Chapter Summaries

Marshal Puji introduced Norris to a Delicious Juicy Mushroom while Linden dealt with the aftermath of the Sacred Tree Dungeon mission. Pelagell returned to the Mushroom Garden after Linden’s dream-based cognitive replacement, and Linden learned more about the Frenzy ritual before Clolo received a new assignment concerning Inanna.

• Marshal Puji fed Norris juice from a Delicious Juicy Mushroom and told him to share the rest with Little Black.
• Linden rewarded Bastardos with mushroom juice, Contribution Points, and paid leave, then returned Pelagell’s bow, Light Bee, to him.
• Linden’s dream operations replaced Pelagell’s devotion to the Ark with loyalty to the Mushroom Garden, causing memory gaps but yielding intelligence about Frenzy and the Ark.
• Linden learned that Frenzy spread through emotional resonance and was harder for calm, rational mages to resist, but he chose not to involve the elves’ leaders in the conflict.
• Clolo told Linden that his new mission was to locate Duke's Daughter Inanna and report her whereabouts.

Clolo passed Milo intelligence on Inanna, and Milo and Giles prepared to assassinate her under a severe deadline. While scouting the Saint Clair family woodland, Giles discovered an alarming number of magical traps, fled without Milo, and found himself caught in an illusion.

• Clolo handed Milo a sealed file detailing Inanna’s whereabouts, routines, and guards.
• Milo gave the intelligence to Giles, and they agreed to verify it quickly because Sigismund had imposed a tight deadline.
• Milo and Giles entered the Saint Clair family woodland to scout its defenses before Inanna’s next visit.
• Giles used Scout scrolls and found the forest filled with hidden magical arrays, despite seeing no visible threats.
• Giles persuaded Milo to stay behind, then fled and triggered explosions as he ran.
• Giles realized the path had vanished and saw several “Eidings” approaching him.

Linden’s trap killed the assassin who targeted Inanna, while Eiding captured the fleeing Vampire Viscount for Linden’s planned experiment. As Linden prepared for a confrontation in the Strange Dream, Sigismund chose a deadly abyssal ritual to destroy his enemy, accepting the chance that they might perish together.

• Milo triggered the Explosion Magic Array and died, while investigators found that nearly half the Dream Flowers had vanished from the Duke’s Mansion’s warehouse.
• Eric strengthened the mansion’s defenses and worried that an insider had stolen the flowers and might have affected Inanna.
• Eiding and the Puji captured the fleeing Vampire Viscount, and Linden planned to test how a Photosynthesis Vampire reacted to sunlight.
• Linden’s Mental Guidance reached LV7, and Inanna quietly envied the Puji Masters’ bond with the Mycelium despite feeling safe beside the Puji and Linden.
• Malgas presented Sigismund with two methods to escape the Strange Dream, and Sigismund rejected soul-splitting in favor of an abyssal trap with a thirty percent chance of killing them both.
• Sigismund ordered Malgas to prepare captives, told his adjutant to kill Malgas if anything happened to him, and went alone to the abyssal array.

Sigismund lured Linden into a dream using an Abyss Magic array, but Linden broke into the dream with a colossal Puji. Sigismund unleashed a void that overwhelmed Linden with chaotic information, then the darkness abruptly vanished, leaving Sigismund helpless and Linden free to attack.

• Sigismund drank Dream Illusion Potion and entered a dream, where he replaced its scenery with a gloomy hall and throne.
• Linden sent a giant Puji through the dream city's protective shell and broke into Sigismund's hall.
• Sigismund opened a pitch-black void that flooded the dream with darkness and chaotic information, while the abyssal ritual killed more than a dozen sacrifices in reality.
• The void closed less than half a minute later, leaving Sigismund kneeling and unable to fight back.
• Linden realized he did not need to retreat, kicked Sigismund, and brought a tentacle down on his head.

Malgas performed a second Abyss Magic ritual to cut the intruder from Sigismund’s soul while Linden continued overpowering the duke in his dream. Sigismund rose afterward with a new voice and a struggle still raging inside him over who owned his body.

• Sigismund regained enough clarity to warn Malgas that the trap had failed and Linden was still in his head, so Malgas began another soul-cutting ritual at great cost to himself.
• In the collapsing dreamscape, Linden repeatedly flattened Sigismund, then sat beside him when the duke expected Linden to be trapped and die with him.
• Malgas watched Sigismund stand after the ritual and feared that he had become a mindless monster.
• Sigismund exclaimed that his voice and body felt fresh, then shifted between an ecstatic voice claiming the body and a furious voice demanding that the intruder leave his head.

Linden fought Sigismund for control of the vampire duke’s body, but the struggle left Sigismund near death and forced Linden to give up part of his soul to keep him alive. After Sigismund regained control, he apologized to Malgas and then killed him.

• Linden rejoiced at regaining the sensations of a physical body while Malgas hid in the hall, afraid of him.
• In the space of will, Linden and Green Puji repeatedly attacked Sigismund as Linden tried to take over his body.
• Sigismund’s consciousness began to collapse, destabilizing Linden’s control of the body, so Linden sacrificed part of his soul to help Sigismund survive.
• Sigismund awoke and reassured Malgas that the failures were not entirely his fault, then apologized and stabbed through Malgas’s chest, destroying his heart.

Linden took control of Duke Sigismund's body after Sigismund killed Malgas, then emerged to find the Scarlet Spire under attack. He ordered the Demon Race army to meet the advancing humans in a full assault, leaving the looming battle poised to begin.

• Duke Sigismund killed Malgas, and Linden took control of his body under their agreement to take turns.
• Linden greeted the adjutant and learned that the humans were attacking the Scarlet Spire.
• Linden and the adjutant reached the observation platform, where they saw the human army advancing under cover of the spire's black curtain.
• The adjutant reported that Duke Eleanor had not responded and expected the Demon Race to defeat the humans.
• Linden ordered all troops to attack, then wondered aloud how many people would die.

Linden took control of Sigismund’s body while the Demon Race army fought Alama’s forces, leaving the adjutant in command. After Alama pressed the Demon Race army and attacked its Blood Knights, Sigismund reclaimed his body and flew into battle to face Alama.

• Alama suspected Sigismund’s open-field deployment might be a trap and ordered extra Scouts to watch Eleanor’s forces.
• Sigismund stayed at the Scarlet Spire while Linden tried eating ordinary food, drank blood, and sampled sugar in his body.
• The battle began cautiously as Alama and the adjutant commanding for Sigismund avoided taking major risks.
• Alama realized Sigismund was likely absent and intensified his assault, forcing the Blood Knights to reinforce the Demon Race’s struggling flank.
• Alama led the Hemlock Knights against the Blood Knights, and Linden returned control of the body to Sigismund.
• Sigismund transformed into a bat and joined the battle, where he clashed with Alama.

Inanna endured a day without the Mycelium Network after her medical examination, then returned to it as Pink Puji and found comfort in Linden’s reassurance. Meanwhile, the battle ended in a Demon Race retreat, and Linden pursued Abyss Magic users and investigated a mysterious hollow while inhabiting Sigismund’s body.

• Eric told Inanna that her examination showed she was healthy, and she hid her distress after returning to her room because Boss had cut off her connection to the Mycelium Network.
• After nightfall, Inanna transformed into Pink Puji, reconnected with the network through Knight Puji, and fell asleep peacefully after Linden promised she could call him if she had another nightmare.
• Duke Alama and Sigismund ended the battle by withdrawing their forces, and Sigismund blamed Duke Eleanor for the defeat to stabilize morale.
• Linden read Malgas’s book of Abyss Magic and issued a recruitment notice seeking Abyss Magic users, planning to send them on trips to Mushroom Capital.
• Linden focused on learning to open the hollow leading to the abyss and considered asking Piggy to help him find delicious blood.

Bianka returned to her home in the Resettlement Zone, where a gang tried to extort her and seized her money. Dylan intervened, gave the gang leader a gold coin, and arranged to lure the gang to a remote location that night.

• Bianka hurried home with a Puji carrying leftover soup and hoped to move her mother to a better home with her new salary.
• A gang confronted Bianka over a fabricated debt, shoved her down, spilled the Puji's soup, and took her money pouch.
• Dylan arrived with dried mushrooms for Bianka and offered to pay the gang's claimed debt.
• Dylan used Charm on the gang leader and arranged for him to bring his gang to a remote spot near Puji Dungeon that night, promising more gold.
• Bianka's mother held her back as she lunged for the stolen money, and Bianka later hugged Dylan and cried with relief.

Linden and Piggy discovered that a captive’s blood was exceptionally valuable and sent samples through Sigismund’s spy network. Meanwhile, Sigismund studied ways to expel Linden, while desperate low-rank Evil Mage Valen decided to answer the duke’s recruitment notice.

• Piggy tasted the blood of the freshly processed Delicious Lanky Man, identified it as one-of-a-kind [Delicious LV8], and Linden sent preserved samples through the duke’s spy network.
• Sigismund studied books about souls and extraction while his new adjutant reported that recruitment of Abyss Magic users was progressing smoothly.
• Sigismund and Linden continued their uneasy arrangement, each pursuing separate plans while sharing the body.
• Valen recalled how a failed ritual had destroyed seven slaves, drained his savings, and left him threatened by creditors.
• After seeing the duke’s open recruitment notice, Valen decided to join, despite suspecting that only a few applicants would ultimately be kept.

Fahr reviewed Mushroom Capital’s growth, pressed Mirabelle about the lack of reports on gangs and a newly discovered Stone Forest, and ordered the area monitored. Meanwhile, Valen joined a dangerous mission in enemy territory to perform a dark ritual.

• Fahr concluded talks with officials from Fisher Sail Port and Norwid, requiring their Puji Master Professional Associations to follow Mushroom Capital’s standards.
• Mirabelle explained that the city’s tiny gangs quickly disbanded, leaving no significant organizations to report.
• Mirabelle reported that a special Puji had caused the eastern Stone Forest’s petrification, and Fahr ordered further investigation and regular monitoring.
• Valen joined a group of Evil Mages traveling into enemy territory to perform a dark ritual for Duke Sigismund’s promised reward.

Linden used stacked Physical Resistance skills to transform the Demon Descendants into a race with Physical Immunity, which he renamed the Mushroom Descendants. The chapter left the newly born clansman unharmed after a full-force attack and Linden proclaiming the race’s future.

• Linden exposed Vampire Viscount Giles to alternating heat and cold, helping him develop Sunlight Resistance LV1.
• Elves launched a large-scale purification operation in the Sacred Tree Dungeon, and the dead Monsters nourished Linden’s Fungal Carpet until Physical Resistance reached its maximum level.
• Galen accepted his execution and drank Delicious Mushroom soup before Shou killed him and Spark performed the Demon Descendant rebirth ritual with Linden.
• The reborn clansman gained stacked Physical Resistance, and Linden ordered an Elite Puji to strike him to test the result.
• Spark found the new clansman completely unharmed, confirming Physical Immunity, and Linden declared that the Demon Descendants would henceforth be called Mushroom Descendants.

Linden watched Ming train and grow, while new Mushroom Descendants were born and workers began building a settlement in the Far North. The chapter left Linden planning a larger city as the Fungal Carpet continued to spread.

• Linden named the newborn Mushroom Descendant Ming, who fought a rolling beetle under Marshal Puji’s instructions and reached LV5.
• Linden praised Ming and fed him mushroom-stewed oyster, then reflected on Ming’s Physical Immunity and how the Cradle ritual had granted it.
• Spark presided over several newborn rituals that welcomed more than ten Mushroom Descendants, most of whom received ordinary resistances and were placed in the Mushroom Garden.
• Linden planned a city for around ten thousand people as the Fungal Carpet spread toward other tribes and he prepared to assimilate the surrounding regions.
• Linden abandoned his underground-city plan after water seepage, collapses, and ventilation problems, and settled for building an ordinary settlement.

Sigismund tried to purify the soul he shared with Linden, but the ritual only brought temporary relief and left them bound together. After control of the body changed, Linden opened the parcel and drank its dark-red contents, prompting Sigismund to demand to know what blood it was.

• Sigismund decided against tracing the magically sealed parcel after recalling Linden's retaliation for his attempt to remove sugar from the tower.
• Sigismund completed and activated a soul purification array, but it did not separate him from Linden.
• Sigismund planned another ritual while Linden concealed that their souls were so intertwined that an attempt to destroy him would kill them both.
• Linden took control of the body, rushed to the study, and opened the parcel, finding bottles of dark-red liquid.
• Linden drank from one bottle and savored the taste, while Sigismund urgently asked what blood it was and where Linden had obtained it.

Duke Sigismund discovered that the liquid Linden had tasted brought back the Blood Clan’s lost sensation of deliciousness, but his plans to offer it to the emperor were interrupted by a summons. Prince Vesalius ordered a one-month halt to attacks on High Keep Fortress while reinforcements prepared to arrive, and Linden recognized the prince.

• Duke Sigismund marveled at the liquid’s taste and found that Linden had drained the jar before he could ask for more.
• Duke Sigismund answered the emperor’s summons and joined Eleanor in a meeting at Twilight Castle, where Eleanor mocked him and noticed black mist shrouding his projection.
• Prince Vesalius summoned Duke Sigismund and Eleanor on the emperor’s behalf, then ordered Sigismund to stop attacking High Keep Fortress and protect incoming supplies.
• Duke Sigismund learned that Valerice would arrive at the Eastern Front in one month while Prince Vesalius went to the Western Front, and Vesalius declared the Dwarves would soon cease to threaten the Empire.
• Linden studied Prince Vesalius’s silhouette and recognized him.

Linden used Greed to plunder Abyss Magic from the surviving Evil Mages, gaining only LV4 and falling short of the LV7 needed to open a passage to the abyss. Valen returned to the Empire fearing punishment, unaware that he and the other survivors would receive promised support and that Duke Sigismund would recruit again.

• Linden decided against leaking the Empire's plans to the humans and waited for his expected takeout to arrive.
• Valen's disguised expedition crossed human territory and reached a Stone Forest, where a Puji Master warned them about weak petrification energy.
• Valen and two other groups entered separate chambers and activated interconnected Abyss Magic arrays, but the other two groups were annihilated.
• Valen feared the surviving low-level Evil Mages would be abandoned, though they were promised resources and Duke Sigismund later issued another recruitment order.
• Linden triggered Greed, plundered Abyss Magic LV4, and planned to test its basic applications while seeking stronger Evil Mages.

Linden tested an Abyss Magic summoning ritual without using living sacrifices and summoned a Shadow Bug labeled a “Scrapped Concept.” The discovery made him fear that his world and the people he cared about might be designed game data.

• Linden prepared a remote testing ground and reviewed the dangerous precautions for the Servant Summoning Ritual.
• Linden had Pujis take the places of the ritual’s intended living sacrifices and activated the array.
• The ritual produced a writhing, yarn-like creature that Linden identified as a Level 3 Shadow Bug (Scrapped Concept).
• Linden used his contract link to pull the Shadow Bug back from merging into a shadow.
• Linden wondered whether the world was a game and whether he, Little Black, Norris, Piggy, and Shou were players or programmed characters.

After an Abyss Magic ritual left Linden with little useful information, he shook off his existential gloom by shaping Vera’s dream into an elaborate abduction adventure. He then turned his attention to capturing the remaining young Werewolves on the Dungeon’s Tenth Floor.

• Linden crushed the summoned Shadow Bug, found it left no remains or trace of a soul, and recorded questions about what information different Abyss rituals revealed.
• Vera fell asleep during a rainy night and dreamed that a Blood Clan duke abducted Feiling and Feiyin, prompting a quest involving the Four Heavenly Kings.
• Vera woke exhausted and confused by the dream, while Sirian hesitated to voice his concern about her condition.
• Linden enjoyed shaping Vera’s dream, then decided to seize the remaining young Werewolves from the stubborn tribe holding out on his Dungeon’s Tenth Floor.

Little Blue challenged the Old Wolf for leadership of the Werewolf tribe and defeated him with Linden’s help. As the new Wolf King, Little Blue ordered the tribe to leave the Tenth Floor, and most of the Werewolves followed him.

• Little Blue returned to the Werewolf settlement and issued the Old Wolf an Alpha Challenge, pledging to take everyone away.
• The Old Wolf attacked Little Blue before he could prepare, but Little Blue’s defenses and regeneration kept him alive through the fight.
• Linden urged Little Blue to fight without hesitation, and Little Blue grew more ruthless as the duel continued.
• Little mushrooms made the Old Wolf slip, letting Little Blue pierce his chest and kill him.
• The young Werewolves cheered Little Blue as their new Wolf King, and he ordered the tribe to leave the Tenth Floor or remain as exiles.