Chapter Summaries

Linden fought Monsters emerging from the Rifts and then defended the Fifth Floor from a growing horde, while a breach at the Amethyst Dungeon entrance let powerful Monsters spill into the adventurers’ battle. Vera prepared to protect Feiling and Feiyin if the situation worsened.

• Linden stopped attacking the fast Dragonkin, which guarded the Pujis and fought a level 54 Frost-Bone Giant Rat as more Monsters emerged from the Rift.
• Linden gathered more than a hundred Pujis on the Fifth Floor’s corridor edge, where they bombarded Monsters swarming up the stairs from the Lower Zone.
• Adventurers held the Amethyst Dungeon entrance against a horde that included unfamiliar Monsters until a giant lizard smashed through the barricade and the breach descended into chaos.
• Marshall rallied the adventurers and led their concentrated attack, killing the dazed giant lizard as more Monsters poured through the entrance.
• Vera fought a corrosive-blooded Flying Worm and stayed close to Feiling and Feiyin, deciding she would withdraw with them if the danger became too great.

Linden’s forces retreated through the Fifth Floor as the Magic Tide overwhelmed their defenses, while he sealed himself in a cave and watched the Monsters spread across the Mushroom Garden. At the Dungeon entrance, Oberon tried to keep the Adventurers fighting despite mounting casualties and distant reinforcements.

• Linden reached LV51 as stronger Monsters, including Flesh Monsters, joined the assault, and the Dragonkin abandoned the Rift with six Puji.
• With Monsters trampling the Fifth Floor and the Rift no longer defensible, Linden ordered the Puji squads to retreat through the Swamp Zone using the Backstep Volley Tactic.
• Linden sealed the cave entrance with Self-Destruct Puji and detonated the Fatty Puji the Dragonkin had taken, then watched the Monsters from underground.
• The Dragonkin emerged from the forest and headed toward Linden’s collapsed cave, prompting him to prepare for a possible breach.
• At the Dungeon entrance, stronger Monsters inflicted heavy casualties, including the deaths of two Gold Rank Adventurers, while Oberon ordered the survivors to hold the line and promised triple bounties.

Vera, Feiling, and the wounded Feiyin escaped the battlefield after the gate defenses fell and a Three-Headed Snake attacked the Adventurers. A gray-robed Relic Association elder rescued them from a pursuing flesh monster, while elsewhere Linden prepared a trap for the Dragonkin tunneling toward his cave.

• The Three-Headed Snake emerged from the Dungeon, severely injured branch president Oberon, and broke the Adventurers’ defensive line as Monsters overwhelmed them.
• Feiyin saved Vera and Feiling from a Dragon Beast’s tail with impact magic, but was badly wounded and lost consciousness, so Vera carried her into the western forest.
• Feiling ran out of Thunderbolt Arrows, and Vera and Feiling prepared to face the pursuing flesh monster rather than abandon each other or Feiyin.
• A gray-robed Relic Association elder killed the flesh monster with eighth-tier Wind Tunnel magic, gave Vera a Limb Regeneration Potion for Feiyin, and flew toward Mute Wind Town.
• Vera, Feiling, and the recovered Feiyin chose to rest in the forest and avoid the Monsters while the elder dealt with the crisis.
• Linden prepared concentrated poison mist and six Mycelium Cannons in the cave to ambush the Dragonkin tunneling toward him.

Linden and Knight Puji battled the Dragonkin in the cave, but an Ancient Dragon briefly reached through the unstable Rift and weakened everyone with Dragon Might. After the Rift vanished and the Dragonkin succumbed to the Hallucinogenic Spores, Linden began turning it into a puppet and discovered it was protected by an Ancient Dragon.

• Linden and Knight Puji ambushed the Dragonkin with six Mushroom Cannon shots, collapsing the cave wall and injuring it.
• Knight Puji disrupted the Dragonkin with Infrasonic Attack while Linden relied on Hallucinogenic Spores, but the Dragonkin adapted and nearly struck the Knight.
• An Ancient Dragon’s claw reached through the expanding Rift, and its Dragon Might reduced Linden’s attributes while the Dragonkin burrowed into the dirt.
• Electric Arcs struck the claw and sealed the Rift, after which Linden’s negative status disappeared and the Dragonkin succumbed to the spores.
• Linden used Trample to suppress the Dragonkin’s Blood Thread and scattered Parasitic Spores over it, then discovered its Ancient Dragon Blood, Ancient Dragon Protection, and Ancient Dragon Scion title.

Linden realized the Ancient Dragon's daughter had been partially parasitized and wondered whether he could still save her before the dragon learned what had happened. Dylan returned to the devastated Mute Wind Town, where Cole hired him to smuggle stolen goods to Fisher Sail Port, including a Human Skin Book.

• Linden recognized the Dragonkin as the Ancient Dragon's daughter and realized Fusion Parasitism had left her close to becoming a puppet.
• Dylan returned to Mute Wind Town and saw the destruction caused by the Magic Tide, with many residents and Adventurers dead or injured.
• Dylan found Cole repairing the damaged Rotten Willow Tavern and learned that the Amethyst Dungeon would remain sealed for another half month.
• Short on money, Dylan agreed to transport goods from Cole's cellar to Fisher Sail Port for ten gold coins.
• Cole's stolen goods included a Human Skin Book that Dylan did not know about.

As the Magic Tide ended, Linden discovered that the Dragonkin had congenital deficiencies that reduced her intelligence and drained her Mana, and he realized she ate Pujis to replenish it. He coaxed her into helping him escape the collapsed cave and led her to a surviving Fungal Carpet, where she tried another Puji and complained about its taste.

• Linden saw Monsters return to their usual floors and learned that lost Monsters above LV25 suffered Soul Siphon, while he and the Dragonkin were unaffected by the Magic Tide.
• Linden found that the Dragonkin had congenital deficiencies that reduced her Intelligence and caused her Mana to leak away, and that eating Pujis restored her Mana.
• Linden promised the Dragonkin more food if she helped dig them out of the collapsed cave, and she agreed.
• Linden led the Dragonkin past wandering Monsters to a surviving Fungal Carpet and grew two Battery Pujis there.
• The Dragonkin ate a Puji whose Mana had not fully replenished and complained that it did not taste very good.

After the Magic Tide devastated much of the Fifth Floor, Linden began restoring the Mushroom Garden and fed a newly cultivated Puji to the Dragonkin. She revealed that she had no personal name, agreed to be called Little Black, and Linden discovered that the name had appeared on her Panel.

• Linden surveyed the Fifth Floor's destruction, found Venom Lake inhabited by Dragon Beasts called Mirages, and noted that the Swamp Zone and dome fungi had survived relatively well.
• Spores fell from the dome's Mushrooms as Linden began restoring the Mushroom Garden.
• Linden fed the Dragonkin a resilient, chewy Spicy Strip Puji, then asked whether she had a name.
• The Dragonkin said weak ones were called Swergis and refused a name until she became strong, so Linden offered to call her Little Black.
• Little Black accepted the nickname and went to fight Monsters, while Linden saw that her Panel now listed her name as Little Black.

Linden expanded his mushroom network and began raising Mirages in Venom Lake while sending Pujis to seed surveillance posts on the Dungeon’s upper floors. Meanwhile, Calvin and Gray secretly entered the Dungeon to search for a Parasitic Tree Seed.

• Linden watched the Mushroom Garden recover, kept Mirages in Venom Lake for their Scale Armor, and planned to harvest them for useful materials.
• Linden sent Pujis to scatter Spores across the first four floors, creating mushroom outposts that could relay magic-power signals and help gather monster remains.
• At the Dungeon entrance, Aiden and a rookie heard a rustle and searched the bushes, unaware that faint footprints had led into the Dungeon behind them.
• Gray and Calvin appeared on the First Floor after using Invisibility Art to slip past the guards, and Calvin admitted he needed a Parasitic Tree Seed to brew a Truth Potion for his assignment.
• Calvin persuaded Gray to help by reminding him that he had once mixed Gray a Laxative Potion, though Gray disputed whether the resulting day of diarrhea counted as help.

Gray and Calvin followed a mutant Puji on the Second Floor and discovered a cave where tentacled Pujis gathered Monster corpses. Linden saw the Adventurers investigating the outpost and decided to strengthen its defenses while maintaining his neutral policy.

• Gray and Calvin encountered many small Monsters, then entered a cave passage filled with giant spiders.
• Gray freed a tentacled Puji from a web, and it killed a giant spider before dragging its corpse away.
• Gray and Calvin followed the Puji through hidden paths to a cave covered in Mycelium, where mutant Pujis collected Monster corpses.
• Gray and Calvin withdrew from the cave and continued toward the Fifth Floor, while Calvin planned to tell his teacher what they had seen.
• Linden received delayed footage of the Adventurers and resolved to grow more Large Mushrooms and replenish the Combat Pujis.

Calvin and Gray explored the Fifth Floor, where they found a mushroom-covered landscape and were attacked by a dragon-like monster. The Pujis drove the monster away and left supplies for them, and Gray carried the weakened Calvin back to the Floor Passage.

• Calvin and Gray followed a mushroom-lined road across mycelium-covered ground to a forest of giant mushrooms.
• A Big Puji and more than a dozen Little Pujis appeared as Calvin and Gray tried to flee invisibly.
• A black-scaled humanoid monster grabbed Calvin and Gray, and Gray's sword shattered when he attacked it.
• The monster suddenly vanished, leaving Calvin unconscious and Gray surrounded and tied up by the Pujis.
• A Puji fed Calvin through a mycelium tube until he woke, then Fatty Puji left Gray a longsword, a fruit pit, a Magic Crystal, and a Healing Potion.
• Gray gathered the items and carried Calvin back to the Floor Passage.

Linden warned Little Black not to attack humans and planned to keep adventurers away from her while improving her camouflage. Meanwhile, Dylan survived an ambush during a smuggling run and fled with a mysterious booklet as the attackers hunted down the others.

• Linden told Little Black that green monsters were acceptable targets but humans were not, then decided to designate the Mushroom Forest a forbidden zone and train Camouflage for her.
• Linden noted that no other adventurers seemed to have entered the Dungeon and worried about how Dylan was faring during the Magic Tide.
• Dylan was shot in the back during a smuggling run, pretended to be dead, and watched the black-robed attackers battle the other members of his group.
• Dylan pulled out the arrow and fled after hearing the attackers kill the others, carrying a warm, patterned booklet he did not remember taking from the stolen goods.

Dylan fled the black-robed pursuers and followed directions written in a mysterious book, only to fall into a deep pit. Lacus and the others tracked his blood into the cave at its bottom.

• Lacus's attackers searched the corpses and goods sacks but failed to find what they wanted, then Lacus confronted Avina over her claim that she had killed Dylan.
• Dylan rested in the rain, discovered that his blank book could write messages, and learned that the attackers were close behind him.
• The book warned Dylan to run southeast, and he followed its directions until he fell into a deep pit.
• Lacus and the black-robed pursuers found Dylan's footprints and blood, then entered the cave to track him down.

Dylan survived the battle between Lacus’s Demon Race group and a giant Tyrant Bear by hiding with Mimicry, then recovered and gained strength from the Yellow Book. He left the cave with the book and headed toward the Dungeon.

• Lacus and seven black-robed subordinates entered the cave and encountered a giant bear that used Gravity Field to pin them down.
• Lacus identified the bear as a Tyrant Bear cub and ordered his group to fight, but the bear killed his subordinates as Lacus attacked with blood magic.
• The wounded bear struck Lacus into a wall, and Lacus killed Avina to drink her blood and recover enough to search the cave.
• Lacus failed to find Dylan and flew away to seek more human blood, while Dylan emerged from his hiding place after sunrise.
• Dylan accepted the Yellow Book’s power, regained his strength, and set off for the Dungeon.

Linden’s Puji found and opened another Treasure Room on the Dungeon’s third floor, retrieving an Escape Scroll that he planned to use for a specially prepared Puji. As Little Black returned with a monster to eat, adventurers entered the Dungeon, and Linden spotted Dylan among them.

• Linden’s Puji stacked themselves on a pressure plate to open a hidden Treasure Room and found an Escape Scroll in its stone chest.
• Linden planned to equip a Puji named Explorer No. 1 with survival skills before using the scroll to experience sunlight safely.
• Little Black returned carrying a giant sea turtle corpse, then went to her nest to eat two Slime-filled Pujis.
• Linden abandoned his work on melee Puji combinations when adventurers entered the Dungeon and recognized Dylan among them.

Dylan followed the Yellow Book’s advice to pursue Wells and teach him a lesson, but Puji captured him and brought him back to the fifth floor. Linden suspected the book had charmed Dylan, and the chapter ended with Little Black nearly tearing it apart.

• The Yellow Book urged Dylan to punish Wells for kicking him, and Dylan followed Wells’s team out of the safe zone.
• Dylan secretly followed the adventurers, stepped on a trap, and injured his palm before encountering unfamiliar Puji.
• The Puji bound Dylan and the Yellow Book and carried them back to the fifth floor, where Linden questioned Dylan about staying on the third floor.
• Dylan could not explain his actions, and the Yellow Book stayed silent when he asked it for answers.
• Linden knocked Dylan unconscious with Hallucinogenic Spores and had Little Black pull at the Yellow Book’s page until it begged them to stop.

Linden forced the Yellow Book to lift its charm on Dylan and interrogated it about its ties to Vampires and the Demon Race. The book finally agreed to talk, while Inanna woke at the Saint Clair Ducal Manor and prepared to begin her magic lesson.

• Linden used Dylan to translate his commands to the Yellow Book and had Little Black tear away a page when the book’s response charmed Dylan again.
• Little Black tore off another page, and Dylan’s charm disappeared; he apologized and told Linden what he knew about Soul Items and the Yellow Book’s links to Vampires and the Demon Race.
• The Yellow Book stayed silent under Linden’s threats until Dylan suggested Little Black was gripping its pages like a throat, prompting it to promise to tell everything.
• Inanna woke in the Saint Clair Ducal Manor after changing out of Puji form in her sleep and decided to go to her teacher for her magic lesson.

Inanna learned that the United Kingdom was preparing to summon a Hero as the Hermit Empire and the Demon Race threatened war, and Eric refused to let her visit the Dungeon. The chapter ended with an unidentified Hero interrogating Little Black.

• Inanna arrived for a lesson and heard Calvin tell Julian about his Dungeon adventure and a failed potion made with a dead Parasitic Tree seed.
• Calvin described being rescued by the Puji, and Inanna asked Julian to take her to the Dungeon for their next practical lesson.
• Eric refused Inanna's request, then privately told her that the Hermit Empire was preparing for war and the Supreme Council had decided to summon a Hero.
• Eric ordered Inanna to remain at the residence for her safety, and she wondered why they would not revive Lord Link instead.
• A certain Hero demanded that Little Black reveal what else it was hiding.

Linden sealed the dangerous, self-aware Holy Scripture inside a specially made Puji and learned that Inanna was staying at the Duke’s Mansion. Meanwhile, Wells’s party dismissed Linden’s rules for the fifth floor and headed into the forest, leaving Linden more wary of adventurers after he spotted Jini Allison’s Human Slayer title.

• After interrogating the Holy Scripture, Linden learned about its soul-absorbing, scouting, emotional, and language abilities, then had a Self-Destruct Puji seal it away in the Mushroom Forest.
• Dylan told Linden that Inanna had returned to the Duke’s Mansion and was keeping to herself, and Linden planned to contact her later about dungeon knowledge at the Relic Association.
• Linden gave Dylan a chance to rest after his ordeal but first asked him to help with a small favor.
• Wells and his four teammates found Linden’s fifth-floor rules sign, doubted its warnings, and decided to explore the forest as planned.
• Linden watched the party ignore his rules and noticed that Jini Allison was LV42 and had the Human Slayer title, making him more suspicious of adventurers.

At Venom Lake, Ralph carried Jini away after the group discovered the corrosive ground had eaten through their shoes. Meanwhile, Linden tested his new Long-Whip Pujis against Dylan and decided they were effective enough to try against an adventurer squad.

• Wells suggested investigating the splashing in Venom Lake, but Ralph warned the group that the ground was destroying their shoes and urged them to leave.
• Jini asked Wells to carry her, but Ralph stepped in and carried her while she used Potential Stimulation on him.
• Linden outfitted four Long-Whip Pujis with evasion, armor, acceleration, blade-whip, and mycelium-reorganization skills for security work.
• Linden ordered two Pujis to attack Dylan, who struggled to get within range and survived by dodging around a giant mushroom.
• After stopping the test, Linden judged that two Pujis could suppress a weak silver adventurer and planned to test them against an unruly adventurer squad.

Wells’s party crossed the fifth floor’s fungal terrain, discovered that the Mushroom Forest was full of camouflaged Puji, and followed a path to Fatty Puji’s cave. There, they found another group and heard that someone had won an A-Rank Magic Crystal, while Linden watched the visitors begin to argue.

• Wells hurt his foot on a stone, and Jini healed him with Potential Stimulation.
• The party avoided a Puji patrol by using Invisibility Art and luring the Puji away with a Canine Monster corpse.
• At the Mushroom Forest, the party spotted spores and camouflaged Puji, then decided to follow the path to Fatty Puji’s trading cave.
• Inside the cave, Wells’s party heard someone exclaim over an A-Rank Magic Crystal and found another group there.
• Linden checked that Mimicry had reached LV4, prepared to upgrade Little Black, and saw through the Mycelium Network that two teams were arguing near Fatty Puji.