At the westernmost edge of the archipelago lay Giant Horn Island.
This medium-sized island had once been renowned throughout the archipelago's golden age for hunting giant horn whales.
Now, however, it had been completely abandoned. Not a single resident remained on the entire island, leaving only gradually decaying buildings whose paint peeled away in the briny sea winds.
The reason for Giant Horn Island's abandonment was simple, the same as countless other forsaken islands—the mist had spread here.
At this moment, gray fog only occupied the northeastern reef flats, but all nautical charts had already marked this island as a pending cancellation zone. The disappearance of the name "Giant Horn Island" was merely a matter of time.
That time might be three years, perhaps three months, or maybe three days hence.
The mist's expansion never followed tidal patterns; its boundaries perpetually wavered between substance and void.
However, at this time, Giant Horn Island rarely saw the appearance of a group of outsiders.
In the western fir forest, a hunched figure gripping a rotting hoe handle was mechanically swinging its arms.
Gray-white skin wrapped around a skeletal frame, clouded eyeballs suspended in sunken sockets, moving toward the forest's edge with an inhuman gait.
A cold gleam flashed across the sky. An arrow like a silver serpent pierced through its forehead, carrying bone fragments and putrid fluid as it emerged from the back of the skull—a single killing blow.
**[Level Up LV6→LV7]**
**[Skill Upgrade: Archery LV2→LV3]**
Atop the watchtower beside the lord's mansion, the highest structure on the entire island.
The tall, blonde woman lowered her longbow "Moonlight's Radiance" and removed the strength gauntlets from both hands, flexing her wrists that had grown somewhat sore from continuous archery.
Her constantly shifting geometric pupils gradually returned to a normal human appearance.
Taking advantage of the rest, she asked the middle-aged man in religious vestments beside her:
"Samuel... Priest, could you explain these... mm... I still don't quite understand."
"Lady Sophia, please just call me Samuel."
The priest's dignified expression carried solemn gravity, showing not the slightest contempt despite the weakness and ignorance of the person before him.
He bowed slightly, explaining in a respectful, lowered voice:
"These are all lost souls who have wandered astray in the mist. They are no longer the people they once were, merely flesh puppets driven by the mist, devoid of knowledge or sensation.
Please feel no burden in your heart when shooting them.
But also, do not underestimate the mist because these lost souls are weak—this is merely an extremely small portion that has leaked out during its dormant period."
Sophia nodded with seeming comprehension.
At this moment, a fully armored guard climbed the stairs, carrying a steaming hot lunch in his hands, accompanied by a bottle of costly mid-tier stamina potion.
The guard approached the two, knelt on one knee, and raised the tray above his head: "Lady Sophia, please dine."
Though this wasn't the first time, Sophia still felt somewhat uncomfortable with these people's reverence.
She reached out to take the tray and sat aside to eat by herself—the others would not dine with her, as they seemed to consider that disrespectful to her...
While Sophia ate, Samuel asked the guard: "How is the mist situation?"
"Quite stable. It won't enter an active phase in the short term."
Samuel nodded. That was good.
He looked at Sophia, who had already eaten all the food clean and was now guzzling the stamina potion.
He silently calculated the time period needed for this lady to advance to level 20—only by reaching the appropriate rank could they select more suitable trial areas for subsequent operations.
Until humanity's hope possessed the ability to protect herself, he and the 40 guards stationed in Giant Horn Island's lord's mansion would guard her with their lives.
---
*Puff puff—*
*Puff puff—*
Forty puffshrooms stepped onto the sixth floor's ground.
Lin Jun, discovering he was temporarily unrestrained, naturally wouldn't continue choosing patience.
Having long coveted the sixth floor's ecological environment, it was now time to formally claim it as his own.
Not to mention anything else, the flower demons' skill of producing paralytic fluid was quite enticing.
Of course, domesticating flower demons and such were the final steps.
The first step was naturally to lay down fungal carpet, and to lay fungal carpet, he first had to clear out the slimes!
This floor had way too many slimes.
There were two types: red neurotoxin slimes and green viscous slimes.
These 40 puffshrooms, as the advance guard, needed to first understand their distribution and where they easily spawned, laying groundwork for the subsequent main force's entry.
However, now a small unexpected situation seemed to have arisen—
A group of adventurers stood before the puffshroom advance guard that had just emerged from the stairway.
"Why... why are puffshrooms coming down?" one adventurer asked in disbelief, his eye twitching.
Previously, everyone had been tormented by that cross-floor giant black mushroom, and now even ordinary puffshrooms could come down in large batches?
What about the dungeon's rules?
None of them acted rashly. The fifth floor puffshrooms' notorious reputation was now known to all—whoever moved first would surely come to no good end.
"How about we throw a monster corpse to test?" someone suggested.
"Makes sense!"
Soon, a bee corpse about the same size as a puffshroom was thrown before the advance guard.
...
The advance guard "strode" forward, completely ignoring the bee corpse on the ground and directly stepped over it.
Seeing that they were blocking the way, the adventurers hurriedly retreated the way they came—at worst, they'd take another passage up.
However, in their haste, the priest somehow stepped on someone's foot and stumbled.
"Don't leave me behind!"
The priest girl's tearful voice made her companions, who had already run a dozen steps, notice her plight.
"Damn it! Get up quick, I'll cover you!" The bow-wielding ranger immediately wanted to use arrows to block the puffshroom advance guard, buying the priest time, but was stopped by the other two.
"Are you brain-dead?!"
"Don't provoke the puffshrooms!"
"But... but..." What his teammates said made sense, but seeing the puffshrooms had already reached behind the priest...
"Ahh—!" The priest's scream made the ranger's heart lurch violently.
The puffshrooms walked as if no one was there, stepping on the priest and quickly burying her figure.
The three companions could only listen heartbroken from afar to the priest's screams:
"Ahh—ahh—oh... oh... mm... oh... mm..."
The rhythmic "screaming" continued, but the priest's voice sounded quite vigorous, not like someone in trouble.
???
Only after the puffshrooms had walked away did the three run back from the distance, seeing the priest with her back covered in round, plump black footprints.
The ranger helped lift her head: "Are you alright?"
"It was... quite comfortable actually..."
The priest blinked her eyes somewhat dazedly, her chest rising and falling still carrying traces of having barely escaped death, yet also seeming somewhat unsatisfied.
The group exchanged strange glances, pulled the priest up, and checked her over from top to bottom—she indeed wasn't injured.
Not lingering long, the four picked up the bee corpse the puffshrooms hadn't wanted and headed toward the surface—they had new bragging material!
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