Treasure Room

To be fair, Linden felt that his level shouldn't have been low. He was level 44, after all!

But why had he been constantly chased around ever since coming out?

After thinking it over, he realized that in the same environment, his survival difficulty seemed much higher than the Adventurers'.

Not only did Monsters want to eat him, but humans wanted to kill him too.

And these Adventurers clearly had a guide. Otherwise, how could they pass through the Teleportation Array Labyrinth so smoothly while he got lost inside?

Who knew how many days it had been? Judging by the distance he had covered before, Inanna might already have successfully left the labyrinth by now.

After a corridor came a teleportation array; after the teleportation array came Monsters; after the Monsters came another branching corridor...

Just like now.

With one blast, he reduced the last Rot-Tooth Hound before him—a beast that kept barking wildly but did not dare approach—to scraps, sending it after its companions.

Then he casually picked a corridor, walked down it, and randomly chose a teleportation array somewhere along the way or at the end to enter.

Fortunately, none of the Monsters on this floor exceeded LV40. More precisely, most of them were between LV20 and LV30.

Whenever he was truly surrounded, he could always rely on his high Evasion and Rolling Charge to escape.

But he could not keep this up forever. He had first fought a major battle with Adventurers, then gotten lost in the labyrinth for so long. His mana reserves were running low.

Simply put, he was about to starve to death.

And for some reason, the mana in the air on this floor was abnormally thin. Even if he rooted himself in place, he could not collect much mana to replenish his consumption.

Breaking down Monster corpses was also a source of mana, but it was far too unreliable.

Finding Monsters was easy. Just enter any teleportation array, and there would probably be a few Monsters on the other side. But how was he supposed to bring them back?

He could not become a nomadic Mushroom, eating wherever he went. The cost of rooting himself would probably not even be recovered that way.

He could only keep trying to find an exit. At the very least, he needed to find an environment with mana.

Once again, he found a teleportation array.

How could a gambler keep losing forever? He had to stumble upon a way out eventually!

Green teleportation light flared.

Oh?

This time, the color was different.

Drip—

A drop of water fell from an inverted stone spike into a small pool.

Th-this-this mana concentration!

Even without spreading out the Fungal Carpet, Puji's mana had begun slowly recovering merely by being in this environment.

It felt like he was swimming in mana!

No, he had to stay alert. There was probably a Monst—

Beneath an enclosed Dome, blue-gray stone walls surrounded a pool of crystal-clear water.

There was not a single Monster in the space, which could be seen from one end to the other.

However, he saw something that both greatly surprised him and made perfect sense—a treasure chest.

A stone treasure chest with delicate patterns!

Though Linden could not figure out who had placed it there, a Dungeon needed treasure chests to be called a Dungeon!

After checking again, he confirmed that aside from a stone door, there were no hidden spaces concealing Monsters.

Once he confirmed it was safe, Linden eagerly pressed himself against the treasure chest.

[Native Monster, denied access to the treasure chest]

A similar message, a familiar Air Wall.

This Dungeon's discrimination and oppression against native Monsters truly existed everywhere!

Linden did not give up. Instead, he pressed tightly against the Air Wall.

Sure enough, before long—

[Hero, restriction removed]

He had thought that after Hero gave him the [Greed] title, it would be used up.

He had not expected to need it everywhere after coming up here.

What a bargain!

He jumped up and kicked open the stone slab lid, then took two backward hops after landing, just to be safe.

Nothing happened. It was not a trap.

Then it was time to see what good stuff was inside!

He took out a blue-green high-collared cloak.

Equipment, huh? That was more or less expected.

But this size had clearly been designed for humans. Draped over Puji, who was only half a person tall, half of it dragged across the ground.

The high collar was even flattened into a ring beneath Mushroom Cap...

He opened Puji's status panel and found that his Agility had increased from 42 to 47.

The feeling was strange. It seemed somewhat useful, but not all that useful...

Did it have any active skills?

And if it did, how was he supposed to use them?

He tried guiding mana into the cloak. The air on both sides blurred, and two identical cloak-wearing Pujis appeared, one to his left and one to his right. He could control them.

Clones?

Under his command, the Puji on the right used Rolling Charge against the wall.

Pop—

It vanished without a trace like a punctured Bubble.

All right, Phantoms.

Still, not bad. It was free, after all. With five attribute points and a skill, Linden was already satisfied.

He just hoped the cloak would not get dragged too dirty...

The cloak was merely an extra gain. The real treasure was this mana-rich place!

Under Mana Perception, the place with the densest mana was this small pool of clear water in the center. The rich mana in the air was merely a tiny portion that had escaped from the pool.

At the same time, mana-filled droplets continued dripping from the Dome into the pool. He had no idea where they were seeping in from.

In any case, he had truly struck gold. If he collected all the mana here, Linden was even confident he could build another force of 400 Pujis!

Then, with a crowd of bodyguards leading the way, what Dungeon could he not bulldoze his way out of?

If any Adventurer dared cause him trouble, who could withstand hundreds of Mushroom Cannon shots?

Of course, this space was too small to accommodate 400 Pujis.

Linden looked toward the only stone door, wondering what lay outside and whether there was space to store Pujis.

He gently pushed the stone door. It did not budge.

He applied more force. It still did not budge.

Rolling Charge!

Linden, knocked dizzy by the impact, stared blankly at the stone door before him. Not even half a chip had come off it.

What did this mean? The door would not open?

Or could it not be opened from this side?

Then what was he supposed to do after falling in here? Wait for someone to open the door from the other side?

After thinking for a moment, Linden decided to search around some more.

This was one of the Teleportation Array Labyrinth's traps. Other people should have entered before.

Maybe he could find some mechanism or clues left behind by previous visitors.

He quickly made a discovery. Although he found no clues left by previous visitors, he found a previous visitor...

He dug a skeleton half-buried in the dirt out of the grass. Who knew how long it had been dead? The leather clothes on its body had already become tattered and rotten.

Looking at the skeleton, Linden seemed to see his own future...

But he was a Mushroom. As long as the mana droplets kept falling from the Dome, he would not starve to death.

Since he was here already, he might as well settle down and look on the bright side.

The dangers along the way had left him exhausted in both body and mind anyway.

Since there was food and drink here, he could treat it as a vacation.

Perhaps there was plenty of traffic nearby, and someone would discover this room one day.

Or perhaps, once he gathered several dozen Pujis, they might be able to blast open this stone door.

Super Puji extended its tentacles from beneath Mushroom Cap, removed Linden's true body—a seemingly ordinary Mushroom—from inside itself, and placed it beside the pool.

Spores slowly spread out. Amid the dense mana, the Mycelium rapidly multiplied.