[Give me a chance, I'll be honest!]
[Don't lock me in the dark room, please!]
Amidst the yellow book's—or rather, the Holy Scripture's—pleading, a specially-made self-destructing puffshroom swallowed it into its belly.
The puffshroom then ran all the way to the deepest part of the mushroom forest, beneath the rocky cliff face, and began using its [Rock Eating] skill to create rock armor. It would eventually transform into an inconspicuous stone stump, sustained by the fungal mat beneath, temporarily sealing away the book.
Though the book was evil, its functions were quite powerful.
After Lin Jun and his two companions interrogated it together, they figured out its general capabilities.
It absorbed the souls of the dead to strengthen the holder's basic attributes, just as Dylan had experienced. Of course, there were limitations—excessive use would make one's soul become chaotic, eventually driving them insane.
Besides this core function, it also possessed considerable reconnaissance abilities. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been able to help Dylan locate that bear's cave.
It also had the power to stir up certain emotions, like suddenly filling your heart with rage. This trick worked well on instinct-driven magical beasts, but was weaker against intelligent beings.
Not to mention it could also charm others through text.
Honestly, this kind of "charm" was far different from what Lin Jun had imagined...
As for why it was called the Holy Scripture, and why it didn't want to be obtained by the demon race?
According to its explanation, it didn't know why the demon race called it that, and although the demons spoke respectfully, they would take it back and lock it in a dark room.
Lin Jun thought the demon race's approach was perfectly reasonable—such a dangerous book would be troublesome even for demons to handle.
In the end, Lin Jun sealing it away was also a helpless measure.
Though it had self-awareness, it belonged to magical equipment, so Lin Jun couldn't see its status panel. Much of the information it provided couldn't be verified for truth or falsehood. Moreover, regarding the most crucial questions about its origins and purpose, when asked it would just say it didn't know, claiming it naturally loved souls.
Even after Little Black tore out two more pages, it didn't change its story.
All in all, it was quite a dangerous thing. To use it properly, one would need to understand at least one language.
Yes, this book was also a language master, knowing almost everything—Elven, Dwarven, Human Common, Demonic, Orcish dialects, and more.
Unfortunately, Lin Jun couldn't speak any of them.
The book definitely couldn't be given to Dylan to use. If given to Dylan, who knows who would end up using whom.
If it charmed Dylan and then ran off with him, fleeing far from the Amethyst Underground City, Lin Jun would have absolutely no way to deal with it.
So until he mastered Human Common, it would have to stay in the dark room first.
On another note, Dylan brought back news about Inanna.
Supposedly, after the Duke's daughter was rescued, she had been staying secluded, rarely leaving the Duke's mansion.
This was actually good news for Lin Jun—he was afraid Inanna would be running around everywhere, making her impossible to find.
Later, he could try writing a letter or using other methods to contact her, asking her to help search the Relic Association for knowledge related to underground cities.
Lin Jun had already thought of the payment—that smaller S-rank magic crystal.
But this matter wasn't urgent. It would be fine to handle it after Dylan rested for a while.
Dylan had really suffered this time. First, he didn't have enough gold coins, drinking magic potions bit by bit, constantly in a state of hunger. Later, he was hunted by demons, and then nearly had his brain scrambled by that damned yellow book.
It was truly remarkable that he could return alive.
Lin Jun could only give him a little vacation, hoping the mushroom cottage could properly relieve his fatigue. For this purpose, he even specially prepared some of Dylan's favorite special nutrition.
However, before letting him rest, Lin Jun had him help with a small favor.
---
At the entrance to the fifth floor.
Wells and his four teammates looked with strange expressions at the sign someone had erected in front of them.
[Fifth Floor Rules]
- [Do not actively attack anything]
- [Monster corpses can divert blocking puffshrooms for up to ten minutes]
- [Do not leave the glowing mushroom path—there are more blocking puffshrooms in the darkness]
- [Following the small path along the mushroom forest edge, you can find fat puffshrooms and trade with them using monster corpses]
- [Gray mushrooms are edible]
- [Do not enter the mushroom forest or the swamp area]
- [You may excavate in the cave areas, but don't pick up magic crystals knocked down by puffshrooms]
- [The poison in Poison Lake is really, really potent]
- [If you see a completely black winged humanoid creature, immediately flee back the way you came]
"What the hell is this?" Wells pointed at the wooden sign, asking his companions for their opinions.
"A guide left by other adventurers?"
"Looking at the second rule, it seems like an upgraded version of the pre-magic surge strategy? But what's this mushroom forest?"
"The dungeon just reopened, and someone explored it this quickly? I think this information is more than just a little suspicious."
"Yeah, and who would be so kind as to provide a free guide, even setting up a sign here? Most likely it's a trap or someone's sick joke."
"But what if it's real?"
"If it's real, I'll come back and eat this sign!"
The dwarven crossbow archer and human mage in the group seemed to have a slight disagreement.
The captain scratched his chin, looking like he hadn't made up his mind either.
Temporary teams were like this—lacking coordination, easily falling into disputes.
"What do you think?"
Wells poked the team's priest, Ginny, wanting to see her opinion.
"Eep!"
The sudden high-pitched sound made everyone look over in unison.
"Don't suddenly poke me, Wells." Ginny pursed her lips, softly reproaching him.
Faced with everyone's stares, Wells could only laugh awkwardly twice. He'd only poked her shoulder, not her waist...
Fortunately, Ginny only complained once before bringing the topic back.
"I think that for a sign like this to appear right when the dungeon reopens, the credibility really isn't high. How about we just pretend this sign doesn't exist? We'll explore however we were planning to explore, and deal with problems when we encounter them. Don't worry, if anyone gets hurt by accident, I'll take responsibility for healing them!"
She even raised the holy bell and staff in her hands, her sunny smile easing several people's concerns.
The captain timely said, "I think that works."
Wells and the dwarf naturally had no objections either.
Only the other human mage didn't quite agree, but since his teammates had all agreed, he had no choice.
So the group decided to proceed with their original plan, first exploring the forest area to see how much had changed after the magic surge.
---
*Sigh...*
Another group that wouldn't listen to advice.
The wooden sign was naturally erected by Lin Jun, but he hadn't expected adventurers to be so paranoid.
This was already the third team to ignore the rules.
Directly killing them wasn't necessary, but he'd definitely need to find a way to teach them a lesson later, to make them learn to follow the rules.
Thinking this, Lin Jun casually glanced at this group's configuration.
Hmm... a bunch of people around LV30...
[Name: Ginny Allison]
[Race: Human]
[Level: LV42]
[Title: Human Killer (Damage against humans increased by 10%)]
???
Was this just adventurers' daily routine?
It seemed he needed to be even more paranoid...
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