Fifth Floor Changes

Recently, Adventurers in Mute Wind Town had noticed that Monster sightings on the Fifth Floor of the Amethyst Dungeon had sharply decreased.

The Gnoll tribes had withdrawn deep into the forest and stopped hunting. Green-Eyed Frogs could no longer be found in Poison Mist Lake, and even the Concentrated Acid Slimes wandering everywhere had become much fewer.

Only the Crystalized Bat swarms and Rock Lizard clans in the western Cave remained unchanged.

Everyone had their own theories about the source of this anomaly.

Some said that during a mission, they had detected violent fluctuations of magic power in the Swamp Zone from afar. The Parasitic Tree must have gone berserk and frightened away all the nearby Monsters.

Others guessed it was a sign of an approaching Magic Tide. But the Adventurer Guild was the professional authority on such matters, and since the Guild had issued no Magic Tide warning, few believed it.

The most ridiculous claim came from Nick, that drunkard, who swore he had seen with his own eyes a group of Pujis slaughtering entire pools of Green-Eyed Frogs.

Everyone who heard it burst into laughter, convinced that Nick must have gotten so drunk even in the Dungeon that he could no longer tell reality from his drunken dreams.

Who did not know that Pujis were at the very bottom of the food chain even on the first floor? And they were supposed to be massacring Green-Eyed Frogs on the Fifth Floor?

Compared to Nick's story, even the signs of a Magic Tide sounded far more believable.

Meanwhile, Linden—the lone Gnoll killer, the culprit behind the near-extinction of the Green-Eyed Frogs, and the cause of the Fifth Floor's changes—launched another territorial war against the Parasitic Trees.

His recent initiative to shrink his defenses had returned most of the Swamp Zone to the Parasitic Trees.

However, the number of Parasitic Trees would not increase in the short term. Instead, their greatly expanded territory had spread them out.

Linden, meanwhile, had hunted everywhere to accumulate a massive amount of magic power and bred over a hundred more Pujis.

Now, it was time to counterattack!

More than two hundred Pujis marched out. The outer Parasitic Trees were reduced to ashes the moment they met them, and the battle line was easily pushed back to the previous battlefield.

Just like last time, the Parasitic Trees' Demonic Martial Twin Fiends made their move.

Two filthy Water Elementals again.

Linden quickly dispatched forty Pujis to attack in succession, suppressing the Water Elementals for the time being.

On the other side, Blade Storm spun toward the Puji formation. If it broke in, Linden would surely suffer devastating losses.

But Linden would not fall into the same trap twice.

The Pujis all turned around and pressed downward, squeezing their bodies into a single lump in an instant, and then—

They sprang into the air!

[Assault Ejection LV4]

Thanks to the movement skill Frog Frog had contributed, the Pujis bounced outward in every direction. Only one of the closest Pujis was caught by Blade Storm mid-jump and sliced into several pieces.

It was not over yet. The prepared Self-Destruct Pujis rolled out of the formation and charged forward, exploding one after another before the Parasitic Trees.

Although every Puji was blocked by the spinning roots at the outer perimeter and failed to reach the trunk before exploding, twenty self-destructs were enough to drain this Parasitic Tree's health to the bottom.

In truth, that damage would have been nowhere near enough to kill an LV45 Adventurer warrior. But this Parasitic Tree's main body was only LV24 and could not withstand such a chain of explosions.

Now, only the summoning Parasitic Tree remained.

Large numbers of Pujis bypassed the suppressed Water Elementals and pounced on the other Parasitic Trees behind them.

When another unremarkable Parasitic Tree was blasted in half, the two Water Elementals immediately collapsed and vanished into the swamp.

With the two most troublesome Parasitic Trees down, all that remained was a dull, straightforward push.

Pujis still suffered scattered losses from strange skills that occasionally appeared, but they no longer affected the overall situation.

The Parasitic Trees that struck fear into the hearts of low-level Adventurers posed little threat before Linden.

Human Adventurers had to detour whenever they encountered Parasitic Trees because they faced an endless stream of them in small teams, so naturally their odds of victory were low.

Linden was different. He was waging a war, using a unified Puji army unafraid of Sacrifice to fight Monsters that were scattered and fought independently.

Even if these Parasitic Trees had a few more tricks, as long as no outrageously powerful opponent appeared, everything else was merely flashy nonsense.

Linden now devoted only a small portion of his attention to commanding the battle. Most of his thoughts had already turned to planning the new Mushroom Garden.

Unlike the enclosed terrain of the Mushroom Garden in the Deep Zone, the Swamp Zone lay at the center of the entire Fifth Floor.

Adventurers had only chosen to detour because the terrain here was difficult to cross and because terrifying Monsters like Parasitic Trees lurked within.

Once the Parasitic Trees were cleared out, the danger would lessen. Someone might choose to pass through here, and Linden did not want his home base to become an Adventurers' highway.

Whether through force or some form of communication, he needed to find a way to let them know that they would still have to keep detouring in the future.

Moreover, Linden's new Mushroom Garden would not be limited to the Swamp Zone. The Swamp Zone was merely the core of his plan; eventually, the entire Fifth Floor would be brought within the Mushroom Garden's territory.

Poison Mist Lake could be used for farming. He had not decided what to raise there yet, but there were plenty of options.

The Cave had originally been a mine, though it was currently being mined by Adventurers. It was also the area with the most humans on this floor, which was why Linden had avoided hunting there lately.

It still produced the Amethyst Dungeon's specialty—purple Magic Crystals.

However, their average quality was clearly far inferior to those from the Deep Zone. Linden had secretly checked before, and even C-Rank ones were considered rare.

Still, it was a mine in his own backyard. He had to find an opportunity to claim it for the mushrooms.

Occupying it by force would be simple, but he did not want to display strong hostility toward humans.

It was not because he identified as human, but for a more practical reason: when one lacked strength, one should appear friendlier.

He might seem invincible on this floor now, able to destroy ordinary Adventurers with a flick of his hand, but compared to humanity as a whole, he was still far too weak.

Since interaction would be inevitable in the future, he should try to make a good start. Reaching an agreement, even merely establishing unspoken rules, would be good.

The problem was that his Common Human Tongue was only LV1. Being unable to communicate directly was a major issue.

He could hardly go on a massive Adventurer-killing spree, raise Common Human Tongue to LV10, and then tell them, "Now let's get along peacefully."

This was the most important issue. Linden needed to plan it carefully.

As for the Gnolls in the forest—

He happened to have a Fusion Parasitism that he had not yet had time to study properly. They would make a fine test case.

This time, he would definitely build a better Mushroom Garden!

Dark clouds churned overhead, and torrential rain turned the road into a stretch of mud. Every hoofbeat splashed filth into the air.

In such terrible weather, horses could easily slip and fall.

Even so, the rider showed no intention of stopping. One hand gripped the reins while the other tightly protected the bundle against his chest as he rode at full speed.

A fierce gust swept past with rain droplets, tearing away his hood and revealing half of Dylan's grotesque face, covered in mycelium.