The dim room was sustained by nothing but a single candle's feeble light, its flickering shadow dancing restlessly across the walls.
Adin sat rigidly at the table, his face dark as still water.
He stared fixedly at the mycelium spreading across his arm—those pale, threadlike veins embedded deep beneath his flesh, as if they had always grown there from birth.
Beside his hand lay an empty vial—the anti-life potion he had just drained completely.
This rare elixir that stimulated life potential and forcibly expelled foreign substances from the body had remarkable effects, though its fifty gold coin price was enough to deter most adventurers. But for Adin, it was still affordable.
However, the result struck his heart like a muffled club. Ten minutes had passed since drinking the potion, yet the mycelium on his arm remained completely unmoved—if anything, it seemed even more active!
"Useless! Absolutely fucking useless!" Adin grabbed the empty bottle and smashed it violently against the floor!
The crisp sound of shattering glass was particularly jarring in the deathly silence. He clutched his head with both hands, knuckles white from the force.
"Why is this happening? Why only me?"
Though he said this, Adin had somewhat guessed the reason for his infection—only he could easily hide the symptoms of being parasitized.
His illusion magic hadn't helped him escape; instead, it had become the very reason the puffshrooms targeted him!
What would he become?
A corpse completely devoured by mycelium?
A twisted "mushroom"?
He dared not think about it. Even a fleeting thought was enough to make terror wrap around his heart like icy vines, strangling him until he couldn't breathe.
That feeling... was exactly the same as when he'd been hunted in the Scarecrow Abyss years ago!
And this time, facing his fear, he made the same choice again—flee.
Abandon everything!
What future consequences, what generous compensation due tomorrow... let it all go to hell!
Only one thought remained in his mind, like a drowning man's desperate need for air:
Flee! Immediately! Right now!
Escape far from the Amethyst Underground City, far from the puffshrooms, just as he had once fled from the Scarecrow.
Adin hastily packed his belongings and practically stumbled out of the guild.
The night sky was shrouded in heavy clouds, the three full moons reduced to pale outlines, grudgingly casting down a few weak rays of light.
On both sides of the street, shops had long since closed their doors tight, deathly quiet, with only a distant tavern still glowing with dim yellow light and muffled revelry.
A drunk lay collapsed in the shadow of a street corner, like a bag of abandoned garbage.
Adin quickly slipped into an empty narrow alley, took a deep breath, and his form vanished quietly into the night like melting into darkness.
He planned to leave this town without a trace.
However, just as his foot stepped onto the path leading to the wilderness, his right leg suddenly erupted in tearing agony!
"Gah—!"
His invisibility shattered instantly, and Adin's form staggered into view.
He looked down in horror to see the dormant mycelium beneath his right leg's flesh writhing and swelling like awakened venomous snakes!
His skin stretched taut and nearly transparent, then with a soft "pop," a plump, wet mushroom actually burrowed out from his leg meat, its cap trembling slightly in the pale moonlight.
"Ha... haha, hahahaha!"
That laughter was bone-chillingly cold, filled with the realization of despair. He felt he understood everything.
He had been watched all along!
Those invisible eyes, or rather the puffshrooms' will, had never left.
It could crush him like squashing a bug whenever it pleased.
Its previous silence was merely like a cat toying with a mouse under its claws, watching with amusement as he struggled futilely, fled in terror, drank expensive potions in hope... only to gently pin him in place at the end, unable to escape.
Looking at the path to freedom ahead, he no longer dared take another step.
After standing motionless for an unknown length of time, Adin finally dragged his heavy feet back toward the town streets like a corpse drained of its soul.
Passing the still-boisterous tavern, warm yellow light spilled from the door cracks, mixed with adventurers' rough laughter and the crisp clinking of glasses.
A few scattered fragments of conversation pierced his ears like icy steel needles:
"Haha, those puffshrooms were pretty decent, knowing to send you back in one piece!"
"Too bad that kid Jel wasn't so lucky—lost his leg in the blast. That money's just enough for him to find some corner to live out his days waiting to die."
"Tsk, don't mention him! Come on, this round's on me—bottoms up!"
Those words about "good luck" and "being sent back" only made him feel ironic and cold.
As Adin continued forward, the surrounding lights and voices quickly receded like an ebbing tide.
When he looked up again, he found himself somehow standing outside the great gates of the Amethyst Underground City!
Here, he actually encountered a familiar figure.
Sensing someone approaching from behind, Fifteen turned around with a gentle smile: "Adin? Instead of resting properly, what are you doing here?"
Adin could feel Fifteen's sincerity. After experiencing battle together, this man had also come to regard him as a comrade.
Adin just hadn't expected to run into Fifteen here.
Forcing his mouth into motion, he squeezed out a faint smile: "Couldn't sleep. What about you? Why are you standing here alone?"
"I was thinking," Fifteen's gaze returned to the deep underground city entrance, his voice growing heavier, "those puffshrooms... why did they let the subjugation team go? Given the situation then, even I might not have survived if the fighting had continued."
Adin's smile became even more strained, though fortunately the night was dark with sparse stars and shifting tree shadows, so Fifteen wasn't constantly staring at his face.
"Who knows... I heard puffshrooms always strip unruly adventurers naked on the fifth floor. Maybe it was the same this time?
Or perhaps it fears humans and wants to show goodwill toward us?"
Or maybe... it just wanted to release me... This thought slid silently through Adin's mind.
"Show goodwill..." Fifteen repeated thoughtfully, then after a moment shrugged his shoulders with relief. "Forget it. Either way, everyone surviving is a good thing."
He dusted off his clothes and stood up, preparing to return to town.
Before leaving, he turned back to remind: "Adin, don't stay too long either. Go back and rest early. Don't forget tomorrow Farr is gathering everyone—there are still matters to discuss."
"I know." Adin replied.
Only after Fifteen's figure completely disappeared down the road to town, and a full ten more minutes had passed, did Adin finally slide down against a thick tree trunk to sit on the cold ground, as if all strength had been drained from him.
Yes, being able to survive... was good...
This thought carried a bitter aftertaste.
He remained silent for a long while, his gaze finally turning once more toward that underground city gate crouching like a giant beast in the night.
This time, he didn't resist. His spirit followed that new instinct that had quietly grown since his parasitization—an instinct he'd been deliberately suppressing—and sank into that invisible consciousness network formed by countless mycelium threads.
He knew that doing this would leave him no way back, but... he just wanted to live...
"King of Puffshrooms," his thoughts transmitted through the fungal network, "no need to beat around the bush anymore. Tell me, what exactly do you want me to do?"
After a brief silence, a voice with strange cadence responded directly in his mind:
"Adin Clare. From now on, you may address me as—'Boss.'"
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