“Here, your X.”

“Luckily it’s just an XXXX snake. If it had been an X-light XX mushroom, I’d be XXXX.”

“By the way, XXXX shreds really well, makes a nice dish.”

A certain mushroom was once again indulging in its daily hobby of peeping.

Ever since that one incident in the swamp where 22 humans perished all at once, plus the bit he’d picked up by following Dilan around—

【Human Common Tongue LV5】

Lin Jun increasingly suspected this skill didn’t upgrade according to word frequency.

Instead, it seemed completely random.

Meaning even if you hit level 9, you might still not recognize something as basic as the word “walk.”

Utterly ridiculous.

Thankfully, self-study wasn’t affected.

Now that Dilan had met his “kind senior,” his daily amount of conversation had skyrocketed, and Lin Jun’s progress benefited greatly.

It wouldn’t be long before the language barrier ceased to be a problem.

Meanwhile, ever since the loss of so many adventurers last time, the number of parties venturing down to the fifth floor had noticeably decreased.

But facing the threat of higher-level adventurers appearing at any time, Lin Jun had made plenty of preparations.

In addition to simply producing more Cannonshrooms and Whipshrooms, he had developed two new defensive types of Puchi.

At that very moment, on the ceiling of the fifth floor, a special self-destructing Puchi was ripening.

The Puchi wriggled its little body, kicked off, and dropped free of the fungal carpet—beginning a freefall.

Then it… spread its wings!

Or more precisely, something like wings: a glider suit.

Getting a Puchi to truly fly was far too difficult. You’d need a skeletal framework for wings, feathers, the power to flap, and more…

But making them glide was much simpler.

The plan was: swoop down onto an enemy’s face, then self-destruct!

But reality didn’t quite match expectation.

In the air, the Puchi flailed, unable to stabilize its posture.

Finally, in the chaos, it triggered 【Dive LV3】—and smashed headfirst into a mushroom tree cap, blowing itself up.

Lin Jun hadn’t intervened; after all, in real combat, he wouldn’t have time to micromanage each one.

But it seemed Puchi’s natural intelligence just wasn’t enough to execute aerial assaults.

Understandable—they had no innate flying instincts.

A shame. Lin Jun had pictured swarms of self-detonating Puchi soaring at intruders. That would’ve been magnificent.

The second type, however, was much more practical.

【Self-Destruct LV5】 + 【Mimicry LV4】 + 【Ambush Launch LV5】

The mimicry was simple: these Puchi buried themselves underground, leaving only their camouflaged caps on the surface.

A thin fungal carpet spread over them, making them indistinguishable from the ground.

Step on one—boom.

And if enemies avoided them, the whole buried cluster could burst out together.

Best of all, with only three skills, their mana cost was extremely low.

Lin Jun intended to plant plenty.

He’d even created something more like a toy.

A Puchi spinning in circles, its four mycelial tendrils whirling into a blur.

【Blade Storm LV1】

No idea which human dropped that one.

Not much real use—but it looked

impressive.

And most crucial of all—the escape routes.

In the chamber beneath the swamp where Lin Jun’s true body rested, countless mycelial tunnels stretched outward, linking to all five stairways.

At the swamp’s edge, they connected to pre-dug escape passages.

If disaster struck—if the army was crushed and Little Black defeated—Knightshroom could scoop him up with Rolling Charge and flee in any direction.

Fight to the death?

Not happening.

From the deep layers to the fifth floor, he’d already risked enough for a lifetime.

By now, humans could hardly erase his fungal carpet from the first five layers. As long as he survived, even if defeated once, he could always rise again.

It was only a worst-case contingency. In truth, Lin Jun had yet to encounter anything that could threaten him and Little Black fighting at full strength.

Not even the diamond-ranked team that had slain the Flame Demon in the deep zone had managed that.

Still, best if this whole matter could just blow over. If the humans would just pretend nothing had happened, all the better.

—

The Golden Sunwood Tavern was thick with the aroma of ale. Ever since the Withered Willow Tavern had shut down, business here had nearly doubled.

“This buttered oyster is incredible! Vera, you really should order one!”

The three-person party, flush with coin from their last delve, was finally willing to splurge a bit on food and lodging.

Phyllin was enjoying himself so much he ended up with a toothache.

Vera, embarrassed, lowered her head to avoid watching him dig at his teeth.

Ever since that fight with the Marauders, Phyllin had been missing a tooth. With their poor finances, they’d never had it fixed.

Vera resolved that after their next dungeon run, they would first return to the city and hire a proper craftsman to mend it.

Bang!

The tavern doors slammed open, crashing into the wall. All eyes turned. The innkeeper scowled at his broken door.

A staggering figure loomed in the lamplight, shouting hoarsely as if scraping stone.

“Begorn! Begorn’s Iron Heart squad is—wiped out!”

It was like dropping a red-hot iron ball into a cup of water—the room erupted.

“Bullshit!” A catfolk adventurer crushed his mug in his hand, scarred face twisted. “That’s a gold-rank squad! With over ten silvers! You dare say wiped out?”

The room buzzed with agreement. “Exactly! Twenty-odd adventurers, and not even delving the deepest floors. How could they all die?”

The messenger gasped for breath. A patron passed him a mug of ale, which he downed in one messy gulp.

Clearing his throat, he gave the rest of the news:

“Some adventurer traded for gear at the Mushroom Merchant on the fifth floor. When he tried to sell it at market, it was recognized as belonging to Begorn’s squad.

A whole crowd’s gathered there now. Don’t believe me? Go see for yourselves!”

That silenced most doubters. The rest leapt up and rushed out to confirm.

Every other topic in the tavern vanished. Only Begorn’s squad—and their target, the Great Black Mushroom—filled the air.

The Golden Sunwood Tavern wasn’t cheap. Its regulars were mostly silver-rank and above.

And the Great Black Mushroom roamed the fifth and sixth floors.

They couldn’t ignore it.

If even Begorn’s gold-rank squad was annihilated, then for ninety-nine percent of adventurers, meeting the Great Black Mushroom meant certain death.

Of course, some argued it was because Begorn’s team had recklessly provoked it.

Others claimed they’d encountered the creature and escaped unharmed by tossing a few glass trinkets.

Rumors about its fondness for shiny objects had circulated for some time, and many gave them some credit.

But when lives were at stake, caution was never too much.

“Never thought Sir Begorn and his squad would truly be wiped out…”

Phyllin gulped ale, trying to drown his fear.

“Yeah… hard to imagine. Four gold-rankers, dead on the fifth floor…”

Vera’s face was grim. Feyin sat pale and silent.

Of everyone present, the three-person team felt the shock most deeply.

They had nearly been among the dead themselves.

In that moment, not only Vera but every adventurer in the room thought of the same thing—

The Adventurer’s Guild, whose reputation lately had been anything but reliable.