Mushroom Lord in the Underground City-Chapter 313 - 305: You’ve Got Mold

On the eighth floor of the Underground City, within a dim passageway, a team of adventurers was cautiously advancing, executing the latest exploration mission issued by the Guild.

Bam!

A muffled noise sounded, and the medium shield in Lambert’s hand steadfastly blocked the sharp claws swung by the demon. Almost simultaneously, arrows and scorching fireballs whistled past him, striking the demon’s head.

The demon let out a painful howl, locked onto the archer in the back, preparing to pounce.

"Not a chance!" Lambert seized the opportunity, lifting his longsword and chopping off that hideous head.

Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief.

A warning suddenly came from the mage behind him: "Get out of the way!"

Without a moment’s hesitation, Lambert rolled swiftly to the side. Just as he left his original position, a sticky, semi-transparent slime fell from the ceiling, hitting the ground with a splat and then exploding under a following fireball!

Lambert got up, wiping off a few drops of slime from his armor in disgust: "These damn slimes, they’re everywhere! Just a little carelessness, and the cost of repairing the armor will match the mission reward."

A teammate squatting down to deal with the demon’s corpse chimed in, "Consider yourself lucky; you can only see these things on the eighth floor now."

After a brief rest, the team continued deeper, eventually stopping in front of a room engraved with dim runes.

The mage immediately crouched at the edge of the magic array in the center of the room, taking out tools to carefully inspect each line.

Lambert and two other teammates tacitly guarded the entrance, alert to any movement around them.

Looking at the mage’s focused back, Lambert couldn’t help but complain, "What’s the point of this Guild mission? Mapping new teleportation routes... But since the ’Collapse Incident,’ the arrays on the eighth floor change every few days, isn’t mapping pointless?"

"Probably trying to find a pattern in the changes," a nearby teammate replied, "Without stable paths, it’s impossible to go to the ninth and tenth floors; can’t just give up the lower two floors, right?"

"I think the Guild’s focus isn’t here anymore," Lambert disagreed, "It’s becoming more like the City Lord’s Mansion, dealing with trivial matters of the commoners; our adventurer’s work is becoming a side job..."

At this moment, the mage in the room looked up: "It’s a fire trap magic array, but it’s already been triggered by someone."

"Then let’s move forward!"

After clearing scattered demons and checking some messy magic arrays, they finally found a seemingly stable teleportation array.

A teammate quickly marked the location on a leather map, and the group successively stepped onto the array.

However, just as the array’s light was brightening and about to activate, the mage suddenly exclaimed, "No! The array’s changed! It wasn’t like this just now! Get out quickly!"

Lambert reacted extremely fast, about to roll out, but it was too late; the strong light swallowed everything.

A moment later, as the light dissipated, Lambert found himself standing alone in a completely unfamiliar, vast stone chamber.

He looked down, finding nothing under his feet, no corresponding teleportation magic array.

"A one-way random separation teleportation... great..." Lambert’s face darkened, gripping his sword tightly.

Without the mage teammate proficient in magic arrays, it seemed the path forward would rely solely on his sword and luck.

...

...

...

In the midst of a routine check, testing the "Star Button" functionality at the core, Lin Jun suddenly noticed a disheveled figure at the staircase leading to the eighth floor.

The eighth floor connected via teleportation magic array, Lin Jun’s fungal mat couldn’t be laid inside, only on the staircase, so he had no idea what had happened to him inside.

The unlucky gold-level adventurer was severely injured, burned and corroded, with several obvious bite marks from demons, lying on the ground, looking on the verge of death.

He didn’t appear to have any teammates with him; did the others die inside?

Previously, Lin Jun would have chosen to stand by, let him die and decompose, or if lucky, be rescued; either way, it didn’t matter.

But recalling the intelligence he recently acquired regarding the war...

...

...

...

The bumpy sensation pulled Lambert from chaotic darkness, and he vaguely realized he was being carried forward by someone.

A teammate perhaps... but among his teammates, who could carry someone fully armored like him?

Struggling to open his heavy eyelids, he saw a finely chiseled, beautiful profile and a pair of clear and transparent forest-green eyes.

It seemed he was dead, and the God of Light had sent a divine envoy to receive him.

"Vera, stop, he’s awake." The owner of the green eyes noticed a movement on her back and spoke up.

At the voice, Vera stopped, carefully placing Lambert down, letting him sit leaning against a big mushroom.

Only then did Lambert see the surroundings clearly; it was the relatively safe fifth floor.

Lambert instinctively asked, "My teammates..."

Vera crouched down: "We only found you collapsed at the eighth-floor staircase. How are you feeling? We did some emergency treatment for you."

"I... can’t move." Lambert tried to move but found he could barely turn his neck.

"Sirean says your spine might be injured," Vera nodded towards the elf, "His natural healing spell works well on flesh wounds but is limited for bone repair."

"I see."

Lambert was not panicked; a spinal injury was troublesome but recoverable with some money and time for a professional priest, not a major issue compared to losing one’s life.

"Thanks a lot," he said sincerely.

"No need for thanks yet," Vera’s expression turned a bit odd, "It’s just..."

"Just what?" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"See for yourself." Vera lifted Lambert’s limp arm and held his hand in front of his eyes.

On that rough hand, besides calluses, there were also several pale, semi-transparent strips, embedded into the skin, faintly visible.

"Do you remember anything about this?"

Lambert’s face turned grim as he desperately recalled fragments of memory from before he lost consciousness. In that blurry pain and darkness... indeed, there was a chubby, round little thing that approached him...

"Could it be... Puki?" he guessed with difficulty, unable to be certain himself.

However, hearing this answer, Vera and the others exchanged a "just as expected" look.

"See!" Fei Ling spoke up, "I told you he’s moldy!"

"..."

"Anyway, let’s get him back to the surface!"

However, when the group reached the second floor, a miraculous thing happened: Lambert’s spinal injury seemed to heal on its own, allowing him to stand up and walk the rest of the journey by himself...