Fifteen's face was dark as still water. Each swing of his twin swords felt less like excavation and more like venting the torment churning within his heart.
He could almost imagine it—Solaryn and the others falling one by one beneath the frenzied tide of puffshrooms... It was all his fault!
He had failed to slay the puffshroom king!
Not only had he failed at the crucial moment, but he was now trapped here!
If only his sword had been just a bit faster back then...
*Bang!*
His twin blades finally broke through the last layer of hardened earth and tangled mycelium. Turbid air mixed with specks of light poured in through the breach.
Disheveled and covered in dirt, Fifteen squeezed through the narrow opening, his eyes filled with grim resolve—he was prepared to face the anticipated hellscape of corpses strewn everywhere, then use his remaining strength for revenge, or... to join them in death.
The thought of being the sole survivor while his teammates perished—such a shameful escape was something he could never do!
However, the expected scene of carnage never materialized.
He didn't even need to fight his way to the stairwell—Solaryn and the others were right there in the clearing outside the cavern!?
What met his eyes were his companions, stripped down to their undergarments, lying scattered and unconscious on the ground.
Their chests rose and fell—they were clearly just knocked out.
Fifteen desperately wanted to rush forward and check on their condition, but he didn't take a step—because the puffshrooms were still nearby.
Numerous puffshrooms surrounded the clearing.
"Surrounded" wasn't quite accurate—they seemed more like they were each busy with their own tasks in the vicinity.
The pack-mule puffshrooms stepped over the unconscious party members, carrying large and small fragments of puffshroom remains, piling them together.
From time to time, they'd pick out a piece or two, attempting to fit them together.
Nearby, many puffshrooms had already been "reassembled."
At a glance, Fifteen could see that more than half were just roughly pieced together—definitely not their original forms.
What was this?
Did puffshrooms also care about having complete corpses?
Regardless, the puffshrooms were clearly more interested in the fragments than in his teammates.
More interested than in him, too.
Fifteen had been standing there for quite a while, yet not a single puffshroom had initiated an attack.
"What... what is this supposed to be?" Fifteen muttered hoarsely, his voice dry and raspy.
He looked at Solaryn's tightly furrowed brow even in unconsciousness, at Priest Mane's inappropriately dreamy smile, then at those puffshrooms diligently assembling their "teammates"... An extremely complex, indescribable emotion welled up in his heart.
Anger? Yes, but the target seemed blurred.
Relief? Yes, his teammates were still alive!
Frustration? It was practically overflowing!
And a hint of... being choked by this overly realistic and absurd "ending."
He stood frozen like a statue, momentarily unsure how to react.
Should he charge forward and cut down those puffshrooms?
Or should he first check on Solaryn and the others' injuries?
Or perhaps... dig another hole to bury himself back in, pretending he hadn't witnessed this bizarre scene?
"Mm... mm..."
Just as Fifteen stood there at a loss, the beaten and unconscious Solaryn was the first to wake up.
...
...
...
A long procession moved slowly through the stairwell.
Puffshrooms led the way at the front, and puffshrooms brought up the rear.
Sandwiched in between were the empty-handed prisoners about to be expelled from the dungeon.
The Church warriors trudged heavily, their faces mixing the fortune of surviving disaster with the deep shame of defeat and capture, of being at others' mercy.
The ordinary adventurers, however, appeared much more "pure."
Their faces couldn't hide their nearly naked relief—what a stroke of luck to keep their lives!
Throughout the entire group, only Fifteen's figure still looked somewhat "respectable."
Though he was equally covered in mud and grime, at least his gear remained intact on his body—the puffshrooms hadn't attempted to confiscate his weapons.
Unlike Solaryn, the dignified commander now reduced to just shorts and a short shirt.
Forced to expose her muscled and scarred midriff.
"Speaking of which, where is Master Aidin?" asked Priest Mane, who was in an even worse state than Solaryn—shirtless with only his pants remaining.
"Perhaps... he successfully escaped?" Solaryn replied uncertainly.
After all, he was a diamond-level illusionist. If anyone had the best chance of escaping that situation, aside from Fifteen, Aidin probably had the highest odds.
Of course, it wasn't impossible that he'd been killed.
Though the puffshrooms ultimately didn't kill these prisoners, quite a few had died during the actual fighting.
This question didn't trouble them for long.
When the group reached the second floor, they found Aidin squatting together with several adventurers who had "disappeared" earlier, also reduced to just his shorts—the puffshrooms had even taken his earrings.
"Yo..." Aidin looked up, seeing his equally bedraggled companions, and forced an incredibly awkward smile as he raised his hand in greeting.
Running away alone was disgraceful no matter how you looked at it, especially when... he hadn't even succeeded.
Fortunately, Solaryn, Mane, and the others weren't petty people.
In that desperate situation, having even one person escape would have been a victory.
No one blamed him, and Fifteen merely nodded slightly.
Solaryn was more concerned with: "How did you end up on the second floor?"
"Insufficient skill... insufficient skill..." Aidin waved his hands repeatedly, his face showing an expression of unbearable memories.
Seeing his state, everyone roughly pieced together his embarrassing situation of failed illusions or being intercepted midway, and tactfully didn't press further.
Aidin rubbed his bare arms and grimly raised the most practical question at hand: "Speaking of which, Chairman Fall's promise to reimburse action expenses... does that include the equipment we lost?"
Aidin looked miserable. Among everyone present, he had suffered the greatest losses.
A full set of expensive mage equipment plus jewelry and accessories—all gone...
Solaryn and Mane, backed by the Church, would at least be issued standard equipment.
But if Fall didn't reimburse him, Aidin would be utterly ruined.
"Don't worry," Fifteen's low voice responded, carrying a barely detectable note of guilt. "I'll speak to Fall on your behalf."
He felt that he bore major responsibility for this mission's failure. If worst came to worst, compensating Aidin out of his own pocket would be appropriate.
Hearing this, the gloom finally lifted somewhat from Aidin's face as he breathed a long sigh of relief: "Then I'm much obliged!"
He continued unconsciously rubbing the mycelium on his arms hidden by his illusions, finally having the mood to chat with everyone about other trivial matters.
---
News of the puffshroom subjugation team's devastating defeat hit Mute Wind Town like a massive boulder thrown into still water—nearly one-fifth dead, and the survivors, except for Fifteen, stripped naked, keeping their lives only through the puffshrooms' "mercy"!
Unsurprisingly, the entire town instantly exploded! On every street corner, in every tavern and inn, everyone was animatedly discussing this crushing defeat. The Adventurers' Guild was once again thrust into the eye of the storm.
Chairman Fall voluntarily shouldered all responsibility, increasing the originally promised bounties by a full fifty percent, and paying triple bounties to the families of the deceased.
Two days later, at the Rotten Willow Tavern.
Amy finally fulfilled that scene from her near-death hallucination—magnanimously slapping several large portions of fragrant, honey-glazed catfish belly onto the table.
"Come on! Eat! My treat!" she loudly called to Horn, Old Hammer, and Noah, trying to recreate the satisfaction and generosity from her dream.
However, the teammates seated around the table looked at her with eyes completely different from the pure envy in her dream.
It was a complex and subtle gaze mixing disbelief, pity, and the look one gives an idiot who won the lottery—all focused squarely on Amy.
"Why... why are you all looking at me like that? Just tell me—did I earn this bounty or not!"
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