"They're here! The magical beasts have appeared!"
The voice, filled with fear mixed with excitement, caused all the mercenaries leaning against the shadowed stone walls to simultaneously straighten their spines. Metal armor plates clinked discordantly as they turned sharply in unison.
Everyone's attention focused on what lay beyond the great gate.
Vera also tightened his grip on his weapon—a very ordinary curved blade.
His fine steel scimitar had been lost during that raider incident, so now he could only make do with this common iron piece.
Thanks to the generous compensation offered by the Adventurer's Guild and their comprehensive recruitment of assistants, even before any fighting began, they could earn a considerable daily wage.
That's why both he and the Phiyin sisters had come.
Although some adventurers painted the magical tide as terrifyingly as possible, with so many adventurers gathered here, surely they couldn't fail, right?
All they needed to focus on was trying not to get injured in the fighting.
They just hadn't expected that after only one day of guard duty, the magical tide would already be coming!
Vera and the surrounding adventurers all held their breath, adjusting themselves to optimal condition.
Several adventurers carrying bows and crossbows crept up to the gaps in the gate, aiming inside, ready to unleash the first volley at any moment.
And then they waited for ten minutes.
The adventurers looked at each other, and finally all turned to stare at the fellow who had first shouted "magical beasts have appeared."
"No... that's not right, there really were magical beasts that appeared..."
The man wiped cold sweat from his forehead and peered through the gap once more.
There was still only that corpse of a Puffshroom [mushroom creature], and as for other magical beasts, not even a shadow could be seen.
Finally, Marshall stepped forward to confirm the situation and reassured everyone:
"There really was a Walking Mushroom that wandered up to the gate, which shows that the dungeon's 'rules' have weakened.
But the main force of magical beasts probably hasn't arrived yet—it was just a Walking Mushroom from the first floor that happened to wander over.
Let's stand down for now. I'll keep watch here."
Marshall also breathed a sigh of relief. The guild had predicted earlier that the magical tide probably wouldn't erupt for another three to four days.
Support from neighboring cities would also take several days to arrive.
Gathering adventurers to guard the gate now was just a precautionary measure.
He had thought that this "just in case" scenario had actually come to pass.
Hearing Marshall's words, everyone put away their weapons, with complaints rising from all quarters.
Beside Vera, Philing and Phiyin also relaxed.
After all, this was the legendary magical tide—it would be a lie to say they weren't nervous.
However, from the very beginning, Vera had been staring at an unfamiliar adventurer.
The curved blade at that person's waist... why did it look so familiar...
---
Another magical power fluctuation transmitted from below into the mushroom garden.
They'd been getting more and more frequent lately, as if announcing that the magical tide was approaching.
Lin Jun, now aware of the situation, had already begun actively arranging defenses.
Although the magical tide seemed quite dangerous, he also had multiple backup plans.
The best-case scenario would naturally be that he was also considered part of the magical tide, then he could mix in with the magical tide's forces and charge upward.
While the other magical beasts fought with humans, he'd be responsible for providing free corpse collection services to both sides.
However, this situation was overly idealistic—he couldn't really pin his hopes on it.
Another possibility was that the magical tide would attack him as well, in which case he'd have no choice but to fight back to protect his mushroom garden.
Fortunately, there were only two staircases between the fifth and sixth floors, so the defensive pressure wasn't too great.
Put simply, it was a tower defense game, and his Puffshroom's specialty mushroom cannons were perfect for this type of scenario.
Combined with some Puffshroom that could spray adhesive slime, poison mist, and self-destruct functions.
Even if the werewolves from the tenth floor collectively charged upward, he was confident he could annihilate them all in the stairways.
As for the connection point between the fourth and fifth floors, he'd just station a small number of Puffshroom there to block it.
First, the magical beasts probably wouldn't charge downward in reverse, and second, even if those low-level magical beasts wanted to come, ten or so Puffshroom would be more than enough to handle them.
What Lin Jun really feared were those overpowered individuals from the deep zones.
If a Flame Demon-level magical beast came, or even something stronger!
Lin Jun had no confidence he could stop it.
Fortunately, Lin Jun still had a backup plan!
His main body would pilot the Knight and hide in the depths of the cave beforehand. If things went badly, he'd blow up the entrance.
He didn't believe those magical beasts would dig holes to get in just to gnaw on his mushrooms!
Though digging back out afterward would be somewhat troublesome.
For this purpose, Lin Jun had specially prepared several Puffshroom with [Rock Eating LV3].
The old bat's former cave served as his escape route, packed full of most of Lin Jun's possessions.
This included equipment and items left behind by adventurers, parasitic tree seeds, valuable materials taken from magical beasts, and a small pile of gold coins.
At first glance, it looked like a miniature dragon's hoard.
Additionally, he had prepared 20 Puffshroom filled with magical power, purely to serve as batteries.
Even if the entire cave accidentally collapsed completely, he could persist until he dug his way out!
*Sigh—*
Whenever he had to prepare escape routes for himself, Lin Jun would inevitably think of that figure who had unfurled a scroll before him and vanished without a trace.
It was a pity that when he asked Dylan, he learned this world had no such thing as teleportation scrolls.
The only method of teleportation was through complex ritual magic circles—a single scroll simply couldn't support teleportation magic.
The scroll that person had used wasn't a teleportation scroll either, but rather an Escape Scroll that could be found in dungeon treasure chests.
The principle was to use the dungeon's own rule-based power to directly eject the user.
This type of scroll had low production but wasn't particularly expensive.
The reason was that this ejection only guaranteed the user would leave the dungeon's range—where exactly they'd be ejected to was completely random.
Safe ejection was a low-probability event; appearing underground or in mid-air was the normal outcome.
Without some special survival skills, using this scroll was no different from seeking death.
Even so, if he could get his hands on one, it would still be worth gambling with when backed into a corner.
With the abilities the Knight possessed, the chances of survival really weren't that small.
---
With Lin Jun's deployment, the Puffshroom were more or less ready.
The two staircases leading to the sixth floor each had no fewer than four hundred Puffshroom of various types stationed there.
The staircases connecting to the upper level had thirty Puffshroom assigned to each.
His main body and the Knight, along with about fifty Puffshroom, remained in the cave as the final insurance.
Now he just needed to recall the hundred or so that had been exploring downward—these Puffshroom had just entered the stairway leading to the fifth floor.
Another wave of magical power fluctuations arrived, and Lin Jun was almost getting used to them.
However, this tremor seemed different from the previous ones—it was lasting quite a long time?
Still not finished...
Wasn't this a bit too long?
Not only that, but as time progressed, the tremor didn't weaken—instead, it grew stronger and stronger!
Finally, it formed a tsunami-like magical power surge that left Lin Jun dizzy and disoriented.
What the hell?
Had the magical tide already begun?
...
When the surge finally subsided, Lin Jun discovered something was wrong.
Those hundred or so Puffshroom that had just been climbing the stairs—they'd all lost contact?
The original staircase no longer existed, replaced by... an ever-expanding pitch-black fissure!
Faint beast roars could be heard from within.
This was the magical tide?
It seemed a tiny bit different from what he'd imagined?
More critically, it wasn't just this one staircase that had changed—the other one that only had thirty Puffshroom guarding it, the staircase leading to the fourth floor, had also transformed into the same type of fissure!
This wasn't playing fair at all!
Before Lin Jun could panic, a head covered in hexagonal scales and resembling a giant lizard emerged from the fissure.
The creature's vertically narrow, blazing golden pupils shifted slightly, scanning over all the Puffshroom present...
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