Mushroom Lord in the Underground City-Chapter 225 - 222: Premature Collapse
Outside the entrance of the Purple Crystal Dungeon.
"Move along, no setting up tents here!" the guard barked roughly, impatiently poking the tail end of his spear at a few ragged, pale-faced civilians.
One of them hunched his back, his voice pleading, "Sir, please... we rely on these mushrooms to survive."
"Who’s stopping you from picking mushrooms?" The guard frowned, pointing his spear shaft to the distance, "There’s a designated area on the outskirts of the town, build a wooden house or pitch a tent, whatever you want! Why squeeze here at the entrance? This is the passage for adventurers!"
"But... living too far away, we can’t grab the mushrooms outside the dungeon," another timid voice sounded, "Inside the dungeon... there are demons..."
"Everyone’s like this, why should I pity just you few? If you don’t leave, I’ll tear down your tent!" The guard turned the spear around, the cold metal tip flashing before their eyes, finally forcing them to hurriedly gather their belongings and retreat in fear.
Vera and her two companions glanced at this brief conflict from a distance, their gaze did not linger, with only a slight frown, they turned towards the dungeon gate.
The news of the Demon Race sending spies to destroy farmlands had long spread.
Now with the autumn harvest ending miserably, this silent war temporarily paused, and the Demon Race, at the cost of many spy sacrifices, had nullified nearly half of the Kingdom’s grain production.
The "free" mushrooms growing wildly outside the Purple Crystal Dungeon spread quickly among the starving populace as a glimmer of hope in the darkness.
Initially, only a few people loitered outside the dungeon, but within just a month, it evolved into several batches of continuous refugee waves daily.
The guards’ actions were not problematic, and the Guild agreed that it was okay for the refugees to pick mushrooms to stave off hunger, but having them all crowded at the dungeon entrance was out of the question.
In fact, even with a designated settlement area at the town’s edge, the sudden influx of people had increased the management difficulty of this small town dramatically.
But these are matters for the bigwigs above to worry about, irrelevant to adventurers.
As Vera and her companions were about to step into the dungeon, a heavy footstep mingled with the clashing of armor was heard approaching. They instinctively moved aside to make way on the main road, only to find themselves face-to-face with a group stumbling out.
"Old Bear!" Vera was the first to call out.
"Vera? Fei Ling? And Fei Yin!" The burly man, Old Bear, who was carrying a gigantic tower shield, stopped in his tracks, his dirt-smeared face showing surprise, "What a coincidence, running into you again!"
Just returning from the dungeon, Old Bear’s leather armor was splattered with half-dried dark red bloodstains, mixed with mud and suspicious slime, his heavy boots covered with the local unique mycelium, his whole body exuded a strong smell of sweat and the underworld’s stench.
Nevertheless, his eyes were shining brightly, and his lips were unconsciously curled into a smile, clearly having gained a lot.
He swept his gaze over Vera and her two companions, who were ready to set out, and spoke with concern and puzzlement, "Wait... if I remember right, you came out just a day before us, right? You haven’t even caught your breath, and you’re going back in? Can you handle back-to-back explorations?"
"Old Bear, you’re really lucky, just this morning! The materials purchase price at the Guild hall skyrocketed by another ten percent!" Fei Ling couldn’t help but speak, his voice full of envy and frustration, "As for us, we were unlucky, we just sold all the materials we gathered yesterday, and just a day later, we hear this kind of bad news!"
"What? It increased that much?!" Old Bear was first stunned by the words, then burst into loud laughter, his fan-like hand vigorously patting Vera’s shoulder, "Hahaha, no worries, it’s a good thing! When you’re back from this trip, I’ll treat you all to a drink!"
The two teams passed by each other, and after Old Bear walked a few steps forward, he suddenly remembered something, turned around sharply, his cheerful smile faded a bit, "By the way, Vera! Be careful! I don’t know if it’s because too many people have been going down lately, but the demons have been more aggressive than usual, watch out on your way."
"Thanks for the reminder, we’ll be cautious!"
After parting with the returning, laughing Old Bear squad, Vera and her companions no longer delayed and entered the dungeon, habitually planning to rent a Puki.
When the trio arrived at the familiar Puki rental spot, the scene before them left them stunned.
On the empty fungal mat sat a lone Fat Otaku Puki responsible for collecting fees, while the illumination Pukis that should have been gathered around were nowhere to be seen.
"Does this mean... all of them have been rented out?" Fei Ling said uncertainly.
Vera frowned slightly, her tone carrying a hint of helplessness, "Yes, it seems so. Ever since the King of Puki was taken by that Duke’s Daughter, the remaining Pukis have been inactive and noticeably fewer in number. Now with so many teams flooding into the dungeon, the illumination Pukis aren’t enough... it’s not surprising."
Having no other choice, Fei Yin had to raise her magic staff, the tip gathering an orange-yellow light ball.
Their goal this time remained the Sixth Floor, yet the "demon frenzy" Old Bear had warned about was barely noticeable as they traveled.
This is mainly because the Underground City was too "lively." Along the way, they encountered several groups of adventurers coming and going.
The temptation of the increased purchase prices was astounding. Nowadays, on the earlier floors, adventurers had nearly scraped the land clean, leaving hardly any chance to encounter any stray demons...
...
Reaching the sixth floor, Vera finally experienced the so-called "demon frenzy."
The usual Tree Demons and Puki that wandered the sixth floor were nowhere to be seen, replaced by rampaging Stone-skinned Wild Boars and Flower Demons and Magic Vines that attacked them even when already wrapped around their prey.
Fortunately, the group was well-prepared and wasn’t injured. Instead, they took advantage of the demons’ impulsiveness and easily collected a lot of materials.
However, when they reached the stairs to the Seventh Floor, they encountered a team that had met with an accident.
Two adventurers were half-dragging and half-carrying a companion whose face was as pale as paper. Pea-sized cold sweat rolled down from his forehead, and shockingly, his left arm was missing below the shoulder!
A young man in a priest robe stained with filth was desperately pressing on the injured person, urgently chanting prayers, with white light enveloping the severed arm.
Vera’s eyes sharpened as she quickly stepped forward: "Need any help? We have tourniquets and emergency potions!"
The leading swordsman in the group gave the newcomers a wary glance but relaxed his brows after recognizing Vera.
"Thank you for the offer! But we have a healer in our team, and the potions are... barely enough." He pointed to another team member who was pulling out a small bottle from a waist pouch and pouring potion into the injured person’s mouth.
"What happened?" Fei Ling asked, looking at the dreadful severed arm, "Encounter a tough opponent?"
The swordsman’s face showed a hint of fear and regret: "It’s the Seventh Floor. The water level on the Seventh Floor has inexplicably dropped significantly, making it impossible to catch underwater demons. This guy," he pointed to the injured man, "boasted about his good swimming skills and held his breath to see if there was any opportunity..."
He took a deep breath as if still seeing the terrifying scene: "But as soon as he dived down, a huge shadow surged up from the water, fast as lightning, and bit his arm off in one bite! If our mage hadn’t reacted quickly and used an impact technique through the water surface to deflect it a bit, he would have been completely swallowed. Being able to escape was already the God of Light’s protection..."
"Water level drop?" Vera frowned, trying to find a reasonable explanation from her memory and experience.
In that brief silence, the mage in the opposing team, who had remained silent, suddenly looked up, his gaze fixed intently on a seemingly empty space at the side, his face full of confusion: "This... what is this?"
Everyone, including Vera’s Squad, immediately followed his gaze but found nothing.
Vera instinctively wanted to go forward to investigate, but Fei Yin beside her grabbed her arm.
Fei Yin’s fingers were icy cold, yet her grip was strong.
She herself was also staring intently at the direction the mage pointed, her delicate brows filled with confusion and an indescribable unease. It was obvious she had also sensed an anomaly but couldn’t understand what it was.
The mage quickly moved to that "empty" area, extending his right hand, with his fingertips glowing faintly with exploratory magic power as he felt and traced in the void.
His expression grew more solemn, even tinged with academic fervor: "Strange... so strange! There’s clearly nothing here, so why is the magic power presenting such a chaotic kn..."
Sh-crack!
A sound like the very fabric of space being forcibly torn apart, sharp enough to grate on the teeth, suddenly resounded!
A hideous, twisted rift with unstable edges abruptly appeared out of thin air.
The mage’s face was left with extreme bewilderment and confusion, with no time for even a hint of horror to appear before his body was bisected by the rift that had suddenly appeared, right in front of Vera and the others’ shocked eyes.
The upper half of his body, wearing an expression of frozen shock, slid downwards, while the lower half stood for a moment before being further sliced into several segments by the expanding and contracting rift!
Time seemed to freeze.
Everyone’s minds were blank in those two seconds of absolute silence.
Until a sharp scream erupted from the throat of a female adventurer: "Ah——————!!!"
