"Raise shields!" The stern shout echoed through the forest.
Solarin, who had activated [Truth Sight] and served as the main trap detector, had been constantly searching back and forth for suspicious traces on the ground. Some mushrooms growing in the forest had caused her considerable trouble in identification, preventing her from noticing the Fat Puffshrooms hiding in the trees in time.
The Church warriors truly lived up to their reputation as a well-coordinated, battle-tested force. Moments after Solarin issued her command, their sacred emblemed shields interlocked overhead to form a dome. However, it was still a step too late—the golden light of [Divine Barrier] had not yet fully merged when three Fat Puffshrooms were about to drop down.
Fifteen, at the rear of the formation, had already charged out before Solarin's warning, stepping on an adventurer's shoulder to leap into mid-air.
Slash!
All three Fat Puffshrooms were cut in half.
However, before those below could celebrate, they saw even more puffshrooms exploding out from inside the Fat Puffshrooms' bodies. Some of these puffshrooms were caught in the slash and killed, others were blocked by the barrier, but still others fell into the crowd.
People near the puffshroom landing points instinctively tried to dodge, block, or counterattack, which only caused more chaos. A warrior attempted to swat away a puffshroom falling toward his face with his arm guard, but the moment of contact—
BOOM!
Blinding green light mixed with viscous corrosive fluid exploded violently! Like a signal, more explosions erupted one after another throughout the crowd.
"Gaaah—!"
"My eyes!"
"Shields! Raise shields! Protect the casters!"
Screams, explosions, and the sizzling sound of corrosion instantly filled the air.
The adventurers fell into chaos, but the Church warriors displayed organizational capabilities far superior to the adventurers. Even with puffshrooms exploding nearby and corrosive slime splattering on their bodies, they continued supporting the [Divine Barrier], blocking most of the shockwaves and debris from above—otherwise the situation would have been far worse. Of course, this was also related to their superior equipment allowing them to withstand more damage.
The puffshrooms' assault didn't end there. Taking advantage of the humans' disrupted formation, puffshrooms that had used underground tunnels to position themselves in the forest beforehand launched a pincer attack from both sides.
"Hold formation! Don't panic!" a Church squad captain roared hoarsely.
However, while he could command his Church warriors, he couldn't control the adventurers.
In the chaos, though most adventurers stayed with the Church warriors, some still chose to act on their own. Either relying on their speed to flee toward the direction they came from, or using invisibility and similar techniques to try hiding aside until the crisis passed.
These tactics might have worked in other situations, but under Lin Jun's watch, they were obviously the wrong choices.
Under multiple reconnaissance perspectives, ordinary adventurers simply couldn't achieve true concealment in a dungeon. Those who fled were captured by waiting puffshrooms after running back to the first floor. As for those who turned invisible or camouflaged themselves, a squad of puffshrooms would "coincidentally" pass by their positions, and then they would truly disappear.
Sixth-tier mental magic—Mass Pain Immunity!
With Aideen's intervention, the previously chaotic team quickly stabilized. But Aideen's expression was terrifyingly grim.
The moment they were ambushed, Aideen had created several phantom duplicates around himself to disperse attacks, but those puffshrooms completely ignored the illusions and focused solely on attacking his real body. Aideen was forced to flee awkwardly into the Church's formation, relying on a group of Gold and Silver ranks to protect him.
This feeling of being constrained made him somewhat regret coming down here.
Fortunately, the crisis didn't last long—Fifteen got serious.
Realizing he'd been outmaneuvered by the puffshrooms, Fifteen brought out his true strength in shame and anger. Enhanced by [Flowing Steps] at near-maximum level, Fifteen moved through the forest like a swift wind, and wherever he passed, puffshrooms fell like wheat before a scythe.
The suicide puffshrooms mixed within the formation initially caused Fifteen some trouble, but after figuring out their pattern, Fifteen no longer engaged in close combat, instead eliminating the puffshrooms from a distance with sword winds.
Nearly two hundred puffshrooms in the area were completely wiped out in less than eight minutes.
Honestly, this was somewhat beyond Lin Jun's expectations. While he hadn't thought he could cripple this team in one go, Lin Jun had assumed the puffshrooms could harass them for much longer. The result was less than ten minutes...
"What's the situation?" Sheathing his sword, Fifteen asked while adjusting his breathing.
After a brief silence, Solarin's voice rang out, carrying a trace of fatigue and heaviness: "Initial count: one Church warrior dead, one severely wounded. Among the adventurers... five missing, three dead, three severely wounded."
She deactivated [Truth Sight] and rubbed her throbbing temples. The puffshroom corpses scattered everywhere greatly interfered with her vision—keeping the skill active now made everything look like a blur, so it was better to turn it off.
Solarin didn't mention the lightly wounded, as they would quickly recover under the priests' healing. The so-called severely wounded referred to those who had suffered damage that ordinary healing magic couldn't reverse.
Such as blindness, or severed limbs...
This type of severe injury could still be saved if they left the dungeon and spent heavily on special potions. But while the team was still in the dungeon, they were powerless to help.
"Damn it!" Fifteen cursed under his breath, his expression dark, showing no sense of victory whatsoever.
He hadn't expected such heavy losses from just the first contact. The puffshrooms' insidious nature far exceeded expectations, especially the corrosive slime, which was a disaster for adventurers without heavy armor protection.
He saw several warriors hit by the corrosive slime, their bodies a bloody mess with exposed white bone, receiving emergency treatment from the accompanying priests. Though the warriors tried hard to suppress their voices, their twisted expressions revealed their agony.
Aideen had to timely cast another Mass Pain Immunity.
"The question now is," Aideen approached with furrowed brow, "what do we do about these wounded?"
"We can't abandon them. On their own, they probably can't make it out of this dungeon." After brief consideration, Fifteen judged, "With puffshrooms using combinations of traps and ambushes, there are most likely ambushes on the return route as well."
"Then... split some people to escort them out?" Though Aideen knew it wasn't ideal, he still asked hesitantly.
"Split how many?" Solarin mercilessly pointed out the crux, "Too many, and we lack the combat power to advance; too few, and encountering ambushes would just be serving the puffshrooms free meals."
"Then now?"
"The team's core combat strength hasn't truly been compromised, and the wounded are a minority—carrying them won't slow our overall advance."
Solarin's voice was steady and strong, but then her tone shifted, revealing unprecedented gravity.
"However, the combat power displayed by the puffshrooms has far exceeded our prior estimates. For the exploration ahead, we must advance step by step with utmost caution. Should circumstances change, we must retreat decisively, return and formulate new plans."
Throughout her speech, Solarin's eyes remained fixed on Fifteen.
In Solarin's view, Aideen was just a mercenary working for pay—retreat wouldn't cost him money, so naturally he wouldn't object. What she feared was the strongest fighter, Fifteen, not cooperating when the time came.
Fifteen clearly understood her meaning and yielded authority: "You're the commander, you make the call."
Aideen nodded in agreement from the side.
In reality, Solarin still didn't understand Aideen well enough. If she planned to retreat, not only would Aideen have no objections, he would enthusiastically support it...
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