Chapter Summaries

Eiding learned that Kees might be an unfamiliar monster in the Deep Zone, but Linden stopped him from investigating to avoid exposing their foreknowledge. Later, Inanna’s reply promised support, but revealed that Lord Elvien Slaine would lead the expert team, leaving Fahr delighted and Fifteen horrified.

• Linden asked Eiding whether he knew Kees, and Eiding offered to seek information before Linden warned him against drawing suspicion.
• Eiding trimmed and reconnected the fungal filaments in his palm to keep their texture from revealing his secret.
• Eiding collected extra materials from the guild, intending to make an anti-reconnaissance tool among other items.
• Fifteen told Eiding that Inanna’s delayed reply had arrived, and Eiding read the letter in the meeting hall.
• Eiding learned that Inanna would personally bring support with the expert team led by Lord Elvien Slaine, prompting Fahr and Fifteen to react with delight and horror.

Solalin recovered her silver pendant from a Free Market stall, while Linden considered the coming Sword Saint and investigated a dangerous Spatial Rift. The chapter left Linden facing a level 50 Kees—Evil Eye that had petrified his Scout Puji.

• Solalin found her pendant at a Free Market stall and paid the greedy vendor ten gold coins to reclaim it.
• After hearing that the Sword Saint would arrive in half a month, Linden decided he was more curious than afraid and planned to test the Sword Saint's strength.
• Linden focused on investigating a huge Spatial Rift before the expert team arrived.
• A Kees—Evil Eye emerged from the rift, spotted Linden's invisible Scout Puji, and petrified it with a pale ray.

Linden discovered that the Kees were plundering caves from a rift only three caves from Puji Fortress and targeted their weak supply troops. His Pujis routed a supply convoy, but a large Kees creature approached from the lair.

• Linden sent Scout Puji Two and Three to survey the rift and learned that the Kees were hunting for resources and carrying them back with Clumsy Beasts.
• Linden decided to attack the Kees supply troops while the Fungal Carpet spread toward them, since he had too few Pujis for a decisive battle.
• The Kees guards tried to block the tunnel as their Clumsy Beasts fled, but self-destructing Pujis and Mushroom Cannons overwhelmed them.
• Bat Pujis chased down and killed the Eye Bug, leaving the Clumsy Beasts panicked and helpless.
• Linden detected a large Kees creature approaching from the direction of the lair.

Linden’s Puji army ambushed the LV50 Evil Eye, but its petrification ray and mana shield devastated the force before one Bat Puji damaged it enough to drive it away. After learning how the Evil Eye fought, Linden planned specialized, sturdier Pujis for their next encounter.

• Linden recognized the approaching LV50 monster as the Evil Eye and sent his Puji forces to attack it inside the cave.
• The Evil Eye’s wide-area Petrification Ray turned hundreds of Puji and Kees’s Clumsy Bugs to stone, while its Mana Shield blocked the Mushroom Cannon shots.
• Three Bat Puji survived by hiding, and one reached the Evil Eye and self-destructed, damaging its shield and dimming its eye.
• The wounded Evil Eye fled into the passage, leaving Kees’s transport team and Linden’s ambush force wiped out.
• Linden studied the Evil Eye’s attack and defenses, then planned specialized Fatty Pujis with stronger attributes, armor, and Magic Resistance.

Linden tested the Heavy Armor Puji’s defenses with Little Black, who destroyed it with one strike, then learned that Kees’s forces had ambushed and routed his army in the Deep Zone. With Kees now targeting the Expedition Team, Linden decided to escalate the war.

• Linden had Little Black test the Heavy Armor Puji’s Physical Resistance, and her blow shattered the Puji despite leaving her with only a few drops of damage.
• Little Black accepted a Ruby as her reward and returned to her nest with the gem and a Puji.
• Piggy and the surviving Pujis fled Kees’s ambush and reached the fortified Snake Cave, where Louisa’s forces held off the pursuing Kees after reinforcements arrived.
• Louisa reported that her attempted strike against an Evil Eye had failed when its Mana Shield stopped her Purple Spear, and most of her army had been killed.
• Linden learned that Kees had attacked the Expedition Team and decided to escalate the war beyond his planned small-scale harassment.

Horn, Old Hammer, Aimei, and Noah discussed the disappearance of Buck and the dwindling signs of Puji in the Dungeon. In the Deep Zone, Linden’s forces fought a brutal, escalating war against Kees as he prepared for a decisive battle.

• Old Hammer told Horn and Aimei that Buck had not been seen for days, and Noah firmly rejected the suggestion that The Church was responsible.
• Aimei remarked that signs of Puji in the Dungeon had recently decreased.
• Louisa killed an Eye Bug, allowing Puji reinforcements to help the Cave Dwellers defeat the Kees attacking their Snail Wood.
• A Puji raiding party fell into a trap when Kees used stone-filled Clumsy Beasts to lure them into an ambush and kill the three-hundred-strong force.
• Linden observed that Kees learned from his tactics while he gained skills from Kees, and he kept the Heavy Armor Puji hidden as he prepared a killing field for a decisive battle.

Kees launched a surprise attack on the giant mushroom in Cave Eight, hoping to destroy the Puji production nest. It found the mushroom defended by Heavy Armor Pujis, and its retreat was blocked by Puji forces gathering in the connected passages.

• An Eye Bug infiltrated Cave Eight and discovered the giant mushroom producing Puji, revealing the target to Kees.
• Kees assembled its troops and took a long detour to approach Cave Eight from the lightly guarded rear.
• Evil Eye and the Six-Claws broke through the Puji sentries, and Kees's main force attacked the giant mushroom.
• Kees tore open the mushroom's outer layers but found ten Heavy Armor Pujis inside, whose armor and spores inflicted heavy casualties.
• Kees abandoned the fight and charged through Cave Eight toward home, but Puji forces with Heavy Armor Pujis blocked the connected passages.

Linden’s ambush wiped out Kees’s army and killed its Evil Eye, while Louisa wondered how she could prove her worth and grow stronger. As Linden sensed a familiar signal in Mute Wind Town, Inanna struggled to suppress a strange connection to the Mycelium Network.

• Linden’s Heavy Armor Pujis trapped Kees’s forces in Cave Eight and shielded the advancing Pujis from their attacks.
• A Heavy Armor Puji exploded beneath the Evil Eye, blasting its Stone Mushroom Cap through the creature’s Mana Shield and leaving it vulnerable to Mushroom Cannon fire.
• With the Evil Eye dead and its mental link broken, the Kees army collapsed, and the Ox-Horse Pujis began clearing the battlefield.
• Louisa watched the battle and resolved to make a valuable contribution so she could ask Linden how to become stronger.
• Linden sensed a familiar signal entering the reach of Mute Wind Town’s Fungal Carpet, while Inanna concealed a sudden, thrilling connection to the Mycelium Network from Uncle Elwin.

Linden discovered that Inanna Saint Clair was connected to the Mycelium Network and learned that the Sword Saint Elwin Slayne had arrived with the expert team. In Mute Wind Town, Inanna tried to contact Linden in secret, but her Veil of Obscurity cut her off while she was transformed into a Pink Puji.

• Linden identified Inanna Saint Clair as Pink Puji and found Elwin Slayne among the arriving experts.
• Guildmaster Fahr welcomed the team to the Adventurer Guild, where Inanna and Eiding exchanged knowing greetings through the Mycelium Network.
• Elwin Slayne failed to recognize Fifteen as his former disciple and mocked him for losing to a Puji.
• Inanna used the Veil of Obscurity to seal her private room, bathed, and transformed into a Pink Puji to contact Linden.
• Inanna discovered the Veil had blocked the Mycelium Network and could not reach it to remove it, leaving her stuck as a Puji until her transformation wore off.

Linden persuaded Inanna to help him delay the guild’s campaign against the Pujis by staging a demonstration with her Gem Dagger. Meanwhile, the guild’s expert team entered the Amethyst Dungeon and found a Spatial Rift where the Lava Nest had been, revealing a more serious situation than expected.

• Linden told Inanna that Chairman Fahr had persecuted the Pujis and asked her to bring the Gem Dagger for a plan to make Knight Puji appear controlled.
• Inanna agreed to help, and Linden planned to use the performance to remove the guild’s fear of uncontrolled Pujis and buy time.
• Fahr sent the expert team into the dungeon, accompanied by Sword Saint Elwin, Fifteen, and Eiding, while Inanna’s apparent disgust left him puzzled.
• Elwin marveled at the dungeon’s changes, rented an Illumination Puji, and led the team downward without encountering resistance from the Pujis.
• The team found the former Lava Nest cold and empty, with a five-meter-wide Spatial Rift at the bottom of the vanished lava lake, and Guge warned that the situation was worse than expected.

Fifteen, Inanna, Guge, and Elwin crossed the empty Deep Zone of Amethyst Dungeon and found a battlefield where Kees had repelled a puji assault. They confronted the Kees army gathered around a Spatial Rift, and Elwin drew his sword to lead them through.

• Fifteen questioned why the Deep Zone held no monsters, and the Sword Saint said it had been lively about twenty years earlier.
• Kees defended its Rift against the puji army, holding the passage with its icy-terrain advantage until the pujis retreated after detecting newcomers.
• The Kees scouting force spotted the approaching group, but its members abruptly lost contact with one another.
• Fifteen found a Kees corpse, while Inanna summoned a water serpent to watch for threats after declining Elwin's offer to teach her Qi Sense.
• The group reached a cave filled with Kees, Clumsy Bugs, and a huge Evil Eye surrounding a Spatial Rift, and Guge identified the monsters as Kees.
• Elwin drew his sword and urged the group to get through the hostile cave quickly.

Linden’s Pujis followed the trail left by the Sword Saint’s party, while the expedition reached the Amethyst Dungeon’s core and discovered that it was nearing a complete shutdown. Guge said the core could not be repaired with the knowledge they had, leaving the party preparing to turn back.

• Linden returned to the cave after Inanna and Eiding passed through, found the Kees slaughtered, and ordered the Pujis to move the corpses and follow the party from a distance.
• Elwin killed the Scout Puji that had been trailing the group, and Fifteen noted that Pujis had left traces deep in the dungeon.
• After two days of travel through increasingly dangerous monsters, the party reached a platform beside the sealed core gate.
• Guge and the mages assembled a new Mana Fluctuation Collector and discovered that the Core was gradually approaching a standstill.
• Guge said the core could not be repaired with their expertise, and Elwin proposed returning; Eiding was stunned while Inanna watched silently.

Linden learned that the Amethyst Dungeon Core was failing and that human experts could not repair it, so he asked the Yellow Book for help and considered where to shelter during the repair. Meanwhile, Eiding’s scout found the Puji King in the Deep Zone, and the Sword Saint decided to visit it.

• Inanna warned Linden that the Dungeon Core was failing, and Eiding relayed Guge’s conclusion that humans lacked the technology to repair it.
• Linden questioned the Yellow Book, which claimed an eighty percent chance of restoring the dungeon if it could inspect the core and asked for permission to feed on souls afterward.
• Linden agreed to consider the Yellow Book’s offer but planned to keep his main body away from the Amethyst Dungeon during repairs and weigh the surface and Kees’s territory as refuges.
• Eiding’s Miniature Illusion Scout captured an image of the Puji King in the Deep Zone, and Fifteen recognized the shield that had defeated him.
• The Sword Saint chose to visit the Puji King despite the dungeon’s impending destruction.

Fifteen pursued the Knight Puji after the Sword Saint slaughtered the assembled Puji army, hoping to capture the so-called Puji King alive. He struck it in the same spot as before, but discovered too late that its hiding place opened onto a Spatial Rift, and his step carried him into the void.

• Fifteen cut down the two Puji guarding the cave entrance, where the group found a battle-ready Puji army.
• The Sword Saint swept through the encircling Puji with a single rapid attack, leaving Fifteen to face Knight Puji and its elite companion.
• Fifteen killed ten Elite Puji before Knight Puji escaped and a Fatty Puji exploded, blasting Knight Puji aside.
• Fifteen chased Knight Puji into a narrow hole and struck its rear with one of his twin swords.
• Fifteen discovered that the hole ended at a Spatial Rift, and his foot stepped into empty air.

Sword Saint Elwin subdued Knight Puji before Inanna bound it with her Gem Dagger, creating a contract with the Puji clone rather than controlling Linden himself. After a failed attempt to make the knight stand, the group headed back to the surface with Inanna carrying it.

• Sword Saint Elwin rushed in, cut the Mycelium Tentacles, paralyzed Knight Puji, and tossed Fifteen aside.
• Elwin told Inanna to test her Gem Dagger on Knight Puji, and she cut her palm and stabbed the dagger into it.
• The dagger formed an Intermediate Magic Contract between Inanna and Knight Puji, while Linden found that his own status had not changed.
• Inanna tried to command Knight Puji to stand, but Linden made it release Hallucinogenic Spores, which Guge blew away with a Gale Spell.
• Elwin led the group back to the surface, and Inanna carried the recovering Knight Puji while quietly dropping a small notebook.

Linden examined Inanna’s notebook while rebuilding his Puji after Sword Saint destroyed more than a thousand of them. On the surface, Fahr learned that the captured Knight Puji could command the Dungeon’s Puji, but the Dungeon core could not be repaired and was expected to collapse within half a year.

• Linden found that Sword Saint’s attacks had suppressed the cut surfaces of more than a thousand Pujis, preventing [Mycelium Reorganization] from reviving them, so he began replenishing his forces.
• Linden read Inanna’s notes about the Dungeon’s isolated floors, its mana from beyond the world, and possible creators such as Heroes, Demon kings, or gods.
• Adventurers gathered to see Sword Saint and the Knight Puji, while Inanna hoped to return to the Dungeon and lie on the Fungal Carpet.
• Guge told Fahr that the Knight Puji could exert some control over the Dungeon’s Puji, but confirmed that the core could not be repaired.
• Fahr worried about the branch’s future as the Dungeon’s collapse approached, while Linden carefully put away Inanna’s notebook, pleased that he was beginning to understand the Dungeon.

Linden learned that the Dungeon was built from sealed spaces and wondered what lay outside the world, while the looming collapse prompted Fahr to prepare for shortages. Inanna returned to the Dungeon with Eiding to search for Puji treasure, and she transformed into a Pink Puji as a Big Black Mushroom watched nearby.

• Linden realized the Dungeon’s boundary was an illusion-covered wall around a small space and learned that the Sixth Floor and Deep Zone were physically connected despite their separation by rules.
• Guge’s magic-array experts returned to Oath City, while the Sword Saint headed east with Fifteen to train him.
• Inanna thanked Fahr, defended the Puji treasure from his supposed interest, and named the Knight Puji; Fahr then ordered the guild to raise material purchase prices and stockpile resources before the collapse spread.
• Inanna refused to return home and persuaded Eiding to accompany her into the Dungeon to find Puji treasure, bringing three Illumination Pujis for light.
• At the Mushroom Forest, Inanna entered a Mushroom House and emerged as a Pink Puji, offering to transform Eiding as a Big Black Mushroom watched from behind a tree.

Linden stopped Little Black from eating Inanna, who had transformed into Pink Puji to connect to the Fungal Carpet, then rewarded Eiding and let him experience the carpet’s magic restoration. In the Deep Zone, the modified Norris woke up as Linden prepared to test his [Mental Integration LV7].

• Little Black chased Inanna in her Pink Puji form, but Linden distracted her with honey-covered pujish until she fell asleep stuffed.
• Linden moved Inanna and Eiding to the Sixth Floor, where Inanna connected to the Fungal Carpet and luxuriated in its warmth and nourishment.
• Linden praised Eiding’s work and rewarded him with two A-Rank Magic Crystals, prompting Eiding to ask to become a Puji.
• Linden put Eiding on the Fungal Carpet to demonstrate its magic restoration and explained that his mine and [Crystal Symbiosis LV7] supplied plenty of high-grade crystals.
• Norris woke in the Deep Zone, and Linden urged him to test the changes from [Mental Integration LV7].

Linden tested Norris's new mental-control abilities and built a Puji construct called Jida for him to operate. After Jida repeatedly fell apart, Linden concluded the combined body offered no meaningful combat advantage.

• Linden observed a Spatial Rift form and learned that mana fluctuations and spatial distortion preceded its opening.
• Norris increased his control from twenty Pujis to thirty-six, gained individual micro-control, and discovered he could share their senses, though too much sensory input overwhelmed him.
• Linden assembled ten Pujis into a nearly four-meter hyphal construct and had Norris climb inside to control it as Jida.
• Norris learned to crawl and then stand Jida upright, but its Puji feet burst under the pressure and the construct collapsed.
• Linden tested Jida with Elite Pujis, armor, and weapons, then judged the project useless because combining the Pujis did not increase their strength, speed, or attack power.

Linden prepared to cross the Kees Rift with a Puji vanguard while Inanna returned to the Adventurer Guild with her own Pujis. As the chapter ended, Linden sent a message ahead to announce his arrival on the other side.

• Linden tested Eiding and Inanna's ability to control Pujis, then gave Inanna twenty Pujis and several treasures before they left the Dungeon.
• Linden introduced Little Black to Inanna and Eiding, who discovered that the Big Black Mushroom was a Dragonkin.
• Inanna returned to Fahr and offered to help further, but left disappointed when Fahr declined; she bought two carriages to transport her Pujis.
• Linden used [Refractive Invisibility] to help five hundred Pujis advance through the Deep Zone, where they killed a giant lizard.
• Linden gathered nearly eighteen hundred Pujis at the Kees Rift and sent a Voice Puji across to tell Kees he was coming in.