Norvid’s city guards arrived, cleaning up the brawl’s mess.
One Puffshroom Master and two mercenaries were badly hurt; another mercenary died on the spot.
In the end, all Puffshrooms self-destructed, their blast wrecking the tavern door and lightly injuring two bystanders.
Luckily, no more casualties. Most adventurers, seasoned pros, ducked to safety when the fight escalated, watching the chaos unfold.
Drunken adventurers scrapping and causing deaths wasn’t rare in border cities like Norvid.
One dead, three injured? Not even the worst case.
But this was different—it showed the growing rift between local adventurers and the rising Puffshroom Masters.
Sadly, Viscount Paren, the city lord, saw the issue but misread it.
At first, he freed the two guilty mercenaries after basic treatment, locking up the Puffshroom Master alone.
This blatant bias enraged Norvid’s Puffshroom Masters.
They rallied with their Puffshroom squads, swarming the town hall, demanding fair treatment. No one wanted that kind of injustice!
Their numbers were small, but with hordes of Puffshrooms, the scene was a stunning “white sea.”
Viscount Paren, staring at the surging crowd from his window, felt his head throb.
He’d freed the mercenaries thinking adventurers outnumbered Puffshroom Masters and might cause trouble, while the latter seemed too weak to stir. Wrong move.
Panicked, he made another blunder—rearresting the mercenaries.
Now, not only did Puffshroom Masters keep protesting, but local adventurers gathered, slamming Paren for being “spineless and wishy-washy.”
Two clashing groups faced off outside the town hall, ready to spark a bigger fight.
Out of options, Paren, knowing he’d botched it, sent city guards to break up both crowds.
He slapped hefty fines on the two mercenaries and the Puffshroom Master, then tossed them all out of jail, clearly just dodging the “hot potatoes.”
From start to finish, Paren weighed what was best for him, not justice.
He dodged trouble for now—but only for now.
After that, clashes between Puffshroom Masters and adventurers spiked, from petty arguments to small brawls to deaths, nearly every few days.
When Paren tried to curb it, he was powerless.
Worse, the conflict spread beyond Norvid to Yafeng Port and Mushroom Capital.
Yafeng Port mirrored Norvid: tensions flared, security tanked, guards scrambled.
Mushroom Capital handled it differently.
When a similar clash sparked, Vera stepped in, halting both sides’ standoff.
The troublemakers might not respect Vera, but onlooker adventurers backed her up.
Her timely mediation kept things from turning deadly.
Farr, hearing of Norvid’s mess, saw the problem’s weight.
He boosted guard patrols to prevent bloodshed and called Edin, Mirabel, and others to strategize.
Soon, the “Puffshroom Master Guild” formed under the Adventurers’ Guild.
It handled Puffshroom Master registration, dispute mediation, and quest assignments.
Edin firmly split Puffshroom Master quests from other adventurers’ and capped their tasks to avoid crowding out traditional adventurers.
It was a Band-Aid, not a cure, for the underlying rift.
But a fix was better than Norvid and Yafeng Port’s inaction.
Ironically, the Guild’s core team had no actual Puffshroom Masters at first—a makeshift “ragtag crew.”
Still, something was better than nothing.
Farr poured his energy into building and tweaking the Guild, fixing issues as they arose.
It worked. Unlike the worsening chaos in Norvid and Yafeng Port, Mushroom Capital avoided any deaths from such clashes.
Lin Jun stayed out of it.
The rise of Puffshroom Masters and their conflicts? Any new thing triggers a chain reaction.
This was just the start.
Since the trend was unstoppable, let humans figure out how to adapt.
Lin Jun’s focus shifted to the elves—not for anything big, just a small thing: an old elf died.
The potion-making elder didn’t make it to spring.
One day, under Scout Puffshroom’s watch, he taught his granddaughter Riel a new potion recipe.
The next, he passed peacefully in sleep, calm, as if sinking into eternal rest.
Riel was heartbroken, her sobs drawing passing elves and neighbors.
The elves prepared his body, holding a simple funeral in a graveyard now dotted with mushrooms. Only Riel and old neighbors attended.
The funeral kept the elves’ serene tradition, but Riel’s uncontrollable tears stood out.
Other elves showed no grief, just calm farewells.
Through [Elven Language LV5] and long observation, Lin Jun grasped adult elves’ culture.
To them, death wasn’t loss but a shift in life’s form—a simple goodbye sufficed.
Young Riel, not yet understanding, cried her heart out.
The elves didn’t judge, silently supporting her tender grief.
The funeral ended with Riel’s soft sobs.
After the elves left, Lin Jun, as usual, decomposed the elder’s body.
When Scout Puffshroom flew back to the familiar potion shop, Riel had just seen off neighbors offering help.
Her eyes red, she quietly sorted herbs on the shelves.
Seeing the Puffshroom, she found a confidant, murmuring as if to herself, “Flying Mushroom, you’re back… Grandpa’s gone, but I’ll keep the shop going! Want to… watch me make potions?”
Three days later, a uniformed elf official knocked, delivering a notice—the area was slated for redevelopment.
(End of Chapter)
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