At the bottom of the stairway between the fourth and fifth floors.
A crackling campfire burned quietly, its flickering flames illuminating the cross-section of the surrounding circular stone steps.
Iñigo and his leopard-man teammate Miro were resting against the wall.
What was supposed to be a half-day journey to the fifth floor had ultimately taken a full day and a half to complete.
The reason was simple—they'd gotten lost.
They'd thought that following their memories from two years ago would allow them to descend easily, so they hadn't bothered buying a strategy map.
Who would have thought that once they actually entered the dungeon, they'd discover their recollections weren't nearly as clear as expected?
After wandering around in circles for half a day, they were now quite exhausted by this point.
They could only rest for the time being.
Rather than taking turns keeping watch, they rested simultaneously with considerable confidence.
First, this was inside the stairway—a safe zone where monsters couldn't enter.
Second, the innate five senses and alertness of beastmen would allow them to awaken immediately when other adventurers approached.
Just like now, two very faint "puff-puff" sounds caused Iñigo's ears to perk up even though he'd already laid down to sleep.
He didn't rush to move, but instead slightly lifted his tiger eyes a crack, peering toward the source of the sound.
A mutated Puffshroom stood at the entrance—a position that monsters should never be able to reach.
Seemingly not expecting to encounter them, the Puffshroom stood motionless at the entrance.
After a good while, it quietly began to retreat, extending those stubby little legs as far as possible with each step, moving slowly—this time not even making "puff-puff" sounds.
Just as the Puffshroom was about to truly retreat back to the fifth floor, before Iñigo could get up, the leopard-man moved first.
Like a streak of black lightning, in merely the blink of an eye, Miro had already returned to the campfire carrying half a Puffshroom in each hand.
Tossing the two halves on the ground, Miro's face showed no trace of pride, but instead frowned.
"No wonder the guild issued this personally—this quest is probably not simple..."
Iñigo also nodded in agreement, looking at the cross-section where the Puffshroom had been cut open on the ground:
"Ignoring the dungeon's 'rules,' displaying obvious high intelligence, and judging by its structure, it's clearly undergone extensive mutation."
"Should we go back and prepare more thoroughly before coming again?"
What Miro actually meant was recruiting one or two more Gold-rank adventurers to come along.
After their healer and support had died in the Archipelago Mist, only the two damage dealers remained.
This was quite an unhealthy team composition.
They had just slunk back to Mute Wind Town and hadn't had time to gather any information when they saw this quest.
They'd thought that an A-rank quest posted on a relatively simple floor like the fifth must surely be a bargain.
Two Gold-rank adventurers should be able to handle it easily even without support.
But now, with monsters entering safe zones—something that defied common sense—happening right before their eyes.
Miro felt this quest would probably be quite troublesome.
He was getting cold feet.
Iñigo stared at the campfire, pondering for a moment, then finally stomped the Puffshroom on the ground into mush.
"We've come this far—let's keep going. This walking mushroom is just a bit strange, but doesn't pose much threat."
Going back now would probably make those people who knew him laugh themselves to death, though just in case, he added:
"If we do discover real danger, it won't be too late to retreat. Even if we can't win, surely we can still run away?"
Iñigo's confidence wasn't unfounded. As felines among the beastmen, both he and Miro possessed speed-related skills.
Even if there was danger, if they couldn't escape while running at full power, that would be too strange.
This was still only the fifth floor, after all.
Miro didn't see any problem with this reasoning and nodded in agreement.
Having rested enough by now, the two extinguished the fire and entered the fifth floor.
---
"Speaking of which, was the fifth floor always this dark?"
Looking around, only some mushrooms glowed with ghostly light—not a single glowgrass could be seen.
"Probably not..."
Fortunately, both had night vision, so the darkness didn't affect them much.
According to the quest requirements, they needed to investigate the entire floor, with special emphasis on checking the swamp area.
Iñigo decided to start with the other three areas first. This way they could roughly judge the quest's difficulty before deciding whether to enter the swamp.
However, after half a day of questing, both their expressions had grown strange.
They'd already been to the caverns and poison fog swamp, yet hadn't seen a single Puffshroom.
If not for spotting one slime along the way, Iñigo would have suspected this floor had been completely cleared...
---
What are these two beastmen up to?
Not only did they catch his Puffshroom red-handed while it was sneaking up to the fourth floor, now they were wandering around like they were window shopping.
Lin Jun had, as usual, preemptively moved all the Puffshrooms away to avoid encounters with these high-level adventurers.
But looking at the current situation, could they be coming for him?
Under Lin Jun's surveillance, after leaving the caverns, the two hadn't gone to the forest as he'd expected, but headed straight for the swamp.
Tsk, troublesome.
Now he had no choice but to intercept them. The swamp area was his bottom line.
---
A mushroom cannon blast landed in front of the two beastmen, splashing filthy water all over them.
Iñigo looked at the ten Puffshrooms that had appeared before them. After one attack, there was temporarily no follow-up.
Could this mean... intimidation?
Were these mushrooms' intelligence levels a bit too high?
Iñigo glanced at Miro and found him looking back, waiting for his decision.
These walking mushrooms' attacks were indeed quite powerful—even they would be injured if hit.
But if the attacks missed, they'd be meaningless.
A mere ten walking mushrooms...
Iñigo gave his companion a meaningful look. The leopard-man understood.
The next second, both simultaneously activated speed enhancement skills, charging forward together from left and right flanks.
The Puffshrooms reacted swiftly, launching attacks the moment they moved.
But the two beastmen lowered their stances and nimbly dodged several mushroom cannons.
Soon Iñigo and Miro had charged into the Puffshroom formation.
Miro was a primitive strength worshipper, using his leopard claws to successively tear apart several Puffshrooms.
Iñigo drew a blood-red long blade from his back, even able to directly cleave through incoming magic projectiles from the mushroom cannons.
The ten Puffshrooms were quickly slaughtered completely.
Miro habitually wanted to lick his claws, then suddenly remembered he'd killed Puffshrooms—there was no blood on his claws, only filthy water. He pulled his tongue back in time.
"Worthy of an A-rank quest—these walking mushrooms actually have organization and can coordinate."
"Still just a bunch of mushrooms in the end."
Iñigo sheathed his blade and prepared to continue deeper into the swamp, but stopped after taking just one step.
"Miro, don't you feel like it's gotten brighter around here?"
"Now that you mention it, indeed..."
The two looked around. At the edges of their vision, faint lights connected into a continuous glow, growing brighter and closer...
Iñigo and Miro's expressions had completely darkened.
Puffshrooms. Countless glowing Puffshrooms had surrounded them.
Miro swallowed hard: "How... how many are there?"
"Three hundred? Five hundred? Or more?" Iñigo took a deep breath and drew his blood-red blade once again. "Can't count them all, but prepare to break through..."
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