Mushroom Lord in the Underground City-Chapter 254 - 246: The Real Culprit

The undeniable facts have firmly secured the Guild’s moral high ground, and even the most unwilling speculators can only accept it.

Perhaps a few hopeful individuals might still try to stealthily harvest mushrooms outside the management’s view, but that’s now the patrol guards’ duty.

Beside a newly defined mushroom field boundary, Fa’er, Inanna, and others paused to observe.

Inanna gently shook the Knight Puki in her arms over the fungal mat beneath her. This time, only a few scattered small mushrooms sprouted from the mat, appearing sparse and weak.

"Sure enough, it’s impossible to infinitely stimulate growth..." Fa’er witnessed this scene with a look of "just as expected," which aligned even more with his understanding of the world.

After all, this was the third attempt on the same fungal mat. If mushrooms could continually emerge, that would indeed overturn his common sense.

It seems Miss Inanna, with the aid of Knight Puki, can achieve an astonishing effect similar to large-scale natural magic on the fungal mat.

However, the cost is akin to natural magic, as it preemptively exhausts the nutrients and magic power embedded within the mat, causing it to sink into prolonged wilting afterward.

Yet, unlike ordinary plants, the fungal mat’s recovery speed is much faster. Nonetheless, this is ultimately an emergency measure rather than a long-term solution.

One can’t truly rely on Miss Inanna to run around with her knight every day and resolve the frightening food crisis.

"Miss Inanna, we’re indebted to your assistance this time," Fa’er solemnly bowed to Inanna, "whether it was consolidating management rights or persuading those unreasonable adventurers."

Inanna glanced at the four guards sent by Eric, discreetly approached Fa’er, and whispered, "Then in the report sent to the Duke’s Mansion, make sure you detail! The necessity of my staying here!"

Fa’er gave her a somewhat surprised look and immediately understood: it seemed this Duke’s Daughter wanted to seize the chance to play outside a bit longer.

Fa’er naturally couldn’t offend Inanna, and he nodded in agreement.

For the first time, Inanna smiled at him: "Also, I don’t want to live inside the Guild."

"I’ll immediately arrange for someone to build your accommodation," Fa’er replied smoothly, "What specific requirements do you have, Miss?"

What Inanna wanted most was to live directly in the Mushroom House, where the soft surroundings fit closely to the body and is simply her ideal residence. Alas, this is above ground, she could only make do...

They had already started discussing whether to stay in the Guild or nearby because not long ago, the team Fa’er sent to explore the condition of the Underground City had returned and brought surprising news—the situation had begun to improve!

Although the condition of the first layer was still relatively poor, the rifts were fewer as they went deeper, and it was continuously self-repairing!

This made Fa’er both happy and pained.

The stabilization of the Underground City, long-term, was undoubtedly good news for him and the Guild, meaning a continuous stream of resource output, let alone the added mushrooms now.

However, short-term...the erroneous prejudgment caused him consecutive setbacks.

The overpriced accumulation of mid to low-tier materials resulted in massive losses, and the decision to relocate refugees further emptied his treasury.

This series of "brilliant operations" left both the Dumb Wind Town branch and Fa’er himself greatly diminished in vitality!

And the source of all these erroneous judgments pointed to one person—the so-called Array Master, Guge!

"This charlatan in name only!" In the Guild Head’s office, having just managed to clear visible fungal threads, Fa’er was angrily writing a report to be sent to the headquarters.

In the report, he denounced Guge for being unworthy of his position, none of the critical information he provided was accurate, causing the Guild significant losses, and his conduct was simply unforgivable!

He once again strongly requested that the headquarters dispatch a genuine expert group to conduct an authoritative assessment of the Underground City’s current state, and emphatically stated to remove the impostor master, Guge!

...

As the most concerning news to local adventurers, the miracle of the Underground City successfully self-repairing from the brink of collapse spread like wildfire among the crowd.

Adventurers who were previously complaining about the Duke’s family and the Guild, upon hearing this news, immediately threw aside their grudges and rushed to the Underground City, packing their gear.

However, what awaited them was not wealth within easy reach but a solid thump of reality!

This period lacking frequent human activity led to a surge in the number of demons within the Underground City, making the danger levels far exceed those of the past.

To make matters worse, after the "great exchange" instigated by the rifts, every layer was flooded with numerous demon "exchange students."

The second layer had poisonous mosquitoes, the third layer gold coin bugs, and even the fifth layer wandered with poisonous lizards and shell worms that shouldn’t have appeared...

Faced with these unfamiliar and fierce demons, the adventurers who were completely unprepared immediately tasted the bitterness of inadequate information.

The luckier ones made a hasty retreat in disarray, while teams with poor fortune silently perished in a corner of the Underground City, with only those diligent Pukis left to retrieve their bodies.

The new challenges filtered out a large number of mediocre teams. Now, only adventurers with genuine strength and seasoned experience were qualified to continue exploring amid unknown threats.

Among this batch of adventurers, however, was a team that stood out, quickly advancing to the lower layers without paying any attention to the valuable materials along the way.

Leading them was a Swordsman, accompanied by a Hunter and a Mage, united by the common point of owing a great debt of gratitude to "the good old" Vera...

Unlike other wealth-seeking adventurers, they were here to find Vera and her group.

The last sighting information of Vera and others was entering Dumb Wind Town, before the mushroom harvesting frenzy fully took off.

But since then, Vera and her group seemed to disappear without a trace.

The Swordsman who noticed Vera’s disappearance searched both Dumb Wind Town and the surrounding forests while inquiring with adventurers but found nothing.

Considering his understanding of Vera, she would likely not abandon the refugees to live carefree in another city, making her disappearance very strange.

After much thought, it seemed very likely they had entered the Underground City—though he couldn’t fathom why they would do so at that particular moment.

Thus, as soon as news of the Underground City’s recovery spread, the Swordsman promptly contacted the other two, forming this temporary search team. Their primary target was the fifth and sixth layers.

First, they would search for clues on the sixth layer where Vera often went, and if they found nothing, they’d return to the fifth layer for a Puki lottery.

The reason for a lottery? It’s well known that Pukis dissemble adventurer corpses and take their equipment, so if they find objects that represent Vera’s group, they would have to accept the fact that Vera had perished in the Underground City.

However, when they descended to the sixth layer, they discovered Vera and others happily sitting around a Drilling Puki, blissfully sipping delicious mushroom soup...