Mushroom Lord in the Underground City-Chapter 256 - 248: Try This

"Why isn’t there a single person?" Horn tiptoed, clinging to the wooden doorframe of the Rotten Willow Tavern, peering into the dimly lit interior, and muttered in disappointment.

An adventurer passing by with luggage commented casually, "I heard everyone moved their belongings to Novid for refuge earlier. It might take three to five days to bring everything back."

"Bad luck!"

Horn could only look for another place to stay, but most inns in town were still busy cleaning the mycelium clinging to wooden structures, and the few that were cleaned were already packed.

"Tsk, could it be I really have to camp out in the open...?" Horn scratched his head, feeling a bit troubled.

Their team hit the "Puki lottery" big time back then, and each got quite a handful of gold coins.

Especially Ai Mei, with the expedition compensation, her worth easily exceeded a hundred gold coins.

Financially secure, when the guild announced that the Underground City was doomed, they decisively retreated to nearby cities, enjoying life while observing the situation.

Although they were teammates, each had their own life, so they temporarily parted ways.

Now, with the Underground City miraculously restored, according to the letter agreement, they were supposed to reunite in Dumb Wind Town. After wandering around the town, Horn seemed to have been the first to arrive.

Unable to find an inn, Horn had to wander outside the town, planning to find a shady spot to camp, yet the scene before him was unexpected.

All the land around Dumb Wind Town had been divided into mushroom fields. Among the furrows, guild personnel were leading recruited civilians, busy marking and managing areas, loudly explaining precautions.

In some mushroom fields, guild staff were holding notebooks, carefully watering one moment, and busily setting up simple awnings to block the excessive sunlight the next.

Out of curiosity, Horn approached a guild staff who was engrossed in recording. The person didn’t initiate conversation nor stopped him from looking.

Horn glanced at the densely recorded methods on the log for possibly improving mushroom yield, indicating some experiments were ongoing.

"Hey, I say," unable to resist, Horn pointed out the bottommost entry in the notebook with his finger, "You might want to try this method first."

"Feed the fungal mat with demon corpses?" The guild staff raised his head, looking at him skeptically, "Exchanging meat for mushrooms? How does that make any sense? Why do you say so?"

Horn shrugged, "Just a gut feeling, Pukis love dragging corpses away, don’t they? Besides, not all demon meat is edible..."

The guild staff touched his chin, pensive, "Hmm... Makes some sense..."

...

"Horn!" It didn’t take long for someone to call his name from afar.

"Ai Mei! Noah!" Horn immediately grinned, spreading his arms and enthusiastically lunged over, only to be blocked by the latter with a disdainful look.

Ai Mei glanced around, frowning slightly, "Where’s Old Hammer? Back yet?"

"Hah, we sure can’t wait for him this time!" Horn waved, his tone slightly gloating, "That guy got drunk and fought in the city, even punched the guards who came to intervene! That stingy dwarf wouldn’t pay the fine, so he’s chewing on prison food now, won’t come out for half a month at least."

"Heh, dwarf!" Ai Mei rolled her eyes dramatically, then stared at Horn, "How do you know so well?"

"What nonsense! Wasn’t I just drinking next to him back then!"

"Then why didn’t you stop him?" Ai Mei asked, hands on her hips.

"Me?" Horn exaggeratedly gestured at his not-so-brawny body, "Do I look like I can stop that drunken wild bear?"

Noah sighed, asking, "So what now?"

"Let’s three go down and check first then!" Horn patted his chest, full of confidence, "Don’t worry, I’ve made the latest strategy, just wandering around the first five levels, absolutely safe!"

After a brief discussion, considering the low risk of operating within the well-known first five levels, they finalized their plan.

...

After a day of preparation, the three entered the Underground City the following morning.

Although the rifts on the first level were significantly fewer, they still made the party uneasy, moving very slowly, careful not to accidentally hit a rift. Fortunately, there were no demons on this level forcing them into awkward movements.

Entering the second level, Horn immediately distributed an insect-repelling incense pill to each person, to ward off the newly rampant toxic gnats. Though not deadly, those things could swell your face like a bun!

Their plan was to quickly reach the fourth level, gather some demon corpses, then bring them to the fifth level lottery, to see if Puki had hidden anything good inside.

However, as they traversed a dim stone corridor on the third level, Noah suddenly gave a low shout, stopping Horn and Ai Mei ahead.

"Look over there!"

Following Noah’s direction, Horn and Ai Mei’s sight crossed the stone corridor, landing on the far end, where an adventurer’s corpse lay motionless! 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

The certainty it was a corpse wasn’t due to the arrows embedded deep within the body, but because... Pukis were already starting to wrap it up!

Typically, even if heavily injured, Pukis wouldn’t touch you; only when you’re truly dead do they come to clean up.

Seeing Pukis calling each other over to try moving it indicated the person was definitely dead.

Running into a freshly dead adventurer in the Underground is not common, but nothing to be shocked about, that is unless there are gold coins scattered around the corpse!

The three did not rashly approach but scanned their surroundings vigilantly, as the third level was filled with traps. The adventurer was obviously also a victim of traps.

Soon, Horn identified a few pressure-trigger switches on the ground and corresponding, hard-to-detect apertures on the walls—classic pressure-triggered arrow trap.

These mechanisms required considerable weight to activate, allowing the featherweight Pukis to come and go freely; safety for an adventurer would require a painful price.

The group carefully bypassed the mechanism and reached the other side.

Just as Ai Mei bent down, fingers about to touch an alluring "gold coin," Horn grabbed her wrist!

"Wait!" he hissed, slicing accurately at a coin with his dagger!

With a crisp snap, the "gold coin" split in two, with a gush of foul-smelling reddish-green fluid oozing from the fracture!

Instantly, all the insects disguised as gold coins on the ground buzzed into the air!

Prepared, the trio reacted quickly, swiftly dispatching these bugs.

"Blech! What a waste of effort!" Horn flicked off the slime from his blade, looking displeased, and turned to leave.

"Wait!" Ai Mei stopped him again, her voice tinged with something different.

"What now? Don’t tell me it’s more coins..." Horn groused, turning back, following Ai Mei’s puzzled gaze and seeing a massive stone door carved with intricate, mysterious patterns!

"A hidden room?" Horn’s voice was tinged with disbelief, excitement, and a hint of uncertainty, as he had never encountered a hidden room before!

Ai Mei and Noah also shook their heads in shock, their first encounter as well.

The three exchanged a glance filled with bewilderment and excitement, moving cautiously towards the door with discreet steps.

Behind them, a long-waiting Puki appeared, beginning to clean up the unwanted coin insect remains.

After being ready for potential traps, Horn pulled the nearby lever with a mix of excitement and nervousness.

With the grinding sound of the stone door, in the anticipating eyes of the three, a round, fluffy, and lazy Puki suddenly filled the doorway, as if it popped from the shadows...