fifth floor easily.
At a corner on the first floor, two puffshrooms charged toward the formation's center. Adventurers spotted them from afar and drew their bows, having no intention of letting the puffshrooms get close.
However, when the arrows were loosed, both puffshrooms simultaneously bounced up, dodging the projectiles and crashing toward the formation.
[Sacred Barrier LV5]
In the emergency, two church warriors stepped forward with shields and simultaneously cast this skill. The magic screen-like defensive ability didn't interfere when cast together—instead, the two skills fused into a more solid ethereal shield wall, successfully blocking the puffshrooms' self-destruction aftermath from the party.
However, this small-scale harassment didn't end with just one instance. At every corner and passage, puffshrooms would appear. Some charged forward attempting to self-destruct, others fired magic cannons from a distance. The threat level wasn't high, but it was annoying, and they couldn't be ignored—leave them alone and they'd follow you, attacking constantly...
Three artillery puffshrooms appeared behind the formation, aiming their mushroom cannons forward. Fifteen simply drew a straight sword and casually swung backward without turning around. The three puffshrooms over ten meters away were simultaneously sliced in half.
The sword energy that cut through the puffshrooms left a deep gash in the ground. The convenience of [Wind Pressure Slash] amazed Eding, but he still frowned.
Most of these puffshroom harassments were quickly dealt with by the raid party, but their advance speed was greatly delayed as a result. What should have been a two-hour traverse of the first floor was dragged out to half a day.
Though no casualties occurred, their energy was visibly depleted. Was this also intentional by the puffshrooms?
This situation continued until the party descended to the second floor.
The second floor's forest environment still had puffshrooms constantly emerging, but the party wasn't constrained by narrow corridors like on the first floor. Everyone could take turns defending the perimeter, though their speed remained slow.
The reason was that the vanguard needed to check for landmine puffshrooms...
Considering such creatures had been spotted on the fifth floor, and the second floor's soil covered with rotting leaves provided excellent camouflage, despite never having encountered landmine puffshrooms on the second floor before, Eding still advised the party to proceed cautiously.
Fortunately, they encountered no major dangers along the way.
Just when Eding thought he'd been overly cautious, three shut-in puffshrooms that had been hanging in the fifty-meter-high canopy for who knows how long suddenly leaped down, plummeting toward the formation below!
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