The next morning.
"Four intermediate healing potions, three basic mana potions, three bottles of universal antidote. Everything's here, please take care, customer."
The shop clerk pushed the oil-paper wrapped potion box across the counter. Vera carefully received it and tucked it away.
Fei Ling had gone to buy food and small items like flint. Fei Yin said she needed to prepare some medicinal powders and should be about finished by the time he returned.
Pushing open the wooden door of the shop, just as Vera was preparing to head back, a thug-like fellow actively approached him.
"Hey there, young man, haven't seen you around before?"
Vera's brows furrowed slightly as he stepped back two paces, trying to go around him.
Did he really look that easy to bully?
How could such a random guy just come up to him like this?
The thug, however, seemed oblivious to social cues and actually stepped forward two more paces, getting close to Vera's side.
Vera's hand was already resting on his curved blade. If this weren't within the town limits, he would have already drawn his weapon.
"Whoa, whoa, young man, I mean no harm."
The thug hastily indicated he posed no threat, while Vera simply stared at this annoying fellow, waiting for what came next.
"Ah, I just wanted to ask if you need some of Mute Wind Town's specialty products."
Specialty products?
It wasn't like Vera had never stayed in Mute Wind Town before.
If you had to mention specialties, everything in the dungeon could be considered specialty items, right?
But there wasn't anything particularly outstanding that could represent all of Mute Wind Town, was there?
It couldn't be referring to that already closed and out-of-business Rotten Willow Tavern's ale, could it?
Vera soon learned the answer.
The thug reached into his clothes, fumbled around for a moment, then pulled out a somewhat unclean-looking small pouch.
"Want some mushrooms?" he said, revealing the blue mushroom fragments inside the bag.
...
...
...
Mushrooms—mushrooms everywhere.
This was Vera's current impression of Mute Wind Town.
Yesterday's mushroom soup wasn't that restaurant's specialty. Now almost every eatery in Mute Wind Town had this "delicacy."
The reason was simple—it was cheap.
It required almost no cost. Anyone who took a lap around the first floor of the dungeon could easily gather large quantities of mushrooms.
This point became most directly apparent to the trio after they entered the dungeon.
The ground level was still acceptable—perhaps due to the constant foot traffic, it maintained its original appearance.
But the ceiling and wall crevices were completely overgrown with mycelium and glowing mushrooms.
From the first floor all the way to the fourth floor, it was the same. Wherever there were gaps or places where creatures couldn't easily step, there were definitely mycelium and mushrooms.
Not only the floors, but even the staircases connecting different levels were the same. Large patches of mycelium spread along the circular walls, as if connecting everything above and below into one mass.
However, this situation hadn't caused any trouble for the adventurers.
On the contrary, if you didn't mind drinking glowing porridge every day, you could enter the dungeon without preparing any food at all.
You just needed to be careful not to accidentally cook blue mushrooms in—all the mushrooms glowed, so those with poor eyesight might mix them up.
And blue mushrooms weren't completely useless either. Like that thug from before, they used blue mushrooms as cheap "sleeping powder."
If you had to say what inconvenience the mushrooms brought to the dungeon, it would probably be the disappearance of firefly grass.
At least that was true for the first five floors.
Without the warm orange glow of firefly grass that made people feel cozy, replaced by the mushroom fluorescence, the entire dungeon's eeriness level had increased by several notches!
The way it looked now, even if a few ghosts suddenly appeared, it wouldn't feel out of place at all.
Walking through the spiral passage leading to the fifth floor, the ghostly light of mushrooms illuminated the steps beneath their feet.
Fei Ling couldn't help but say, "This place should just be renamed the Mushroom Dungeon."
Fei Yin nodded in agreement: "All mushrooms, and puffshrooms too."
Along the way, they had already encountered two battles between puffshrooms and slimes, and had even picked up some spoils of war...
In the passage, when they reached the latter half, they heard noisy sounds coming from below.
At the bottom of the staircase, more than twenty adventurers were scattered around resting in small groups. Some had even made campfires, looking like they'd been there for quite some time.
The arrival of the three didn't draw much attention from the other adventurers. Several glances sized them up a few times before looking away.
"What are they doing?" Fei Ling asked quietly.
Vera shrugged. How would he know?
However, he noticed there was a sign posted at the exit.
Walking up to it.
"Fifth Floor Rules..."
This set of rules looked like an expanded version of the "strategy guide" he had obtained earlier.
The fact that the adventurers had tacitly allowed this sign to remain here rather than destroying it suggested the rules written on it should be correct.
Only the last line: "If you see a completely black, winged humanoid creature, immediately flee back the way you came."
Someone had scratched a mark through it, and in its place, carved in different handwriting in the blank space below: "Do not enter at night."
Don't enter at night?
Only then did Vera notice that almost all these adventurers carried moonstones.
But... calculating from when they entered the dungeon and their progress, it shouldn't be night yet, right?
It seemed he needed to find someone to ask.
Vera looked around and targeted a dwarf who was earnestly polishing his axe.
When he first approached, the dwarf still warily lifted his axe.
But when Vera explained his purpose and handed over a silver coin, the dwarf chatted with him like meeting a long-lost friend.
"So, everything written on that sign is true?" Vera asked, declining the bowl of mushroom soup the dwarf offered him.
The dwarf didn't mind, downing a gulp himself, leaving a large patch of fluorescence on his beard.
"Of course it's true. Don't know which kind-hearted adventurer put it up.
At first, some people didn't believe it. After getting stripped clean by the puffshrooms one by one, they learned their lesson."
Speaking of this, the dwarf seemed to recall that scene and chuckled quietly to himself.
Vera nodded and continued asking, "What about that last line? What danger is there on the fifth floor at night?"
The dwarf looked like he knew Vera would ask this, leaning close and lowering his voice: "It's the Great Black Mushroom!"
"Great Black Mushroom?"
"That's right! A person-tall black puffshroom with particularly thick scales!
Incredibly powerful—even Gold-rank adventurers can't defeat it. Every night it becomes active on the fifth and sixth floors.
You might not necessarily encounter it, but if you do, it might rob you!"
Vera's eyes widened in surprise: "It can move between two floors? Doesn't that mean it can enter the staircases?"
"I understand your shock," the dwarf patted Vera's shoulder—he'd been through this too. "But that's the reality. This is probably one of the aftereffects of the magic surge."
Aftereffects of the magic surge.
Adventurers attributed most of the current changes in the dungeon to these so-called aftereffects, including the mushrooms that had spread throughout the first five floors.
"You said it 'might' rob you—why 'might'?"
"That depends on whether you have anything shiny on you. Rings, magic crystals, glass beads—if it likes something, it'll take it.
So it's better to just not go out at night. If you don't encounter it, you're safe."
"Then why are you all resting here? It's not night yet, is it?" Vera asked his final question.
The dwarf chuckled and didn't hide anything: "Because we're here to subjugate it!"
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