Fifth Layer Mushroom Forest.
“Dylan, is this… really okay?” Norris asked, nerves creeping into his voice.
He shifted his shoulders, uncomfortable in the unfamiliar shirt. It had been ages since he’d worn one.
Right now, Norris bore no scales or claws. Clad in leather armor, he looked like a genuine human adventurer.
Thanks to decent meals and regular combat training, he was noticeably sturdier than his mining days.
But fully disguised as a human for a surface mission? He was uneasy.
Dylan, standing across from him, seemed utterly relaxed, casually checking his weapon straps.
“What’s there to worry about?” Dylan glanced at him. “Level seven Mimicry won’t break unless you’re half-dead. Back in the day, I ran around the archipelago with a flimsy disguise that cracked if I got scratched. We’re just poking around near our dungeon’s entrance—safe as it gets!”
Dylan’s seasoned words eased Norris’s tension a bit.
“But,” Dylan added, nodding toward Norris’s head with a smirk, “you sure about going out looking like that?”
Norris knew what he meant. Thanks to the boss, his hair now flowed down to his waist!
His rugged features kept him from being mistaken for a woman, but among human adventurers, few men sported such dramatic locks.
“It’s… the boss’s orders,” Norris sighed, his tone heavy with resignation.
As he spoke, two Puffshrooms stacked like acrobats, waddling behind him with a “puff puff.”
One stretched a tendril, clumsily gathering his long hair, and in a few awkward twists, shaped it into a messy bun.
Then, from some hidden corner, it produced a plain twig and snap—stuck it in the bun to hold it.
Finished, the Puffshroom patted Norris’s shoulder with its tendril. “Kid, you’re too green! This is the real man’s style! Trust me, it’s perfect!”
Dylan silently swallowed his urge to say, “I don’t get it either.”
His experience told him any comment now could spell trouble.
Ready, they approached the stone wall by the Mushroom Forest, where a hidden room awaited.
On the surface, Dylan strode confidently out of the dungeon’s gate, while Norris trailed behind, visibly tense.
The moment they stepped out, both instinctively shielded their eyes.
The sunlight was blinding.
The dungeon’s glowing mushrooms were one thing, but even the Far North’s dim, pale light couldn’t compare to this radiance.
It took a while to adjust.
Dylan’s pack brimmed with gold coins, plus one A-grade Magic Crystal for emergencies.
Their mission: head to the Adventurers’ Guild to post tasks.
With potion-making studies underway, some required materials didn’t grow in either dungeon.
Not necessarily rare—just unsuited to the local environment.
The easiest fix was posting acquisition tasks at the guild. Merchants would take them and deliver the goods.
Potion ingredients were only part of it. The real expense was a bounty for monsters with [Negative Energy Collection] in the Strawman Abyss.
Those were deep-layer, powerful creatures, and the Abyss was already dangerous, so the reward had to be hefty.
They’d start with a 500-gold-coin bounty, ready to raise it if no one bit.
Lin Jun’s cash was nearly spent. He had high-value Magic Crystals left, but they weren’t easy to liquidate in bulk.
He’d need to find channels to sell them gradually.
Edin or Inanna could’ve handled the bounty, but their high profiles drew too many eyes. Dylan, less conspicuous, was the better choice.
As for Norris, this was a chance to stretch his legs and practice his disguise.
But stepping out of the dungeon, both were stunned by the sight.
The town had expanded massively, the distance from the dungeon to its edge cut in half!
The center still held the old wooden houses, but the outskirts now boasted stone buildings.
More striking, the population had surged, and its makeup had shifted dramatically.
Yafeng Town used to revolve around adventurers—taverns, inns, and shops all catered to them.
Now, civilians flooded the streets, outnumbering adventurers and almost overshadowing them.
Even wilder, a Puffshroom or two occasionally wove through the crowd, and no one batted an eye!
Beyond the town, vast mushroom fields stretched out, with countless farmers at work.
Some carried buckets to water crops, others hauled monster corpses to fertilize the fields.
Farther off, figures chopped down trees in the forest.
Dense woods blocked sunlight, while sparse ones let it through—just right for new mushroom fields.
Before expanding, excess trees had to go.
Dylan’s jaw dropped. Last time he passed through, refugees were still in temporary camps. In a blink, the town had transformed.
Norris wondered if he’d stumbled through another rift…
“Senior, is this… still Yafeng Town?”
A drunken passerby overheard, staggering back and clapping a hand on Norris’s shoulder.
“New in town, kid? Yafeng Town? Nobody calls it that anymore!”
He belched, then grinned. “This is Mushroom Town now! Soon it’ll be Mushroom City! Got coin? Try our specialty—creamy mushroom soup! Freshest you’ll find anywhere!”
Beaming with pride, he patted Norris’s shoulder and wobbled off without waiting for a reply.
A few steps later, he tripped, left foot over right, and crashed to the ground.
But he wasn’t hurt.
Beneath him, a flattened Puffshroom took the hit.
Onlookers paused, murmurs rising.
“He’s done for. Puffshroom’s gonna haunt him tonight.”
“Loves drinking and wandering—serves him right.”
Even the drunk panicked, sobering up fast. “I… I didn’t mean it! Wait! I can still make an offering!”
Scrambling up, he stumbled toward the new monster corpse trading market nearby.
(End of Chapter)
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