Boss, Do You Know It's Pitch-Black Here Now?

"Dylan, do you know how the Dungeon came to be?"

Old Bat was temporarily unable to fight, and everything else had fallen into place. With some free time on his hands, Linden found himself thinking about the Dungeon again.

Under the torchlight, Dylan, who was trimming the edges of a coffin lid, paused his work and scratched his head in thought.

"How did it come to be?

Sorry, Boss, I never really thought about that.

I did hear stories as a child. They said the Hero and the Demon King fought a great battle, opening a passage to the Abyss and creating the Dungeon.

But that leaves too many things that don't make sense. It was clearly just a story.

As for whether there are other explanations, I don't know."

That story really sounded like two supreme beings battling until the stars shattered...

"Has no one researched it?"

"They have. The people at the Relic Association do that sort of thing. They even put out long-term bounties for relevant clues.

Unfortunately, those missions are mostly just for show. Any valuable clues were probably found centuries ago.

I've never heard of anyone getting rich from them."

"Can you get that information from that association?"

Dylan immediately waved his hands.

"No way, Boss. The Relic Association is an official organization under the United Kingdom.

A bottom-tier Adventurer like me can't even get through the door.

And I'm not a thief. I can't steal the documents you want for you."

So it really wouldn't work. It was not beyond Linden's expectations; he had only been asking.

Unlike natives like Dylan, who had long been accustomed to treating the Dungeon as a normal part of the world.

Linden felt that too many aspects of this Dungeon followed an excessively orderly pattern. It was clearly deliberately arranged.

There had to be plenty of secrets behind it.

But it seemed he had no chance to come into contact with them yet.

Come to think of it, if bottom-tier Adventurers could not get in, then the Duke's Daughter should be able to, right?

Should he have Dylan try to contact Inanna?

After thinking it over, Linden decided there was no need to rush this. He could take it slowly.

He did not even know Inanna's current situation. He would have Dylan ask around first.

"Boss, there's something I wanted to ask."

Dylan's hesitant words pulled Linden's attention back.

"What is it?"

"Well... why has the Fifth Floor been getting darker and darker lately?"

Darker?

Was it?

Linden truly had not noticed. His senses worked differently when it came to seeing things.

After examining it carefully, he realized Dylan had put it rather tactfully.

It was not merely dark. The entire floor was practically about to go completely black...

Although there was no Sun in the Dungeon, there were almost no floors that were completely dark.

Glowing Firefly Grass, or Nightlight Stones embedded in rock walls, could provide a certain degree of illumination.

The Dome of the Fifth Floor was especially covered in Firefly Grass, making it one of the brighter floors.

So where had all the Firefly Grass gone?

Why had the Dome become nothing but Mushrooms...

Linden had not even noticed when his Fungal Carpet had crawled up onto the Dome.

At this rate, the Firefly Grass on the Fifth Floor was nearly extinct from being eaten.

So it was his fault...

Complete darkness did not affect him, but it was clearly bad for Adventurers coming here to trade, and Dylan seemed to be having quite a difficult time as well.

Who knew how long it would take to restore the Firefly Grass to its original scale?

How about using Fluorescent Mushrooms instead?

Because of their poor skill compatibility, Fluorescent Mushrooms were far less bright than Firefly Grass.

But Mushrooms of all sizes were everywhere on this floor now. Once they gained Fluorescence, it definitely would not be dark anymore.

It seemed this was the only option for now.

"Collect Slime Cores... ten Firefly Grass plants... Two-headed Snake venom sacs..."

Inside the Adventurer Guild hall, Vera was choosing missions from the bounty board.

A pair of childhood friends sat on a bench nearby, and Feiyin was visibly in low spirits.

The last time they had been attacked by Raiders, they had not only lost a great deal of equipment and supplies, but had nearly lost their lives as well.

If those two Raiders had not provoked Puji, they would not have made it back.

Ever since returning, Feiyin had seemed extremely resistant to going into the Dungeon.

Vera understood, but they still had to earn living expenses, especially after suffering such a massive loss of property.

After discussing it with Feiling, she decided they would take some simple upper-floor missions first to make ends meet.

They would decide what to do next based on how Feiyin recovered.

If it really came down to it, becoming caravan guards was not impossible either.

Noisy chatter drifted over without pause. The Guild was always lively, but it seemed particularly noisy today.

Vera noticed that quite a crowd had gathered around the dedicated board for official missions.

Had the officials released a new mission?

Just as Vera was about to squeeze into the crowd to take a look, a massive fur-covered palm violently shoved the people apart.

Caught off guard by the push, she staggered back several steps, a yellowish-brown hair sticking to the corner of her lips.

"Ptooey, ptooey—"

A shedding bastard...

A heavily muscled Tiger-man strode straight to the mission board, his glossy fur gleaming amber beneath the lights.

The people around him cursed under their breaths, but their feet honestly shifted half a step backward.

After glancing over the mission board twice, the Tiger-man reached out and tore down the newest A Rank mission.

At the counter on the right side of the hall, the Tiger-man slapped both his Adventurer identification plate and mission sheet onto the counter.

"Register the mission."

Behind the counter stood the Guild's signature receptionist, Helena—a beautiful woman with long red hair.

The two appeared to know each other.

Holding the identification plate, Helena glanced at the Tiger-man and the Leopard-man teammate behind him, then casually asked:

"Inigo, why are you back in Yafeng? Where's Paxi? Why don't I see him?"

"Quit yapping. This isn't an entry inspection. Just finish registering it already." Inigo looked thoroughly impatient.

"Looks like the Archipelago really is dangerous..."

After muttering that, Helena ignored the ugly look on the Tiger-man's face and gave him a reminder according to Guild regulations.

"Inigo, this A Rank mission recommends three to four Gold Rank Adventurers. I suggest you first find..."

Bang—

The Tiger-man slammed a palm onto the counter, cutting Helena off.

"Don't treat me like some rookie and start giving me advice. The two of us are enough. Register it already!"

Helena raised an eyebrow. She was not angry at being shouted at in the slightest, but after registering the mission, she did not immediately return Inigo's identification plate.

"What does that mean?"

Helena extended a finger and tapped the cracked counter.

"%@#&%&..."

Inigo flung seven silver coins onto the counter, then angrily snatched back his identification plate and called for the Leopard-man traveling with him to leave the Guild hall.

After the Tiger-man left, Vera grabbed an Adventurer beside her and asked what mission everyone was so concerned about.

"What else could it be? Those Mushrooms everyone's been talking about every day lately!

The Guild finally released a mission to investigate the cause of the mutation."

"Those two Orcs just now..."

"I don't know them, but anyone who can take an A Rank mission must be Gold Rank experts."

Vera recalled all the Pujis she had encountered from beginning to end on the Fifth Floor.

A thorough investigation would surely require entering the Swamp Zone tightly guarded by the Pujis, right?

Could two Gold Rank Adventurers really handle it?