Chapter Summaries

Dylan and Linden fought a noble knight who had mistaken Dylan for a demon spy, then hid the knight’s body after killing him. Finding and accidentally destroying a sealed letter left Dylan afraid the nobles would pursue him, while Linden suggested disguising him before they returned to the Dungeon.

• The noble knight overpowered Dylan, but Dylan used his equipment to summon phantoms and ice spikes, wounding the knight before being knocked down.
• Linden emerged from Dylan’s backpack and severed the knight’s hand tendons, then struck him with a Mushroom Cannon.
• The girl escaped toward the village while Dylan and Linden killed the knight and dragged his body into the forest.
• Dylan searched the knight and found coins, a pendant, and a sealed letter that burst into flames when he opened it.
• Linden warned Dylan that the destroyed letter could bring trouble, then proposed disguising him so his daughter would not recognize him.

Dylan rescued a traveling merchant from bandits and accepted payment to accompany him toward Norwid. Scout revealed that the merchant was actually Clolo, a level 36 Shapeshifter who had approached Dylan with unknown intentions.

• Dylan rode half-naked toward Norwid and initially tried to pass by as three bandits robbed a traveling merchant.
• After the merchant offered two gold coins, Dylan used an ice spike to drive the bandits away and accepted the reward.
• The merchant introduced himself as Anthony Neal, paid Dylan twenty silver coins, and asked to travel with him to Norwid.
• Dylan camped with the merchant and relied on Scout to watch their surroundings while he slept.
• Scout identified the merchant as Clolo, a level 36 Shapeshifter who had changed plans after noticing Dylan.

Dylan avoided Norwid because its gate had an active detection formation, but a shapeshifting merchant named Clolo tracked him down and mistook him for a fellow Demon Race spy. Clolo offered to travel with Dylan and train him, while Dylan and Linden realized that Dylan’s work for the Mycelium Network could count as spying.

• Dylan learned that Norwid’s gate had a detection formation and rode away rather than risk entering the city.
• The merchant followed Dylan into the woods, revealed his shapeshifting ability, and introduced himself as Clolo.
• Clolo mistook Dylan’s fungal disguise for low-level Mimicry and assumed he was a poorly trained Demon Race spy.
• Dylan consulted Linden through the Mycelium Network, and Linden pointed out that Dylan’s work made him a spy for the Mushroom Race.
• Clolo offered to travel with Dylan and teach him, then drank Mana Potion from his flask.

Linden prepared new defenses and an escape route in case adventurers attacked the Fifth Floor, while news spread that Begoen's Iron Heart Squad had been wiped out by the Big Black Mushroom. The revelation frightened Vera, Feiling, and their companion, who had narrowly avoided the same fate, and left them thinking of the Adventurer Guild.

• Linden tested a gliding Self-Destruct Puji, which lost control and exploded against a Mushroom Tree.
• Linden developed hidden, burrowing Self-Destruct Puji and prepared underground escape passages for Knight to carry his main body away if the defense failed.
• A messenger announced at the Golden Sunwood Tavern that Begoen's Iron Heart Squad had been wiped out, and said adventurers had recognized the squad's equipment from the Mushroom Merchant on the Fifth Floor.
• Tavern patrons debated the danger posed by the Big Black Mushroom, while Vera, Feiling, and their companion realized they had narrowly escaped being wiped out themselves.
• The trio thought about turning to the Adventurer Guild despite its recent reputation.

After Mirabelle pressured Oberon into issuing an S-rank bounty to investigate or subjugate Black Puji, adventurers debated the mission and its rewards. Eiding accepted the mission with his teammates, then left the Guild carrying Cyan Mushrooms.

• Mirabelle repeatedly pressured Oberon until he issued an S-rank Guild bounty for Black Puji.
• Adventurers gathered around the mission board and discussed the bounty's rank and rewards, learning that its Level Two exchange voucher could obtain any B-rank equipment.
• Eiding took the bounty and registered it with his teammates after the night-shift receptionist confirmed that at least three adventurers were required.
• Eiding left the Guild alone and took a small packet of Cyan Mushrooms from his clothes.

Eiding relived the Scarecrow Abyss expedition that killed his teammates, then woke from the nightmare and threw away the Cyan Mushrooms he blamed for it. At the Adventurer Guild, Mirabelle learned that Eiding had survived a party wipe in the Abyss as a newcomer and considered letting him attempt a team mission alone.

• In Eiding’s nightmare, he saw his companions mistake grain for gold and ignore his warning as scarecrows filled the barn.
• Eiding fled the scarecrows, then woke beside an unfamiliar woman and threw his remaining Cyan Mushrooms into the trash.
• Mirabelle questioned the night-shift worker about the false diamond-rank adventurers Hou Sailei and Housette, then dismissed her.
• Mirabelle reviewed Eiding Clark’s record and found that he often used illusions to join team missions and had once been the sole survivor of a Scarecrow Abyss party wipe.
• Mirabelle decided Eiding seemed capable enough to try a team mission in Mute Wind Town.

Norris encountered Eiding in the Fifth Floor mine, while Eiding investigated the Big Black Mushroom and was destroyed by a trap set by Linden. Eiding later woke in Mute Wind Town with enough information to report, but decided against investigating again.

• Norris met Eiding in the cave and gave him two glass beads after Eiding offered to buy them.
• Eiding scanned the Fifth Floor and found many Mushroom-Puji, then lured the Big Black Mushroom with glass beads.
• Eiding used a Wind Blade to cut off the Big Black Mushroom's cap, revealing an ordinary Puji inside.
• Landmine Puji exploded around Eiding, leaving only a shattered Magic Crystal as Linden watched from behind the scenes.
• Eiding woke in an inn in Mute Wind Town and decided not to return to the Fifth Floor because another investigation would cost too much.

Clolo explained to Dylan that the Demon Empire might retaliate against humans after the Shadow Demon disappeared, while rumors of a genuine Hero summoning could keep the Elf and Dwarf from siding with humanity. Linden learned that powerful adventurers had been drawn away by tensions between humans and demons and decided to expand his fungal growth through the Dungeon, then wondered whether he was the Hero of the monsters.

• Clolo gave Dylan Mana Potion and refused his offer of gold, saying it came from public funds.
• Clolo told Dylan that the Demon Empire might retaliate for the trap that left the Shadow Demon's fate unknown and warned him to judge future missions carefully.
• Clolo explained that confirmed news of a real Hero summoning could let the Empire wage war while the Elf and Dwarf stayed neutral.
• Linden realized that human adventurers above LV60 had been drawn away by the conflict with the Demon Race and decided to spread his mycelium throughout the Dungeon.
• Linden questioned whether he was the Hero and wondered if he might instead be the Hero of the monsters.

Sophia trained on Great Horn Island while Samuel and the guards prepared to protect her until she grew stronger. Meanwhile, Linden sent forty Puji to scout the Sixth Floor, where they unexpectedly encountered adventurers.

• Sophia killed a Lost Soul with her bow, increased to level 7, and upgraded her Archery skill to level 3.
• Samuel explained that the Lost Souls were puppets controlled by the mist and told Sophia not to underestimate the danger.
• Linden sent forty Puji to the Sixth Floor to scout slime populations ahead of expanding the Fungal Carpet.
• The Puji ignored a bee corpse and walked over a fallen priest girl without harming her, leaving her strangely exhilarated.
• The priest's companions checked that she was unharmed, then took the rejected bee corpse and hurried toward the surface.

Linden struggled to spread his mycelia across the Sixth Floor, where territorial plants and slimes made ground-level expansion difficult, and considered ways to equip Pujis to climb the walls. When a treant demon with mushrooms growing on its body contacted him, Linden stopped Little Black from attacking it and prepared to find out what it wanted.

• Linden found that slimes and territorial monsters made it difficult to spread mycelia across the Sixth Floor and weighed three skills for helping Pujis travel along the walls.
• Linden considered using Rock Eating to turn Pujis into fixed wall turrets, though he saw the design as costly and kept working on its form.
• Little Black arrived on the Sixth Floor eager to beat up Treants, and Linden sent four Pujis to follow her while he continued shaping Puji.
• A treant demon with mushrooms growing on its body contacted Linden through the Mycelium Network, and he recognized it as one Little Black had injured before.
• Linden bribed Little Black with glass beads to keep her from attacking the treant demon, then asked it what it wanted.

Linden negotiated with the Treant Demons, but they refused to cooperate beyond a promise of mutual nonaggression, so he left their grove with Little Black. The lone Treant Demon who spoke with him resolved to persuade its kin to accept contact with Linden, fearing their gradual extinction.

• The Treant Demon asked Linden to leave its grove in peace and explained that the Ancestral Tree was the source of all Treant Demons, though it was not in the grove.
• Linden asked the Treant Demons to help him in exchange for something, but the Treant Demon repeated that neither side should attack the other.
• Linden rejected their isolation and argued that he had no reason to protect them while Little Black hunted them, then took Little Black away.
• The Treant Demon recalled how Big Black Mushroom had repeatedly attacked the grove, leading the Treant Demons to sacrifice whoever guarded the entrance rather than resist.
• After a mushroom connected it to Linden's vast will, the Treant Demon sought contact to save its dwindling kin, but its people had granted it only one chance to speak.
• The Treant Demon decided to persuade more of its kin to accept mushrooms and communicate with Linden.

Linden tested new Puji varieties and built fixed stone turrets to push back the Slimes on the Sixth Floor. The Slimes kept increasing, leaving him worried that the Dungeon might be reacting to his expansion and determined to find the cause before choosing whether to continue developing downward.

• Little Black received two glass beads and struggled to count them, while Linden set aside a plan to teach her.
• Linden tested suction-cup and slime-covered Pujis for climbing and firing, but their drawbacks led him to abandon them as mobile wall fighters.
• Linden created round stone turrets that helped the Pujis clear Slimes and expand the Fungal Carpet by about 130 meters in two and a half days.
• Linden considered whether Slimes were being stockpiled, rapidly produced, or released by the Dungeon's defenses, and feared continuing downward if the Dungeon was targeting him.
• Adventurers discussed the Puji-Slime battle in the tavern, while Norris hoped the Pujis would clear the Sixth Floor.

As the Sixth Floor campaign continued, Linden upgraded Mycelium Network and discovered that its new transfer-node function let intelligent users command Puji. Little Black’s attempt to control a growing group of Puji ended in chaos, leaving Linden wondering whether the Treant Demon could serve as a better test.

• Linden gained useful Slime skills through Greed while the Sixth Floor battle continued, but postponed creating elite Puji until after the floor was conquered.
• Mycelium Network reached LV7, allowing Linden to designate transfer nodes that synchronized nearby Puji with their movements.
• Linden made Little Black a transfer node, and she discovered she could directly command a Puji rather than merely synchronize its actions.
• Little Black ate part of her controlled Puji, so Linden assigned her additional Puji to test how many she could command.
• When Little Black tried to control 21 Puji, she lost control of her own movements and the Puji scattered into chaos until Linden reclaimed them.
• Linden wondered whether the Treant Demon had enough intelligence to test the transfer-node ability.

Linden brought five treant demons to test how many Puji each could control through the Mycelium Network. After paying them in C-rank Magic Crystals, he planned to build their trust and gradually recruit more of them.

• Linden met five treant demons in the grove and asked them to help test the Mycelium Network in exchange for compensation.
• On the journey back, a treant demon used Plant Affinity to make a vine release a Puji, and the treant demons took the lead through dangerous plants.
• Linden transferred control of Puji to the treant demons and found that most could manage more than twelve, while the mushroom-headed treant could manage twenty.
• Linden paid the five treant demons with C-rank Magic Crystals and sent them home, intending to recruit more once they trusted him.
• Linden considered whether Werewolves on the tenth floor might also serve as relay nodes, but noted that reaching them would be difficult.

The Rotten Willow Tavern reopened in Mute Wind Town, drawing a rowdy crowd and revealing the struggles of timid adventurer Norris. After Feiling and Vera stood up for him when a silver-rank adventurer ruined his meal, Norris slipped away, and the group found him again at a nearby restaurant.

• The Rotten Willow Tavern reopened, and owner Mary served a packed crowd while her tigerkin server threw out patrons who tried to grope her.
• Norris reflected on how Eiding's gold coin had helped him settle his debt and afford grilled snake steak.
• A silver-rank adventurer kicked over Norris's meal and insulted him, while Norris stayed silent and the nearby crowd laughed.
• Feiling confronted the adventurer, and Vera threatened him with her scimitar until he agreed to pay for the food.
• Norris left before the adventurer could target him, and the tigerkin ushered the troublemakers out of the tavern.
• Feiling, Feiyin, and Vera found Norris eating Fluorescent Mushroom soup at a nearby restaurant.

Norris, a young adventurer burdened by his dead father’s gambling debts, was trapped beneath rubble after a Puji Mushroom attack in the Dungeon. As he neared death, an unfamiliar voice asked whether he wanted to keep living.

• Norris fled after Vera and Feiling tried to thank and comfort him, then reflected on his debt and his efforts to avoid becoming a slave.
• He returned to the Fifth Floor to mine Magic Crystals and encountered two adventurers stealing ore.
• One adventurer shoved Norris, and his dropped pickaxe accidentally killed a Puji Mushroom.
• Puji Mushrooms attacked the two adventurers, and the explosions shook loose rubble that pinned Norris beneath it.
• As Norris lost consciousness, a voice asked whether he was interested in continuing to live.

After a cave collapse, Linden inspected the damage and checked on Norris, a badly injured survivor whose clean skill panel made him a potential subject for testing human and monster skills together. Norris agreed that he wanted to live, and Linden began questioning him about his past.

• Linden ordered Puji to clear the collapsed cave entrance, then confirmed that the inner tunnels—including Tunnel 22, which he hoped could become another Dungeon exit—remained intact.
• Linden found Norris gravely injured in a Mushroom House and recognized that his few skills could make him useful for experiments combining human and monster skills.
• A Puji woke Norris, and Linden told him he could recover if he accepted a price.
• Norris considered the chance to regain a healthy body and said that he wanted to keep living.
• Linden began the second stage of his interview by asking Norris to tell his story.

Linden continued modifying Norris while directing the Sixth Floor campaign, where Treant Demons helped the Pujis gain control of the surface. Little Green discovered that Slimes were emerging from underground waterways, and Linden ordered the Treant Demons to map the shallow channels before noticing one of them was dead.

• Linden equipped Norris with skills including Steel Bone, Claw Strike, Neurotoxin, and Mushroom Cannon while Puji examined his body.
• Little Green and nearly forty Treant Demons helped the Pujis clear Slimes, allowing Linden's Fungal Carpet to spread across the Sixth Floor.
• Little Green found a red Slime emerging through a crack connected to an underground waterway and offered to explore the channels with his roots.
• Little Green explored for an hour before stopping because the waterway had become too deep for his roots to reach.
• Linden ordered the Treant Demons to map the shallow underground waterways, then discovered that one Treant Demon had died beside an idle Puji.

Linden led the Pujis to recover a Treant Demon’s corpse, but Little Black killed the giant Flower Demon that had killed it. Meanwhile, Dylan and Clolo carried two corpses through the rain to a spot near Clark, leaving Dylan panicked and wondering how the situation had gone so wrong.

• Linden gathered a mixed group of Pujis, including Little Black, to retrieve the Treant Demon’s corpse and give it a proper burial.
• The giant Flower Demon attacked the Pujis with hidden roots, killing more than ten before Linden ordered the others to retreat.
• Little Black endured the Flower Demon’s attacks, then smashed it to death when it struck her.
• Linden had the Pujis carry the Treant Demon’s corpse while Little Black dragged the Flower Demon’s remains back toward the staircase.
• Little Green encountered the group, accepted Linden’s explanation that the Treant Demon had died accidentally and that they had avenged it, then returned.
• In heavy rain near Clark, Dylan and Clolo carried a second corpse to a spot where another corpse already lay, and Dylan sat down in a panic.

After Clolo and Dylan killed a half-Vampire and her lover at the vineyard estate, they used a Slime to dispose of the bodies and entered Clark through a sewer passage. While waiting for a gang to escort them into the city, Dylan stopped a thief from stealing his backpack, and Linden noticed a black-robed person with Abyss Magic.

• Clolo left Dylan to watch a Slime digest the half-Vampire and the wealthy-looking young man while he cleaned up traces of the fight.
• Clolo and Dylan entered Clark through a drainage outlet and paid a ratman from the Black Steel Brotherhood for tokens to enter the city.
• Clolo and Dylan waited in a sewer chamber with other people seeking to sneak into Clark, and Clolo warned Dylan to avoid trouble.
• A halfling thief tried to steal Dylan's backpack, and Dylan cut off the thief's hand.
• Linden noticed that a black-robed person had Abyss Magic LV2 and wondered whether Dylan should investigate.