Chapter Summaries

Inanna settled into life at the Duke’s Mansion while keeping the tiny mushroom hidden in her hair. On the Fifth Floor, Linden’s assault on the Parasitic Trees suffered a costly ambush, forcing him to retreat and seek a way to make his Pujis faster.

• Inanna woke to Butler Eric’s reminder that her new magic tutor would arrive soon, then prepared herself without help and kept the mushroom on her head secret.
• Inanna wondered whether Linden had managed to defeat an Earth Worm after she left.
• Linden’s Pujis battled the Parasitic Trees in the swamp as he considered the limited benefits of the skills he had been leveling.
• A Level 45 Parasitic Tree with Blade Storm and two summoned Water Elementals struck the Pujis, forcing Linden to retreat after losing most of his force.
• Linden postponed his next offensive and decided to replenish his Pujis while exploring for a useful acceleration skill.

Linden found a dead human mage and fought the Gnolls responsible with his newly upgraded Pujis. After plundering several skills, he gained Common Human Tongue but still could not read the mage’s notes, and he planned to continue searching for an acceleration skill.

• Linden found a recently dead human mage near Gnoll Forest and searched his belongings.
• Several Gnolls approached the corpse, but Linden’s Pujis attacked and killed or crippled them while one escaped.
• Linden tested the new Self-Destruct skill alongside Rolling Charge and sent the Gnoll corpses and equipment to the Swamp Zone.
• Seven Sins: Greed plundered Precision, Archery Mastery, Wind Magic, and Common Human Tongue from the Gnolls and mage.
• Linden tried reading the mage’s booklet but recognized only a few words, then decided to search elsewhere for an acceleration skill the next day.

Linden led more than two hundred Pujis in a counterattack that destroyed the Parasitic Trees in the Swamp Zone, while planning to expand his Mushroom Garden across the Fifth Floor and find a way to coexist with humans. The chapter ended with Dylan riding through a violent storm, his face partly exposed and covered in mycelium.

• Adventurers in Mute Wind Town noticed that Monsters had become scarce across the Fifth Floor and dismissed Nick's claim that Pujis had killed the Green-Eyed Frogs.
• Linden sent his Puji army against the Parasitic Trees, using Assault Ejection and successive self-destruct attacks to defeat their defenses.
• The Pujis destroyed the Parasitic Trees and caused the Water Elementals to vanish, leaving Linden's army in control of the Swamp Zone.
• Linden planned to make the Swamp Zone the core of a Mushroom Garden spanning the Fifth Floor and considered how to negotiate with humans over the mine and their routes.
• Linden decided to test Fusion Parasitism on the Gnolls in the forest.
• Dylan rode through heavy rain with a bundle against his chest, and the wind tore away his hood to reveal mycelium covering half his face.

Dylan rushed to Finlad with a Rebirth Potion to save Bella, but found the village burning and overrun by Blood-Eating Ghouls. After killing one, he continued toward the church, fearing Bella might already have transformed.

• Dylan spent fifty-five gold coins on a Rebirth Potion and hurried to Finlad, where Bella was being treated for Blood Poison.
• Dylan reached the village at night and discovered Finlad engulfed in flames amid a battle and slaughter.
• Dylan encountered two Blood-Eating Ghouls, and one attacked him while he tried to reach the church.
• Dylan used a Blindness scroll and his sword skills to kill the attacking Blood-Eating Ghoul, though she badly injured his arm and internal organs.
• Dylan patched his arm, drank a Mana Potion, and continued toward the church, prepared to kill Bella himself if she had become a Blood-Eating Ghoul.

Dylan reached the church in Finlad and saved his daughter Bella from Blood Poison with a Rebirth Potion. After confirming she would recover, he left before she woke, fearing his mutation would endanger her future, and decided to seek refuge somewhere he believed might offer a way to survive.

• Malvin asked the exhausted Priest Grane to suppress the Blood Poison patients, but Grane told him to kill those who could not be saved.
• Malvin killed several patients, including a patrol captain, and prepared to put the transforming Bella out of her misery.
• Dylan burst into the church and gave Bella a Rebirth Potion, which Malvin explained would painfully reverse her transformation.
• After noticing the soldiers had begun restoring order, Dylan slipped out of the village before Bella woke.
• Dylan feared Bella would sacrifice her future to stand by him if she learned about his mutation, so he resolved to stay away and seek a place where he might survive.

Dylan returned to the Fifth Floor seeking the swamp and Treasure Room, but found Pujis occupying the area and the Treasure Room gone. Linden, meanwhile, worried that his conflict with Adventurers would escalate and noticed Dylan’s return.

• Dylan returned to the Dungeon and learned from Vera that Mutant Pujis had occupied much of the Fifth Floor and killed people.
• Dylan found Poison Mist Lake without its toxic fog or Green-Eyed Frogs, with Pujis roaming nearby instead.
• Dylan reached the swamp and discovered its native Monsters had vanished, replaced by Pujis, and the Treasure Room and its stone door were gone.
• Linden considered what to do with his Mushroom Gnoll Puppets and worried that Adventurers had turned against him after he killed three who attacked his Pujis.
• Linden noticed Dylan had returned to the Fifth Floor and immediately formed an idea.

Dylan returned to Amethyst Dungeon and was captured by Linden’s Mushroom Gnolls, but Linden offered him food, shelter, and work instead of taking control of his will. After gaining the Mimicry skill, Dylan went to Rotten Willow Tavern to sell adventurers his guide to the Fifth Floor.

• Dylan was held in a Gnoll tent and ate a roasted pig trotter while fearing he would become like the parasitized Gnolls.
• Linden brought Dylan to a hollow Giant Tree filled with Mycelium, where Dylan relaxed and revealed why he had returned to the Dungeon.
• After Dylan woke, Linden offered him a place to stay and tasks in exchange for food and lodging, and Dylan agreed to serve him as his Boss.
• Linden calmed the Mycelium in Dylan’s body and added the Mimicry LV2 skill, which let Dylan disguise his fungal features.
• Dylan visited Rotten Willow Tavern and offered adventurers his guide to the Fifth Floor for a high price.

Linden tried to use the Crystallized Bats and Rock Lizards to develop [Crystal Symbiosis], but his bombardment collapsed their cave, so he turned to poison instead. Meanwhile, Vera shared Dylan’s Fifth Floor guide with Feiling and Feiyin, and Feiling questioned whether the costly purchase was trustworthy.

• Linden brought gnolls and Pujis to attack the Crystallized Bats and Rock Lizards, but the Mushroom Cannons collapsed the cave entrance.
• After clearing the entrance, Linden realized the ordinary cave could not withstand bombardment and considered other ways to defeat the Monsters.
• Linden sent Hallucination Pujis into the cave, and their spores poisoned the Crystallized Bats and Rock Lizards, allowing him to plunder several skills.
• Linden decided to produce more Hallucination Pujis to explore the branching cave and planned to ask Dylan about learning more about the Dungeon.
• Vera gave Feiling and Feiyin Dylan’s Fifth Floor guide and explained that she had paid fifty silver coins for it.
• Feiling worried that Vera had been scammed, while Feiyin quietly watched their exchange.

Vera, Feiling, and Feiyin used a Monster corpse to lure the Pujis away, then found a huge Fat Puji that traded a corpse for an engraved shield. As Feiling reached for the shield, Raiders attacked them.

• Vera threw a Two-Headed Python corpse toward the Pujis, and they carried it away toward the Swamp Zone.
• Vera decided to follow the guide's extra information with Feiling and Feiyin, while Nasa and Grongba secretly began tracking them as potential prey.
• Vera's group found a huge Puji in a hidden cave at the edge of Gnoll Forest and offered it a canine Monster corpse.
• The Fat Puji rummaged inside itself and gave the group an Engraved Round Shield in exchange for the corpse.
• Feiling moved to pick up the shield, but Vera kicked her aside as a crossbow bolt struck the ground and she shouted that Raiders were attacking.

Raiders Grongba and Nasa ambushed Vera, Feiling, and Feiyin, incapacitated them, and tied them up for Nasa’s cruel survival game. As Nasa prepared to kill the captives after Vera asked him to spare her friends, Grongba’s attack on Fat Puji’s pouch ended with Grongba exploding in a burst of flesh and blood over Nasa.

• Grongba and Nasa ambushed the group, using paralysis fluid and magic-suppressing powder to defeat Vera, Feiling, and Feiyin.
• Nasa tied up the women and demanded that Feiling choose which of her sister Vera or her lover would die.
• Vera asked Nasa to kill her and release her friends, but he raised his knife and threatened to kill them first.
• Inside the cave, Grongba failed to open Fat Puji’s pouch and struck it with Heavy Cleave, causing himself to explode over Nasa.

Linden captured Nasa to repay Fatty No. 1’s destruction and prepared another Fatty Puji for trades, while Feiyin rescued Vera. Linden then discovered a powerful Crystallized Bat deep in the cave after it killed several Hallucination Pujis.

• Fatty No. 1’s self-destruct killed Grongba and the Dwarf, but Nasa survived the blast and was caught by tentacled Pujis.
• Feiyin freed herself and her sister, then used a Life Potion to stabilize Vera.
• Linden had the Pujis wear Nasa down, infect him with Spores, and hang him from a tree to become a Parasitic Puppet.
• Linden sent Fatty No. 2 to replace Fatty No. 1 and planned to use it to trade items for Monster corpses.
• Several Hallucination Pujis vanished deep in the cave, and Linden identified a level 25 Crystallized Bat with powerful Infrasonic Attack as the cause.

Linden failed to defeat the enormous Crystallized Bat and decided to leave it trapped in its cave for now, while his Adventurer dealings continued. Dylan returned with the guide-sale money and received a reward, as Oberon ordered an A-rank investigation of the Fifth Floor Pujis.

• Linden discovered that the giant Crystallized Bat carried three S-Rank Magic Crystals and could not fit through the cave passages, then watched it wipe out more than a hundred Hallucination Pujis with sound attacks.
• Linden decided not to lure Adventurers to fight the bat, while most Adventurer teams completed their transactions and one group fled after losing two members.
• Dylan returned to Linden with the proceeds from selling nine guides, and Linden let him keep the money and gave him equipment and a bonus.
• Dylan asked Linden for Specialized Nutrition, and Linden prepared it for him.
• Oberon read an intelligence report on the Fifth Floor anomaly and ordered an A-rank investigation of the Pujis, especially those in the swamp.

Linden learned that he could not easily access official research into the Dungeon’s origins, then realized his Fungal Carpet had eaten most of the Fifth Floor’s Firefly Grass and decided to make the mushrooms glow. Meanwhile, Vera learned that two Gold Rank Adventurers had taken an A Rank mission to investigate the mushroom mutations, leaving her unsure whether they could face the Pujis guarding the Swamp Zone.

• Dylan told Linden that the Dungeon’s origin was uncertain and that the Relic Association’s research was inaccessible to low-ranking Adventurers.
• Linden discovered that his Fungal Carpet had nearly consumed the Fifth Floor’s Firefly Grass and decided to use Fluorescent Mushrooms to light the floor.
• Vera chose simple missions for Feiyin and Feiling after their recent losses to Raiders had left Feiyin reluctant to return to the Dungeon.
• Inigo and his Leopard-man teammate took an A Rank Guild mission to investigate the mushroom mutations, despite Helena’s warning that it called for more Adventurers.
• Vera learned that the mission would likely require entering the Pujis’ guarded Swamp Zone and wondered whether the two Gold Rank Adventurers could manage it.

Inigo and Milo investigated the Fifth Floor after discovering that a mutated Puji could enter the stairwell, and they fought through a group of Pujis in the swamp. The chapter ended with hundreds of glowing Pujis surrounding them as they prepared to break through.

• Inigo and Milo found a Mutant Puji inside the supposedly safe stairwell, and Milo killed it as they questioned the mission's danger.
• Inigo persuaded Milo to continue the mission, and they entered the unusually dark Fifth Floor to investigate its regions.
• Inigo and Milo searched the cave and Poison Mist Swamp but found no Pujis until they reached the swamp's edge.
• Ten Pujis attacked the two Orcs, who dodged the Mushroom Cannons and slaughtered them.
• Inigo and Milo noticed the swamp growing brighter and realized that hundreds of fluorescent Pujis had surrounded them.

Linden reached level 50 and chose Mycelium Reorganization, discovering it could revive Puji if they remained mostly intact. He began preparing a force of Specialized Puji to target Old Bat and claim his three S-Rank Magic Crystals.

• Inigo and Milo tried to escape the Puji artillery encirclement, but Inigo lost his lower left leg and both Orcs were defeated.
• Linden reached level 50 and selected Mycelium Reorganization from his optional racial skills.
• Linden tested the new skill and found that Puji could recover from limited damage by using surrounding magic power, but severe destruction prevented regeneration.
• A Hallucination Puji repeatedly revived after Old Bat killed it, until he crushed it and inhaled a small amount of its spores.
• Linden put another hundred Specialized Puji into production to deploy against Old Bat and seize his three S-Rank Magic Crystals.

Linden killed Old Bat and discovered that the bat had been carrying a Sun Stone Fragment, which he joined with his own to restore the Artifact. After magical fluctuations spread through the Dungeon, Oberon learned that a Magic Tide was approaching and ordered a warning and the Dungeon entrance sealed.

• Old Bat was overwhelmed by the revived Pujis and hallucinogenic poison mist, and Linden’s Parasitic Puppets killed and dissected him.
• Linden found a Sun Stone Fragment inside Old Bat, joined it to his own fragment, and sent the bat’s S-Rank Magic Crystals and other loot to his secret space.
• Two days later, magical turbulence rose through the floors, so Linden sent Dylan to the surface for information and planned to make more Pujis and accelerate his vehicle upgrades.
• Oberon reviewed a report about two missing Gold Rank Orc Adventurers on the Fifth Floor while considering how to handle the Pujis in the Swamp Zone.
• Mirabelle reported that Detection Crystals on the Seventh, Fourth, and First Floors had sensed magical fluctuations, and Oberon ordered a Magic Tide warning, the Dungeon entrance sealed, and support requested.

Dylan learned that a Magic Tide had forced the Adventurer Guild to seal the Dungeon, and he gathered news from the tavern after failing to return inside. He worried that the Tide could change the Dungeon’s ecology and affect Boss.

• Dylan reached the surface and found Marshall and other Guild personnel guarding the Dungeon entrance because of a Magic Tide.
• Marshall refused Dylan’s request to reenter the Dungeon and retrieve the belongings he had hidden on the Second Floor.
• Dylan went to Rotten Willow Tavern, where Adventurers discussed the Guild’s expected assistance quests and the Monsters that would emerge from the Dungeon.
• A retired adventurer warned that Monsters from the Deep Zone might also escape, and Dylan worried about what the Magic Tide could change inside the Dungeon.

Linden sent Pujis to the First Floor to investigate the strange activity and learned from Dylan that a Magic Tide would send Monsters surging toward the sealed Dungeon gate. He returned to prepare his forces, including mass-producing stronger Pujis, and named his upgraded vehicle Knight.

• Linden sent seven Pujis up the Spiral Corridor to investigate why Dylan and other Adventurers had disappeared.
• The Pujis reached the First Floor, where Linden connected a wild Puji to the Mycelium Network and took control of it.
• Linden sent the wild Puji to scout the Dungeon gate, where humans had blocked the entrance with barricades and killed the Puji with a crossbow.
• Linden contacted Dylan, who explained that a Magic Tide would bring Monsters from the Deep Zone charging toward the gate.
• Linden told Dylan to avoid fighting, ordered the Pujis exploring the Seventh Floor to retreat, and prepared to mass-produce stronger Pujis.
• Linden confirmed that two S-Rank Magic Crystals powered up his vehicle and named it Knight.

Vera and the Adventurers prepared for a Magic Tide that seemed to be delayed, while Linden fortified the Mushroom Garden and planned escape routes. The tide then transformed the stairways into black spaces, and a giant scaled creature emerged before Linden could respond.

• Vera and the Adventurers heard an alarm but found only Puji's corpse and learned from Marshall that a First Floor Walking Mushroom had wandered to the gate.
• Vera noticed an unfamiliar Adventurer carrying a curved blade that looked familiar.
• Linden positioned hundreds of Puji at the stairways, prepared his cave as a fallback shelter, and recalled Puji exploring the Fifth Floor.
• A powerful, prolonged surge of magical power swept through the Mushroom Garden, and Linden lost contact with the Puji climbing the stairs.
• The stairways to the Sixth and Fourth Floors became black spaces, and a giant lizard-like creature with golden pupils emerged from one of them.

Oberon learned that the Magic Tide had resonated with Dragon Cliff Dungeon, bringing powerful Sub-Dragons into Mute Wind Town’s crisis, and chose to conceal the danger from the Adventurers. In the Dungeon, Linden’s Pujis fought the invading Monsters, but a powerful Dragonkin arrived and seized one of them.

• Mirabelle told Oberon that the Magic Tide had resonated with Dragon Cliff Dungeon, and he ordered the Guild to distribute anti-dragon equipment while keeping the Resonance secret from Adventurers.
• Linden encountered a Blade-Tail Whip Dragon on the Fifth Floor and his Pujis badly wounded it with a barrage of Mushroom Cannons.
• More Sub-Dragons poured through the Rift, including a flying one, and the fighting intensified at both entrances.
• A two-headed Sub-Dragon overwhelmed the Pujis guarding the less-defended Rift until a level 58 Dragonkin emerged and tore off both its heads.
• The Dragonkin spotted a Puji, grabbed it, and bit down eagerly.