I Almost Killed Them on Impulse

Calvin had flipped through the little parchment booklet until its edges were frayed. Even after checking it for the third time, he still couldn't connect the Fifth Floor described in the guide to the sight beyond the stairs.

So this was the supposedly brightest floor?

Not a single clump of Firefly Grass was in sight. In the pitch-black Fifth Floor, the mushrooms' faint glow was the only source of light.

On the road leading out from the stairs, however, there was a row of Fluorescent Mushrooms on either side, as though they had been deliberately planted there.

Calvin found this scene even stranger than the one they had encountered in that little cave on the Second Floor.

Even Gray was beginning to lose his nerve. "Your guide is way too far off! Are we... still moving forward?"

"We're already here... Let's at least take a look around."

Only after the two of them stepped out did they realize that even the Dome was covered in mushrooms. Their fluorescence connected overhead, like a Sky Veil.

Calvin felt uncomfortable all over. It was as though someone was watching him, making him regret the decision he had made two minutes ago.

But when he told Gray about the feeling, Gray shook his head and said he didn't feel anything at all.

Calvin couldn't very well decide to turn back based on a feeling alone. That would be too reckless.

"Are we really walking along this road?" Gray asked, pointing at the Mushroom Road ahead.

The road certainly looked suspicious, but it did overlap with the forest's direction as marked in the guide.

The guide might have been outdated, but the terrain shouldn't have changed completely.

After considering it for a long time, Calvin took out his small wand.

First-tier magic—Illumination Art.

A ball of orange-yellow light floated above the tip of his wand.

"Let's walk along the edge of the road."

Squelch—

The moment they stepped off the path, both of them felt the sticky ground beneath their feet.

When they bent down to inspect it, they were shocked to find that the area outside the path was covered in translucent mycelium.

From beneath their feet all the way to the edge of the darkness, the entire ground within sight was made of mycelium!

"I knew the ground looked weird! So it was all covered in this stuff!" Gray retreated back onto the path in disgust. "How about we just stay on the road?"

Calvin could only nod.

The path itself was clean, as though the Fluorescent Mushrooms on both sides had blocked the mycelium from spreading onto it.

The surroundings were exceptionally quiet. They didn't see a single trace of the monsters described in the guide.

The only thing they encountered was a corpse as large as a Little Hill. It had already been more than half decomposed by mycelium and was so badly damaged that they could no longer tell what it had once been.

Everything gradually made the two of them uneasy. They stayed alert to their surroundings the entire time and didn't even speak.

They only stopped when they finally saw the forest.

"That's the 'forest' you were talking about?"

In the direction Gray pointed, countless Luminescent Giant Mushrooms towered into the air. Countless strands of mycelium hung beneath their caps, forming a Mushroom Forest amid their varying heights.

Only a small number of Giant Trees were wedged between the gaps among the giant mushrooms.

Clearly, even the terrain information in the guide was outdated!

Before Calvin could say anything, a strange sound rang out from the forest.

Puff—

Puff—

The heavy sound was exceptionally clear in the silent surroundings.

A plump Big Puji, three meters tall, slowly emerged from behind a giant mushroom. Four thick Mycelium Tentacles swayed through the air.

Beside this enormous Puji were more than a dozen Little Pujis, each with tentacles just like the one they had encountered on the Second Floor.

The Pujis seemed to have noticed the two of them and all stopped moving.

"Calvin! We should get out of here!"

"Calvin?"

Only then did Gray realize that the glow of the Illumination Art beside him had vanished at some point.

"Calvin, you—"

The next second, Gray discovered that his body had turned transparent. Calvin's voice came from beside him.

"What about me?"

"You... you did well! You reacted even faster than I did!"

"Tch!"

With no time to keep arguing, Calvin crouched down and grabbed Gray by the corner of his clothes, making sure they wouldn't get separated.

"Let's go, let's go. This place is way too weird."

"What about your assignment?"

"What else can I do? I'll have to use my savings to buy one from a black-market dealer."

His already meager Little Treasury was about to shrink again. Calvin felt as though his heart were bleeding.

Distracted by his grief, Calvin failed to notice the pulling force on his hand and slammed headfirst into something.

"Ow!" His forehead seemed to have split open. He could even feel blood flowing.

But he soon had no time to worry about such a minor injury.

A humanoid creature covered in ink-black scales stood directly in front of them, tilting her head as she stared at the invisible pair.

"Dr-Dr-Dr-Dragon..." Before Calvin could finish, the monster, who was shorter than him, grabbed him by the neck and lifted him into the air.

With their support gone, both Invisibility Arts instantly failed as well.

At the same time, an angry roar rang out beside them!

[Berserk LV4]

[Brute Force LV4]

It was Gray!

Seeing Calvin under attack, he decisively activated his enhancements and raised his sword with both hands before bringing it down in a powerful slash.

[Heavy Cleave LV5]

Clang—

Half of the broken sword flew into the air. Gray trembled as he maintained his downward-slashing posture, blood flowing from his split tiger's mouth.

He couldn't understand why his Refined Steel Longsword couldn't even cut through a single scale on her shoulder.

He had clearly inspected his equipment carefully before entering the Dungeon.

Wasn't this the Fifth Floor?

The monster grabbed Gray by the neck with her other claw. Gray still tried to resist, but his hands, numb from the impact, couldn't even lift themselves.

As the force from the claw around his neck grew stronger and stronger, Gray gradually found it harder to breathe.

Calvin beside him was even worse. His face had turned purple, and he was already on the verge of suffocating.

It felt like an instant, yet also like an eternity. At some point, the pressure around their necks suddenly vanished.

Gray sprawled on the ground in a sorry state, greedily gulping down air.

After catching his breath, he looked up and discovered that the terrifying monster had disappeared. Calvin, meanwhile, lay motionless on the ground, his chest no longer rising or falling.

"Calvin? Calvin! Wake up!"

Gray slapped Calvin across the face twice, but still couldn't wake him.

He hurriedly opened the small bag he carried, intending to take out a Healing Potion, but the Pujis gathering around them interrupted him.

He instinctively reached for his sword, only to grab at empty air before remembering that nothing but the broken blade remained on the ground nearby.

He was quickly tied up.

"Would've been better if she'd just strangled me to death..."

As Gray wondered how he would be killed, he saw a Puji across from him extend a tube of mycelium and shove it straight into Calvin's mouth.

The tube pulsed in and out along with the Puji's body.

Tied up, Gray could only watch helplessly, unable to do anything.

Suddenly, Calvin's eyes flew open. In a panic, he yanked the mycelium tube out of his throat.

"Cough, cough—cough, cough—cough cough—blegh—"

After he finished coughing, Calvin collapsed on the ground as though half-dead—though in truth, his health had indeed dropped by half.

Puff—

With heavy footsteps, Fatty Puji finally waddled over as well.

It rummaged around inside its belly, pulled out four items, and tossed them in front of Gray.

The Pujis then released Gray, turned around, and left. Before long, they disappeared into the Mushroom Forest.

Gray stared at the longsword, fruit pit, Magic Crystal, and Healing Potion the Pujis had left behind, unable to process it for a moment.

Had the Pujis... saved them from that monster?

Quickly gathering the items, Gray slung the weak and powerless Calvin over his shoulder and hurriedly fled back into the Floor Passage.

Damn it, I forgot to tell Little Black that humans aren't monsters!