At the entrance to the fifth floor, the mage stumbled into the stairway area.
He looked absolutely wretched now.
Wearing nothing but underwear, his robes and hat nowhere to be seen, his staff and even the two equipment rings on his hands had all vanished without a trace.
The moment he entered, he collapsed to his knees in despair.
"To think..."
"To think I got robbed by puffshrooms!!!"
When the conflict broke out at the cave, only he, standing at the very back, had seen it—a faint glimmer that flashed briefly at the woman's sleeve.
In that instant, he connected it to Ginny's earlier strange behavior.
But the battle had already begun. Even if he jumped out now to voice his suspicions, who would believe him?
Would those temporary teammates who'd been played around in circles believe him?
Or would that group of completely unknown adventurers on the other side believe him?
More crucially, he saw Ginny turn and smile at him.
Without much hesitation, he quickly made his decision—sell them out!
After all, they were just temporary teammates. A few days of camaraderie wasn't worth risking his neck over.
Besides, it was those fools' own fault for getting bewitched by a woman.
Up to this point, the mage felt his choice was perfectly justified.
The mistake was being too hasty in his escape, not thinking to grab one of the monster corpses Wells was carrying before running.
As a result, he got blocked by a group of puffshrooms who wouldn't let him pass.
He tried to force his way through, barely managing to kill two before getting wrapped up by tentacles.
He knew these puffshrooms weren't weak, but he hadn't expected them to be this formidable. At the time, he thought he was done for.
Unexpectedly, the puffshrooms showed great magnanimity, merely stripping him naked before letting him go.
It was really...
"Damn it! Waaah..."
What the mage didn't know was that he was already considered lucky.
————
Ralph's screams from not far away didn't last long before falling silent.
Though Wells had no good impression of this captain due to their journey's events, thinking of his current predicament, it was hard not to feel the sorrow of the rabbit at the fox's death.
Before long, a figure pushed through the mushrooms and walked over, silhouetted against the bioluminescent glow.
"Ginny?"
Ginny glanced at him and smiled apologetically:
"You're awake? Was it Ralph's screaming?
Sorry, I'm actually not very good at sleep spells. I didn't expect him to wake up halfway through.
Don't worry, I'll cast another sleep spell on you in a bit. I guarantee it'll be painless."
With that, Ginny struggled to drag the bound Wells outside. Due to her insufficient strength, sweat beaded on her forehead.
Wells felt his mind couldn't fully comprehend what Ginny was saying.
He only felt that the current Ginny was very different from the one in his memory.
Gone was that sweet smile, replaced by something... sincere?
Wells didn't know why he had this feeling.
But one thing he understood clearly—he was probably about to be killed.
As Wells was dragged out, he saw Ralph and their dwarf teammate.
Neither had any bloodstains on them, just lying peacefully on the ground with faces of tranquility, their chests showing not even the slightest rise and fall.
Wells wanted to struggle, but he had no strength left in his body. Moreover, he was still bound, so he could only try to beg for mercy.
"Gi... Ginny, we have no grudges between us, please let me go!
I swear I won't say anything about this, and I can even help you testify that those two died from monster attacks!
You don't need to kill me. I have savings in the Adventurer's Guild that I can give you entirely!
I... I..."
Wells couldn't continue speaking because he discovered Ginny showed no sign of wavering, merely dragging him silently toward an unknown ritual circle ahead.
"Cult... cultist?"
Placing Wells on the ritual circle, Ginny proceeded to replace the eight cracked magic crystal fragments around the perimeter with new ones.
Then she gently lifted Wells from behind, letting him lean against her embrace.
Wells's head sank into softness, but he couldn't muster any interest now.
Despair and terror made him curse wildly.
Ginny paid no heed, merely raising a small bell before Wells and gently shaking it.
As if truly seeing ripples layer upon layer, despite Wells's unwillingness, his eyelids gradually drooped.
Before losing consciousness, Wells heard Ginny's soft murmur like a bedtime story:
"Silver radiance purifies soul and bones, ritual forms the path of return. Worry not, fear not, Nevriela shall embrace you as you shed the shackles of the mortal world..."
Wells fell into deep sleep. The ritual circle lit up with silver light under Ginny's manipulation, the surrounding magic crystals shattering one by one.
Lin Jun, who had been observing them all along, witnessed this miraculous scene for the third time.
On Wells's status panel, skills disappeared one after another, as if someone was using backspace to erase them.
When the last skill vanished, Wells, who had been at full health, simply had his panel disappear.
Or rather, he just died.
After completing everything, Ginny kissed Wells's peaceful forehead, then dragged him aside as well.
She bent down to clean up all traces of the ritual thoroughly.
Afterward, she simply left directly, taking not a single item from the three men's belongings.
After she departed, several puffshrooms emerged from the mushroom forest.
They collected all these unwanted items—the three men's complete sets of equipment, a pile of monster corpses from the cave that hadn't been exchanged yet, and a dog that had died from blood loss.
They hadn't understood what that woman had been muttering about.
But the entire ritual looked quite legitimate.
So... had these people's skills really been erased?
Driven by curiosity, not caring about wasting magic power, Lin Jun directly controlled the mycelium to accelerate decomposition of the bodies.
【Seven Sins: Greed Triggered】
【Skill Plundered: Human Common Language LV2→LV3】
【Skill Plundered: Bite LV5→LV6】
Hm?
Bite?
Oh, the dog's corpse was mixed in there too...
Other than that, nothing else.
The skills had really been deleted!
This was outrageous!
This was no ordinary evil ritual anymore!
From now on, that woman was banned from the fifth floor!
But this world really was full of strange and mysterious things.
After stuffing the recovered A-grade magic crystals back into Fatty's belly, Lin Jun went to find the puffshroom that had sealed the little yellow book.
The puffshroom had completely petrified, but a thin crack remained on the outside.
At Lin Jun's command, the little yellow book was spat out from the crack.
Finally seeing daylight again, it immediately began showing loyalty.
[You finally let me out!]
[I can definitely definitely help you!]
[Please don't lock me up again, it was so dark]
Hmm...
It felt like he could understand one or two more characters?
He wasn't entirely certain. He'd check again when he reached LV4.
[???]
After testing his reading ability, Lin Jun stuffed the little yellow book back through the crack.
What came next was the real important matter.
...
In the mushroom forest, Little Black was playing stomp-the-mushroom.
Jumping up, kicking a mushroom tree to break it, then stomping it to pieces from head to tail with her feet.
Watching made Lin Jun twitch—this was the third one today...
"Little Black, want to go out and play?"
"Yes!"
Hearing she could finally go out, Little Black immediately stopped.
Her two feet covered in black scales excitedly trampled back and forth, crushing the mushrooms on the ground even more thoroughly.
"Go sleep first. When you wake up, I'll let you go out."
Hearing she still had to sleep first, the scales on Little Black's face immediately scrunched into a ball.
Only after Lin Jun's repeated assurances was she finally coaxed back.
Hallucinogenic spores continuously poured in. Only after giving her 14 times Delan's dose did the status of hallucinogenic coma appear on Little Black's panel.
After ensuring she wouldn't suddenly jump up and thrash around, Lin Jun began mobilizing the energy stored in the mycelium throughout the entire fifth floor.
If someone activated mana perception now, they would see mana disappearing from the fungal carpet across the entire fifth floor like a receding tide, continuously gathering in the mushroom forest.
Installing 【Mimicry LV4】 on Little Black would consume far more than Delan's procedure had...
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