Chapter Summaries

Dylan returned from the sewers and tried to follow a black-robed man to learn about Abyss magic, but the man hit him with a Weakness Curse. After Liadrin rescued him from thugs, she spotted a familiar pendant among his belongings, and that night she recognized it as Wilfred's strength pendant.

• Dylan and Clolo parted ways after leaving the sewer tunnel near Clark's docks.
• Dylan followed the black-robed man, who cast a Weakness Curse that reduced Dylan's attributes and let him escape.
• Five thugs tried to rob Dylan while the curse weakened him, but the curse wore off before they could take his things.
• Liadrin drove off the thugs and noticed a familiar pendant among Dylan's scattered belongings.
• At home that night, Liadrin recognized the pendant as Wilfred's strength pendant.

Dylan was ambushed in a Clark tavern and escaped into a warehouse where a knight and Abyss magic users were fighting. After fleeing their battle and a life-draining curse, he encountered a powerful swordsman whom Linden identified as a Sword Saint named Elvion Slane.

• Dylan received Linden’s warning that thirteen people surrounded his tavern room, then escaped through a window when the guards and knight Liadrin broke in.
• Dylan ran to the Red Roof Warehouse and burst inside, discovering an Abyss magic gathering as Liadrin pursued him.
• Linden released Hallucinogenic Spores, letting Dylan slip away while Liadrin and the black-robed magic users fought.
• The magic users activated a formation that inflicted a Wither Curse on Dylan and Scout, so Linden told Dylan to flee beyond its range.
• Dylan escaped the warehouse but encountered a middle-aged swordsman, whom Linden identified as the level 70 Sword Saint Elvion Slane.

Dylan escaped Clark aboard the Wind Feather while Linden harvested Mirages from Venom Lake to strengthen his monsters. The chapter ended with Norris waking up.

• Dylan hid the stolen pendant and boarded the Wind Feather, which sailed before the guards could inspect it.
• Linden noticed the Sword Saint's level-less Ultimate Sword skill and wondered what it meant.
• Dylan learned that Scout needed mana and felt it drain his own as Scout replenished itself.
• Linden sent Little Black to stir the Mirages out of Venom Lake, where the Pujis killed more than three hundred of them.
• Linden moved the Mirages to the Swamp Zone to raise [Scale Armor] to LV6 and left about a hundred in the lake to breed.
• Norris woke up.

After Linden saved Norris by transforming his body with silver scales and a chest cannon, he tested Norris's new strength against a Stone-skinned Wild Boar. Norris survived the fight and killed the boar, reaching level 22 as he discovered the thrill of power.

• Norris woke to find his body covered in silver-white scales, with claws and a new structure of hyphae in his chest.
• Linden explained that Norris's transformation was the price of saving his life and brought him to test his strength.
• The Pujis set Norris against a Stone-skinned Wild Boar, and he panicked as it charged and battered him.
• Norris drove his claws into the boar and instinctively fired a Mushroom Cannon, killing it while injuring himself.
• Little Black called Norris a “Swergis,” while Norris felt exhilarated by his strength and rose from level 21 to level 22.

Norris hunted Slimes while more than two hundred Puji excavated the hill where the underground waterway’s source was believed to lie. Their digging uncovered a vast nest of enormous Slimes, and Linden mobilized the Puji to contain them as the creatures threatened to overflow the pit.

• Norris killed a red Slime with Wind-Rending Claw, but a Puji’s Mushroom Cannon blasted it apart and splattered him with its neurotoxic fluid.
• Linden’s Puji cleared and excavated the hill for three days, using coordinated teams to remove soil and rock.
• The excavation broke into a nest, and huge red and green Slimes poured through the widening crack until they filled the pit.
• Linden ordered Norris to retreat to the Fifth Floor and called in more Puji as the Slimes continued to multiply.
• The arriving Puji and wall-mounted Mushroom Cannons attacked, but the Slimes absorbed surrounding fluid to recover, and the pit threatened to overflow.

Linden and the Pujis fought off Slimes pouring from inside Little Hill, then discovered a two-toned Slime guarding a source of magic-rich water. Digging into the water outlet revealed a spatial rift connected to another Dungeon, and the water carried a Corrosion Curse.

• Linden directed the Pujis to retreat and form a quarantine line as large Slimes broke through the Rock Pit on the Sixth Floor.
• Little Black destroyed two Slimes, and reinforcements helped the Pujis push the remaining Slimes back toward the Rock Pit.
• Linden sent Pujis into hollow Little Hill and found a two-toned Slime using Core Fission to produce more Slimes beside a stream of magic-rich water.
• Linden moved the Slime away from the water outlet, triggering a Corrosion Curse on nearby Pujis, and put it back to stop the damage.
• Linden had Excavator Pujis dig through the rock crack and uncovered a small spatial rift leading to another Dungeon.

Linden contained a dangerous Corrosion Curse rift on the Sixth Floor by keeping the Dual-Color Slime over it and preparing safeguards, while training Puji to resist the curse. After gaining a level and improving several skills, he turned his attention to the Rift Valley leading to the Deep Zone, but did not know which rift led to his old destination.

• Linden tested the rift and found that its curse destroyed a Corrosion Resistance LV5 Puji and spread through the mountain hollow even when he sealed the opening with stone.
• Linden tried plugging the rift with a red slime, but it grew from absorbing magic and exploded before the Dual-Color Slime returned to suppress the opening.
• Linden arranged a hanging cage around the Dual-Color Slime and stationed forty resistant Puji nearby to manage the split-off slimes, train Corrosion Resistance, and respond if the slime died.
• Linden’s level rose to LV53, and Greed raised Scale Armor, Corrosion Resistance, and Saliva Arrow by one level each.
• With the Slime crisis resolved, Linden located the Rift Valley leading to the Deep Zone but wondered which rift led to the place where he had been before.

Linden investigated a network of deep fissures on the Sixth Floor, hoping to find a route to the Deep Zone and perhaps his old home. A Puji scout confirmed the fissures reached the Deep Zone, and Linden left planning to descend more safely later.

• Linden and Little Green reached a remote part of the Sixth Floor covered in deep, interconnected cracks.
• Linden tested a fissure by dropping a Stone-skinned Wild Boar into it and watched the labyrinth's rules kill it instantly.
• Linden sent a Puji down with makeshift mycelium parachutes, but the scout tumbled into a sticky thread and encountered a Level 62 Thousand-Pivot Mayfly.
• The Thousand-Pivot Mayfly drained the Puji's magic power and killed it, confirming that the fissure led to the Deep Zone.
• Linden ordered the remaining Pujis to return and planned to spread mycelium down the rock wall to create a safer route.

Norris relished his growing strength as he hunted monsters, but seeing Feiling and her companions made him confront the loss of his human identity. Meanwhile, Vera, Feiling, and Feiyin returned to the Sixth Floor and found that the Great Flower Demon was gone, leaving only a gigantic bud.

• Norris killed a Stone-skinned Wild Boar and leveled up to LV23.
• After Linden warned him that adventurers were approaching, Norris hid as Feiling, Vera, and Feiyin passed by the boar’s corpse.
• Norris recognized Feiling and nearly approached her, but retreated into hiding after noticing his claws and remembering that he was no longer human.
• Norris fled to his Mushroom House, while Linden noticed his dejection and decided it was up to Norris to accept his new life.
• Vera, Feiling, and Feiyin reached the basin where they had found the Great Flower Demon and discovered only a gigantic flower bud.

Linden discovered that an impossibly hard, glasslike barrier enclosed the tunnels, making him wonder if he lived inside a giant glass box. Meanwhile, Inanna visited the Relic Association to research dungeons and was directed to a book about their hidden structures.

• Linden’s Pujis struck a flat, transparent barrier that resisted mining, explosions, and even Little Black’s punch.
• Linden sent the Pujis digging upward, and they hit the same barrier near the junction of the Fourth and Fifth Floors.
• Inanna traveled to the Relic Association with Eric to search for information about the Dungeon, while Eric’s investigation into Dylan remained unresolved.
• A scholar guided Inanna to the dungeon materials and recommended she begin with Dungeon Structures Beyond the Naked Eye.

Lacus infiltrated Amethyst Dungeon and found the Holy Scripture on its fifth floor, but after reading its warning, he was cornered by a Big Black Mushroom. The chapter ended as the Holy Scripture displayed a denial while Lacus faced the advancing creature.

• Lacus disguised himself as a human and entered Amethyst Dungeon after concluding that the Holy Scripture was inside.
• Lacus followed his dimming tracking stone to the fifth floor, ignored the posted rules, and reached a stone stump in the Mushroom Forest.
• The stone stump exploded before Lacus could attack it, and he found and retrieved the Holy Scripture.
• Lacus saw the words [Run run run run run] in the Holy Scripture, then turned and attacked the Big Black Mushroom with a Blood Awl.
• The Big Black Mushroom advanced as Lacus backed against a stone wall, and the Holy Scripture displayed [Let me state this first, this has nothing to do with me!].

Lacus fought his way out of the Mushroom Forest but lost the Holy Scripture when Linden’s dragon-scaled Puji attacked him. Linden captured Lacus and the book, learned why Lacus served the Vampire Duke, and decided to keep the Holy Scripture sealed while preparing for the Demon Race’s next move.

• Lacus upgraded Blood Manipulation and used blood threads to wound the Big Black Mushroom, then escaped the Mushroom Forest with the Holy Scripture.
• A winged Puji exploded near Lacus, knocking the Holy Scripture from his grasp, before Little Black struck him down.
• Linden’s Pujis captured Lacus and the Yellow Book, and Linden questioned the half-Vampire using spores and Little Black’s intimidating presence.
• Lacus explained that a bloodline contract bound him to his liege and that he could not advance beyond level 40 without becoming a viscount.
• Linden sent the unconscious Lacus to the Sinking Swamp and decided to keep the Holy Scripture, planning to seal it and surround it with Landmine Puji.

Linden tested the plundered Blood Manipulation and Nightmare Incarnation skills on a Puji, while Norris adjusted to his claws and became the target of Little Black’s fascination with his scales. After Little Black accidentally tore off one of Norris’s scales, she apologized by giving him some of her glass shards.

• Linden tested Blood Manipulation on a Puji, but it could only throw its blood sphere like a weak bomb.
• Linden transformed a Puji with Nightmare Incarnation and discovered it could fly and hang upside down, though it flew slowly and struggled with a Mushroom Cannon’s recoil.
• Norris used the iron plate Linden gave him to file down one of his long claws.
• Little Black became fascinated with Norris’s silver scales and accidentally tore one off, injuring him.
• A Puji healed Norris with a Healing Potion, and Linden added Mimicry and Regeneration to Norris’s next enhancements.
• Little Black apologized by giving Norris a pile of glass shards, and Linden suggested he collect any scales he shed for her.

Linden tested how skills affected Puji, completed a trap room to shelter Yellow Book, and extended the Fungal Carpet toward the Deep Zone. The carpet’s expansion stopped when territorial Thousand-Pivot Mayflies attacked it.

• Linden found that [Nightmare Incarnation] gave a Puji the instinct to fly, while a blank-slate Puji could fly only under his direct control.
• Linden finished building a hidden Trap Room against the invisible wall, where Yellow Book sat on a stone base surrounded by disguised Self-Destruct Puji and elite guards.
• Linden extended the Fungal Carpet down the Sixth Floor Rift Valley by using hyphae tubes and soil to create nutrient supply points, with Puji and Treants supporting the work.
• Linden found no entrances from the Rift Valley to the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, or Tenth Floors and planned to investigate after occupying the Seventh Floor.
• Linden halted the Fungal Carpet’s spread in the Deep Zone after groups of territorial Thousand-Pivot Mayflies scraped away or corroded the hyphae.

Linden’s Bat Pujis found Thousand-Pivot Mayflies blocking every route deeper into the fissures, forcing him to reconsider his descent. Meanwhile, Norris was caught in a deadly encounter with adventurers and was carried back gravely injured, leaving Linden to investigate what had happened.

• Linden sent Bat Pujis down nearly twenty fissures, but Thousand-Pivot Mayflies attacked them along every route, so he reconsidered going deeper.
• A Flower Python and Flower Demon trapped Norris, but he used his Neurotoxin to escape and fled toward the bushes.
• Three adventurers cornered Norris and recognized him as a Demon Race Lizardman; seeing the halfling who had bullied him before, Norris attacked them.
• Little Green arrived and killed one adventurer, but Norris was left with a mortal wound, a dagger in his heart, and his right leg missing.
• Little Green contacted Linden, who ordered Puji to collect Norris and the bodies while he questioned Little Green about what had happened.

Norris confessed to killing three adventurers and was punished for acting without reporting to Linden, while Linden recognized his combat strength and postponed further modifications. Linden then proposed that Little Green establish a treant home near Little Hill alongside a new Mushroom Forest, and Little Green agreed to begin at once.

• Norris confessed that he had killed adventurers, and Linden sentenced him to wash the slime’s floor for a month for violating the Mushroom Garden’s discipline.
• Little Black waved goodbye as two Puji escorted Norris to serve his punishment.
• Linden learned from Little Green that Norris had fought three Silver-Rank Adventurers, defeating two before Little Green dealt with the last.
• Linden decided to postpone giving Norris [Mimicry] until he was stronger and more disciplined.
• Linden proposed planting mushrooms and trees near Little Hill, and Little Green agreed to gather the treants and start building a new home.

Norris was forced to keep working in the Suspension Cage while Linden prepared for the arrival of a Demon Race group at the Amethyst Dungeon. Solalin and Main tracked the group there and waited outside with plans to prevent their escape, unaware of how long the standoff might last.

• Norris pushed a newly split red Slime out of the Suspension Cage, killed it, and survived the cage being pulled toward the fissure; his Wind-Rending Claw and Corrosion Resistance skills leveled up.
• Linden saw Vampire Viscount Louisa enter the dungeon with seven humans and noticed that Church of Light forces were following them.
• Solalin and Main tracked the Demon Race infiltrators to the Amethyst Dungeon and found its guards alive but stunned.
• Solalin ordered a subordinate to contact the Adventurer Guild and gather adventurers to prevent the infiltrators from escaping with Escape Scrolls.
• Solalin decided to wait outside the dungeon for reinforcements, while Main worried the Demon Race might remain inside and refuse to come out.

Hake and Viscount Louisa’s group crossed the Amethyst Dungeon’s Fifth Floor, where mutated Puji ambushed them from underground and swarmed them from the air. Louisa used Short Axe’s blood to wipe out most of the attackers, leaving Hake’s group to face the dungeon without him.

• Short Axe mocked Hake and the group as they traveled through the dungeon, where they found mutated Puji and Fungal Carpet throughout the floors.
• On the Fifth Floor, Short Axe stomped on a hidden Mimicry Puji, triggering an explosion that blew off his lower right leg.
• More Puji sprang from underground, and Hake used Wind Surge to blast them away before they could attack the group.
• A swarm of flying Puji approached, and Hake blew the falling monsters away to prevent their explosions from harming the group.
• Viscount Louisa drained Short Axe’s blood and sent it as threads through the Puji, killing most of them while the archers finished off the survivors.

Hake discovered that the Yellow Book chamber was guarded by hidden Puji, escaped the Dungeon, and found the Viscount overwhelmed by an endless horde. Outside, Vera and the twins were surrounded by Church warriors, while Hake was dragged back into the Dungeon, leaving Solalin and Main with strange pellets and a reason to act before finding the Demon Race team.

• Hake and his companion found a Yellow Book altar guarded by four powerful Puji, and Hake’s Great Storm injured his companion and exposed more Puji hidden inside the pillars.
• Hake fled the chamber and saw the Viscount fighting countless Puji, then used Invisibility Art and Wind Speed to escape while Linden’s reorganizing Puji overwhelmed her.
• Vera retreated with Feiling and Feiyin but was blocked by Main and a Church formation; the group searched them and ruled them out as Demon Race suspects.
• Hake emerged at the Dungeon gate and begged to be let out, but an unseen force dragged him back inside.
• Solalin rushed into the Dungeon but found only a small box containing grayish-white pellets, and she told Main they might not be able to wait for the Demon Race team.

Louisa awoke imprisoned beneath the Mushroom Forest, where stepping toward the exit caused mushrooms to grow from her flesh, and a voice forced her to speak Demon Tongue before the Puji brought her food. Linden reflected on the battle and the church's search for Louisa, and resolved to keep them out of the Swamp Zone and Mushroom Forest.

• Louisa woke in a burrow surrounded by Puji and discovered mushrooms grew painfully from her hands whenever she tried to leave.
• A voice in Louisa's head made her repeat phrases first in Common Human Tongue and then in Demon Tongue.
• After Louisa obeyed the voice and called herself a little piggy, two Puji brought her a dead wolf, which she drank from to stave off hunger.
• Linden considered Louisa's imprisonment a successful way to teach himself Demon Tongue and decided to dig additional rooms beneath the Mushroom Forest.
• Linden assessed the strength of the Diamond Rank Louisa and his Elite Puji, while noting that a Gold Rank mage named Hake had nearly escaped before Linden killed him.
• Linden learned that church members were searching the dungeon for Louisa and decided they could not enter the Swamp Zone or Mushroom Forest.