In the shadows of the Purple Crystal Dungeon entrance, the air always carried an inescapable scent—a mixture of damp earth and the faint odor of decay.
Vera tightened the curved blade at her waist, her gaze sweeping over her two companions beside her. The mage Phiyin was nervously adjusting her robe sleeves with some tension, while her twin sister Philing appeared much more composed.
"Vera," Phiyin's voice carried a barely perceptible tremor as her gaze fell upon the entrance that resembled a giant beast's maw, "are we... really going down now? Didn't the subjugation party just..."
"Just return in defeat?" Vera finished for her, but her eyes remained unusually calm. "That's right, but precisely because of that, now is the best time to go down."
Vera turned to Phiyin, patiently explaining in a lowered voice, ensuring the scattered adventurers around them couldn't overhear: "I made some inquiries. Just yesterday, a small team made it down to the third floor and came back out completely intact. According to them, the puffshrooms inside have returned to 'normal.'"
The subjugation party had failed, the puffshrooms still occupied the dungeon, but adventurers still had to make a living.
The bold ones had already begun gradually exploring downward, while the cautious ones were still observing the puffshrooms' condition.
"We all know that puffshrooms have the habit of stuffing their spoils of war into fat puffshrooms' bellies, and when the subjugation team came out, they were all stripped bare!"
Phiyin suddenly understood: "You mean the subjugation team's equipment might now be in some fat puffshroom's belly? Waiting for someone to... extract it?"
"Exactly!" Vera snapped her fingers. "Before others catch on, we'll hunt more monster corpses to draw from. We might just hit the jackpot!"
With that, he winked at Phiyin, and her tense face also showed a hint of agreeing smile.
As the three prepared to enter the dungeon, Vera's attention was caught by two other figures at the entrance.
That out-of-place attire was definitely not that of adventurers—
A stocky, weather-beaten middle-aged man wearing mud-stained coarse cloth clothes, gripping a well-worn old pitchfork tightly in his hands, his eyes full of nervousness.
Beside him followed a boy of about twelve or thirteen, similarly dressed in patched old clothes, but carrying on his back a large, empty wicker basket nearly half his height.
The boy's face bore the reckless curiosity of youth, craning his neck to peer into the dungeon interior.
They seemed to have stood at the dungeon's main gate for quite some time, only just now finally walking in.
Vera quietly asked a tall, thin adventurer leaning against the wall, polishing his dagger: "Hey, do you know what's up with those two who just went in?"
Disturbed from his task, the thin adventurer looked up with displeasure, but his brow relaxed when he saw who was asking: "Oh, it's Vera. Thanks for that potion last time."
Vera waved dismissively with a smile.
The thin adventurer continued: "You're asking about those two who just went in? I don't know them, but judging by their attire, they're most likely farmers from Mura Village."
"Farmers? What are they doing in the dungeon?" Philing couldn't help but ask.
The dungeon's first floor posed virtually no danger, but that was for adventurers.
To obtain adventurer status required at least reaching copper rank, which meant LV20.
Monsters below LV5 on the first floor naturally posed no threat.
But this was different for farmers.
While adult humans could generally reach LV10 or above, without combat skills, if unlucky enough to encounter two or three monsters at once, their lives would still be in danger.
So it was very strange for farmers to enter the dungeon, and moreover...
"Don't the guild people care?" Vera looked questioningly at the two guards stationed not far away at the entrance.
By rights, those without adventurer status should be stopped by the guards.
"Hey, you can't cut off people's only way to survive, right?" The thin adventurer spat on the ground. "I heard their village suffered a disaster—some heartless bastard set a big fire that burned all the crops in the fields to ash! With no way to survive, they could only steel themselves to come to the dungeon to gather some mushrooms. These two aren't the first batch either."
Vera nodded silently, feeling like he'd been hearing about such incidents frequently lately.
Without saying more, he signaled Philing and Phiyin to follow and stepped into the dungeon.
Upon entering the first floor, the light suddenly dimmed, with only some mushrooms on the walls glowing with an eerie phosphorescence.
Although the dungeon had been taken over by mushrooms, the mycelium generally grew in corners, on walls and ceilings, while the paths commonly used by adventurers remained quite clean.
This was actually very unnatural. Combined with the recently widespread rumors about puffshrooms possessing high intelligence, Vera was inclined to believe it.
He believed it, but didn't think it affected him much. Intelligence hadn't just appeared today—hadn't adventurers and puffshrooms coexisted harmoniously before?
Just follow the puffshrooms' not-too-harsh rules.
This time, to be safe, even though Phiyin could cast illumination spells, they still rented an illumination puffshroom, rather like voluntarily paying protection money.
Not long after entering, they spotted the farmer father and son near the entrance passage.
The boy was crouched on the ground, excitedly using his hands to pull at a cluster of gray mushrooms growing in a wall corner.
The middle-aged man stood as if facing a great enemy, holding a torch and gripping his pitchfork tightly, vigilantly scanning the surrounding passages.
"Wait a moment!" Vera's clear, cold voice suddenly rang out, particularly distinct in the silent passage.
He rushed forward in a few quick steps and, just before the boy was about to uproot the mushroom cluster, decisively pressed down on his wrist.
The boy was startled and quickly withdrew his hand: "What are you doing?"
The middle-aged man also nervously turned around, his pitchfork pointing slightly forward: "This... sir?"
Only farmers would address ordinary adventurers as "sir."
Vera didn't immediately explain, only used his hand to push aside several larger gray mushrooms, revealing a blue mushroom hidden among them.
"While it won't kill you, if you don't want to fall asleep right after every meal, you'd better pick out these blue mushrooms."
Amidst their grateful thanks, Vera bid farewell to the farmer father and son.
...
When they reached the second floor, Vera discovered that the illumination puffshroom this time actually hadn't returned to the mycelium mat, but instead swaggered along behind them.
However, descending stairs was quite difficult for its short legs. It could only move down step by step in large strides, its entire body swaying back and forth. Vera was really afraid it might suddenly roll down like a ball.
Philing couldn't help but roll her eyes—she couldn't stand watching anymore.
She bent down and scooped up the illumination puffshroom that was still struggling with the steps, holding it securely in her arms.
"Come on, stubby legs." The illumination puffshroom curled up docilely in her embrace, its light steadily illuminating the path ahead.
When the group finally arrived at the fat puffshroom cavern on the fifth floor, carrying monster corpses, the scene before them made Vera raise his eyebrows slightly—the cavern was not empty.
A pile of weapons and armor that had obviously just been "extracted" lay carelessly heaped in one corner of the cavern, reflecting cold metallic gleams under the illumination puffshroom's light.
With a single glance, Vera immediately recognized many regulation weapons and armor bearing church emblems and distinctive forging styles from that pile of equipment!
Making no attempt to conceal their presence, their arrival was naturally noticed by the team currently drawing lots, who looked back with wariness—
It was Horn!
That rugged face still bore the excitement of a good haul and a trace of wariness, but upon seeing clearly that the newcomer was Vera, that wariness instantly dissipated, replaced by a rich smile that seemed to say "so you came too."
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