Mushroom Lord in the Underground City-Chapter 263 - 255: Wheat Field Maze

On the dried wooden frame, one black, one white.

The crow tilted its head, its pitch-black eyes unblinkingly staring at the "neighbor" it had never seen before beside it.

Its body was somewhat crude, completely snow white, and round... neither a fellow kind nor those creaking scarecrow puppets, let alone the bipedal adventurers exuding fear and sweat.

This unfamiliar existence captivated the crow’s full attention on Scout Puki.

Scout Puki was indifferent to the scrutinizing gaze; Lin Jun was now checking the panels of things around one by one.

[Race: Evil Grass]

[Level: LV2]

[Racial Talent: Cursed Creatures (adapt to cursed environments, fear holy attribute attacks)]

[Skills: Corrosive Curse LV1, Resilience LV1]

Can you believe it?

This is the panel for the wheat in the field!

At first, Lin Jun thought they had pulled up the panel for weeds, only to find there were no weeds in the wheat field at all.

The primary crop in this "wheat field," these swaying, full-eared "wheat," are actually called "Evil Grass"?!

Even more bizarre is that the source of the curse aura permeating this entire space is not some imagined powerful core or evil demon, but precisely this endless "grass" itself!

The [Corrosive Curse] level of a single Evil Grass is generally only level one and isn’t worth mentioning.

But accumulating such numbers, while unable to reach a qualitative change, can certainly achieve a more advanced effect. If one were to traverse the wheat field, constantly in close contact with the Evil Grass, it would undoubtedly become more severe.

Quite interestingly, Scout Puki promptly rolled up two handfuls of Evil Grass to take back for a taste later.

"Caw—!"

The crow beside had been staring at Scout Puki and cawing for quite a while.

Rustling sounds of friction approached from afar as several scarecrows pushed through the wheat field and emerged, their hollow eye sockets locking onto the white figure on the wooden frame.

[Race: Scarecrow-Withered Servant]

[Level: LV26]

[Racial Talent: Cursed Creatures, Shattered Consciousness]

[Skills: Claw Strike LV5, Withering Touch LV3, Physical Resistance LV3...]

Although very weak, Scout Puki wasn’t a Puki specialized for combat, and besides, handling a multitude isn’t Lin Jun’s style.

Of course, one could fly away, but having the scarecrows follow wherever one flies is quite annoying.

Thus, as the crow’s eyes widened and the scarecrow’s encirclement closed in step by step, the air around Scout Puki suddenly rippled like water, and the whole Puki, as if blending into the background, disappeared in an instant! 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"Caw—!"

The crow flapped its wings in surprise but didn’t take flight.

Its pitch-black eyeballs quivered, blood threads spread and swelled, finally transforming into two crimson blood-red eyes.

[Sensory Enhancement LV4]

It saw it!

Slight distortion of light!

Right in front!!!

Splat—

Scout Puki rolled up the crow’s corpse, stuffed it into its body, and placed it alongside the previously gathered Evil Grass.

Honestly, if it just pretended not to see, Lin Jun wouldn’t have bothered with it, but it insisted on coming forward.

Maintaining invisibility, Scout Puki flew up over the wheat field.

Without witnessing Puki’s invisibility process firsthand, the crows usually don’t maintain [Sensory Enhancement] mode, allowing the invisible Scout Puki to glide freely over the wheat field.

Observing the other crows gave Lin Jun a new discovery; some crows had statuses marked as [Puppet], while others didn’t. This must be the targets the dwarves mentioned could be bribed.

However, Lin Jun couldn’t understand why these crows needed gemstones.

Surely, they weren’t simply infatuated with shiny things like Xiao Hai?

Speaking of shiny things, Lin Jun thought of the gemstones scavenged from the dwarves. Among them was one particularly crystal-clear emerald.

Xiao Hai adored it!

Holding the gem lovingly, even abandoning his favorite delicious Puki halfway, he compared the emerald with his glass beads and Norris’s Silver Scales repeatedly, eyes brimming with sparkles.

Evidently, the dwarves had some expertise in gemstone excavation.

Scout Puki flew for quite a while before finally landing on the dusty roof of a tall barn.

"Wheat Field Maze," how apt a name.

No matter which way one flies, the sight’s end is always the rolling, boundless waves of wheat, with only three types of buildings interspersed: barns, windmills, and scattered cottages.

The layers’ extent is unknown, but Scout Puki hadn’t yet flown to the end.

The cottages house somewhat unique demons.

[Scarecrow-Farmer]

It mechanically bundles harvested Evil Grass into human shapes and fixes them on wooden frames within the fields, eventually turning into those withered servants seen everywhere.

Lin Jun hadn’t seen the windmills used yet, but judging by the bloodstains on the millstones, they’re probably reserved for adventurers.

The barns stacked full of so-called grains, with guides mentioning rare forging materials "Cursed Golden Wheat" produced therein, though Lin Jun, through Puki’s eyes, saw mostly adventurer gear stained with blood and scattered coins over the grain pile.

Some barns simply piled with motionless scarecrows were evidently trap rooms.

Overall, quite a monotonous layer.

For Lin Jun, the omnipresent Evil Grass was the most meaningful.

[Corrosive Curse] and [Resilience] were both usable skills, even at only LV1 for a single plant; accumulating some could pile them up through quantity.

As for the "farmer" creating other scarecrows, it seemed not by its own ability but by the dungeon’s rules.

The "farmer" is merely a level-thirty-something, slightly intelligent scarecrow.

But that’s normal; the Scarecrow Abyss dungeon likewise spans many levels, each characterized by distinct features, with more varied demons deeper inside.

What Lin Jun anticipated the most was the so-called "layer change."

According to them, after roughly a day in each layer, without leaving guided by the Compass, one unknowingly falls into the next layer.

Lin Jun was quite keen on experiencing it.

Could it be like spatial transfer akin to hidden rooms on our side?

If so, then Scarecrow Abyss’s spatial transfer would indeed surpass Purple Crystal Dungeon, for it’s an unrestricted position swap!

...

And so, Scout Puki waited.

In the Scarecrow Abyss, there’s no day-night cycle; its night sky lacks a moon, with stationary stars evidently fake.

Yet Lin Jun didn’t need to perceive time through celestial phenomena within, merely observing surface sun-moon changes in Dumb Wind Town sufficed.

Remaining over a day like this, Scout Puki still hadn’t reached a deeper layer.

The guide did mention time variations for entering the next layer, but it’s been several hours already...

What’s going on?

Could it be biased like Purple Crystal, refusing layer change for being a demon?

But I have a Hero Pass!

What’s the matter?!

...

After another day of waiting, Lin Jun finally felt it, that faint tug on the soul...