Chapter Summaries

Fahr and Mirabelle activated the Adventurer Guild’s ancient monitoring equipment and discovered that Amethyst Dungeon’s Core mana activity was steadily declining. Fahr alerted Guild headquarters to inspect the other dungeons and prepared to investigate the abnormal monsters; two days later, elites gathered around a dead Illuminating Puji to join the operation.

• Fahr led Mirabelle and Lillian into the basement monitoring room beneath the Adventurer Guild.
• Mirabelle used the manual to activate the old device, which showed that the Dungeon Core’s mana activity was unusually low and continuing to drop.
• Fahr told Mirabelle to notify Guild headquarters and request inspections of the other dungeons and expert reinforcements.
• Fahr decided to investigate the abnormal monster while they waited for the experts.
• Two days later, elites gathered in the guild meeting hall around a dead Illuminating Puji to prepare for the operation.

Fahr gathered Solalin, Eiding, and his friend Fifteen to plan reconnaissance of the intelligent force behind the Pujis. After Fifteen swiftly killed a Puji that revived in the meeting hall, Linden noticed the group’s preparations and decided to be more cautious.

• Fahr showed Solalin and Eiding the formation-like patterns inside an Illumination Puji and discussed whether a collective monster will or a hidden mage controlled the Pujis.
• Eiding proposed using Micro Illusion Scouts to reconnoiter the Fifth Floor, and Fahr approved the plan without concern for the cost.
• An Illumination Puji healed and stood up on the meeting table, but Fifteen cut it into four pieces with a swift strike.
• Fahr introduced Fifteen as the Sword Saint’s disciple, giving Solalin and Eiding more confidence in the operation.
• Linden saw the Puji’s signal inside the Adventurer Guild and watched it get dismembered, then decided to act more cautiously.

Linden discovered that the new guildmaster had sent illusion bugs to scout the Dungeon, while Eiding located the Puji King Bug before his insects were destroyed. The guild learned the Puji King Bug’s hiding place, leaving Linden preparing for the next attack.

• Little Black chased a Drilling Puji through underground tunnels and found Linden’s hidden knight in a mycelium ball beneath the swamp.
• The knight fed Little Black mana and spores, putting her to sleep, and Linden repaired the damaged mycelium ball.
• Linden spotted an illusion bug, destroyed it, and had the Bat Pujis eliminate the remaining scouting insects on the Fifth Floor.
• Eiding’s Magic Crystal shattered after his insects were killed, and he told Solalin and the others that he had found the Puji King Bug but that it had discovered his scouts.

Linden moved his belongings to a prepared home on the Sixth Floor while adventurers in Mute Wind Town debated the guild’s mission to clear the Fifth Floor of Pujis. The chapter left Aimei heading out to join the mission as Vera and the twins refused to take part.

• Linden packed his belongings into seven Fatty Pujis and moved toward his new storage room beside the Rift Valley on the Sixth Floor.
• Horn, Old Hammer, Aimei, and Noah discussed the guild’s mission, weighing its generous pay against the many adventurers killed by Pujis.
• Aimei decided to join the mission, while Noah declined and Horn and Old Hammer chose to rest.
• Noah blessed Aimei before she left, and she promised to treat the party to honey-glazed catfish belly when she returned.
• Vera arrived at the tavern with Feiling and Feiyin and told Horn that they would avoid the mission after nearly dying during the Heart of Steel incident.

Fahr sent a Church-led expedition into the Dungeon to find the Puji King, despite low adventurer participation and the danger of facing intelligent Pujis. After Fifteen’s strength surprised Linden, the Pujis harassed the party through the first and second floors, where three Fatty Pujis suddenly attacked from above.

• Mirabelle reported that only twenty-five Silver Rank and two Gold Rank adventurers had signed up, citing fear of casualties and disagreement with subjugating the Pujis, but Fahr ordered the expedition to proceed.
• Solalin led the Church warriors and adventurers into the Dungeon, with Fifteen and Eiding among the party, while Fahr and Lillian stayed behind.
• Linden saw that Fifteen was level 61 and sent Little Black to the Deep Zone, deciding not to bring the Dragonkin, Vampire, or other allies into the confrontation.
• Pujis repeatedly ambushed the party on the first floor, slowing its progress with self-destruct attacks and magic cannons despite the Church warriors’ defenses and Fifteen’s sword strikes.
• On the second floor, Eiding urged caution over possible Landmine Pujis, and three Fatty Pujis dropped from the treetops onto the team.

The Church’s expedition was ambushed by nearly two hundred explosive Pujis, suffering several deaths and severe injuries before Fifteen wiped out the attackers. Solalin ordered the party to carry the wounded onward cautiously, with Fifteen accepting her command.

• Solalin spotted the ambush too late, and Fatty Pujis dropped onto the party despite the Church warriors raising their shields.
• Fifteen cut down the Fatty Pujis, but the Pujis bursting from their bodies exploded and spread corrosive slime through the disordered crowd.
• Pujis attacked from both sides, and Eiding used Mass Pain Immunity to stabilize the party while Fifteen killed the attackers from a distance.
• Solalin counted one Church warrior dead, one heavily wounded, and several adventurers dead, missing, or heavily wounded.
• Fifteen and Eiding agreed not to leave the wounded behind, and Solalin ordered the party to proceed carefully and retreat if the situation changed.

Norris trained Cave Dwellers to control Puji while Little Black and Louisa waited out their enforced stay in the Old Mushroom Garden. Meanwhile, Solalin’s exhausted team reached the Fifth Floor stairs, only to face a vast Puji army led by an armed Puji King.

• Norris taught Cave Dwellers to direct Puji with mushroom cannons and stopped one from attacking a Puji that had missed its target.
• Little Black ate a Puji while watching Norris, and Louisa enjoyed a quiet rest in the Old Mushroom Garden.
• Aimei’s arrows and the Church warriors’ barriers helped Solalin’s team endure relentless Puji attacks as they advanced toward the Fifth Floor.
• Solalin’s team rested in the stairway after their ammunition and mana ran low, but a barrage of mushroom cannon shots destroyed the entrance barrier.
• Countless fluorescent mushrooms lit up the Fifth Floor, revealing a huge Puji force and the Puji King standing atop a Fatty Puji, armed with human equipment.

Solalin and the exhausted Church troops faced an overwhelming Puji army attacking the stairs, so Fifteen charged toward Knight Puji in a bid to turn the battle around. After Linden’s forces wore Fifteen down with layered attacks and a trap, Knight Puji burst from a specially prepared Fatty Puji and struck at his chest.

• Solalin and Fifteen chose a decapitation strike against Knight Puji, while the Church troops raised barriers and used four Light Spears to kill more than a hundred Pujis.
• Main and Eiding buffed Fifteen, who charged into the Puji army and carved a path forward with his Trample, Roaming Step, and Wind Pressure Slash.
• Linden redirected Pujis to swarm Fifteen, using explosions, Bat Pujis, thrown Pujis, and underground ambushes to exhaust him as Knight Puji retreated.
• When Fifteen reached the knight, Fatty Puji swallowed it, and ten Elite Pujis unleashed a combined Infrasonic Attack that wounded Fifteen and killed the attackers and the Fatty Puji.
• Knight Puji cut its way out of the Fatty Puji’s Stone-Heart husk and thrust its Blade Whip toward Fifteen’s chest.

Linden used Knight Puji to lure Fifteen into the Happy House, where an explosive trap buried him under rubble. As the fight ended, Linden prepared to collect the spoils while Puji overwhelmed Solalin’s retreating group at the Fifth Floor stairway.

• Linden equipped Knight Puji with Agility gear and a Dragon Scale shield, then sent it against Fifteen, whose sword carved a deep scar into the shield.
• Knight Puji fled toward the Happy House with Fifteen in pursuit, and Linden used its severed remains to escape through a prepared tunnel as Fifteen reached the cave’s center.
• Pujis hidden inside eight Stone Pillars detonated, burying Fifteen beneath the rubble; Linden detected that he was still alive and went to harvest the spoils.
• At the Fifth Floor stairway, Solalin led the survivors in a breakout after the Light Curtain fell, but Puji dragged a blind Church warrior into the swarm.
• An adventurer with a broken leg drew his dagger as Puji approached.

Solalin's attempted breakout failed, and the Puji overwhelmed and captured the remaining adventurers, including Aimei. Linden's Pujis stripped the prisoners of their gear and carried them away while Linden examined the damage Fifteen had caused.

• Solalin led the survivors in a charge toward the upper level, but endless Puji and poisonous fog broke their formation.
• Aimei was bound by Mycelium Tentacles and succumbed to a Puji's spore mist, drifting into an illusion of completing the commission and returning to the inn.
• The Puji stripped Aimei, Solalin, and Yingyong of their equipment and gathered the spoils for transport to the Sixth Floor.
• Linden's Pujis carried the unconscious prisoners to the Fifth Floor, while Linden inspected the fragments left along Fifteen's route and considered repairing them.

Fifteen escaped the earth and mycelium to find Solalin and the others alive, while the Pujis busied themselves reassembling their fallen. The defeated team was expelled from the Dungeon, and Mute Wind Town learned of the costly failure before Aimei celebrated with her friends.

• Fifteen broke through the blocked passage and found Solalin and the others unconscious but alive as the Pujis gathered and pieced together fragments.
• Solalin and the other prisoners were escorted out of the Dungeon, where they reunited with Eiding, who had failed to escape and lost his equipment.
• Fifteen promised to help Eiding get Fahr to reimburse his losses.
• News of the subjugation team's defeat spread through Mute Wind Town, and Fahr accepted responsibility, increased the bounty, and tripled payments to the dead's families.
• Two days later, Aimei treated Horn, Old Hammer, and Noah to catfish belly, while they stared at her with disbelief and pity.

Eiding tried to flee Amethyst Dungeon after the Rebirth Potion failed to remove Puji’s mycelium, but its sudden growth stopped him and forced him to return. Accepting that he needed to cooperate to survive, he contacted the Puji King, who told him to call it “Boss.”

• Eiding drank a Rebirth Potion, but the mycelium parasitizing his arm remained and seemed more active.
• Eiding packed his luggage and used Camouflage to sneak out of town, but mycelium erupted from his leg and exposed him.
• Eiding realized Puji had been watching him and returned to town, where he overheard adventurers discussing the subjugation team’s escape and Jier’s injury.
• Eiding encountered Fifteen near Amethyst Dungeon and heard him wonder why the Puji had let the subjugation team leave.
• After Fifteen departed, Eiding connected to the Mycelium Network and asked the Puji King what it wanted him to do.
• The Puji King answered that Eiding could call it “Boss.”

After the failed subjugation, Fahr resolved to gather new intelligence and recruit stronger allies, while Eiding offered to seek help from Duke Alama and the Saint Clair family. Meanwhile, the Cyan Mushroom gained new skills and considered escape plans in case it could not seize the Dungeon Core.

• Solalin, Fifteen, and Fahr accepted responsibility for the failed expedition, and Fahr decided to make a new subjugation plan after gathering intelligence.
• Lillian proposed negotiating with the pujis, but Fahr argued that their expanding occupation of the dungeon made defeating them necessary.
• Solalin warned that the guild lacked enough fighters, so Fahr planned to await an expert team and recruit Diamond Rank adventurers through special channels.
• Eiding offered to write to Duke Alama's daughter for support, and Fahr approved the request.
• The Cyan Mushroom leveled up, gained several skills, and considered escape routes in case it failed to obtain the Dungeon Core.

Vera took Feiling and Feiyin into the Amethyst Dungeon to hunt monsters and search for equipment lost by the failed subjugation team. After helping two farmers avoid poisonous mushrooms, Vera reached Fat Puji's cave and found Horn drawing equipment there.

• Vera learned that Pujis had returned to normal and led Feiling and Feiyin into the dungeon to look for loot inside Fat Pujis.
• Vera heard that farmers from Mula Village were entering the dungeon to gather mushrooms after their crops burned in a fire.
• Vera stopped a farmer boy from picking Cyan Mushrooms and warned him that they caused sleepiness.
• Feiling carried Illumination Puji down the stairs as it followed the group to the fifth floor.
• Vera arrived at Fat Puji's cave, saw The Church's equipment among the drawn prizes, and recognized Horn.

Linden prepared for possible conflict with the humans and sent most of the Puji back to the Deep Zone after Norris was nearly killed at the Cave Dweller training base. Little Black and Louisa rescued Norris from three invisible Six-Clawed Monsters, while a red-eyed creature escaped, leaving Linden to examine a decaying monster corpse.

• Linden stored useful loot, arranged for Puji to return to the Deep Zone, and kept contingency plans ready in case Pink Puji betrayed the Mycelium Network or humans attacked.
• Norris broke up another Cave Dweller fight over mating rights, then noticed a red light floating in the cave.
• Three invisible Six-Clawed Monsters attacked and killed two Cave Dwellers, while Norris struggled to track them with [Sonic Detection LV6].
• Little Black killed one monster and hurled its severed limb through another, while Louisa pierced the last with a spear formed from monster blood.
• The red-eyed creature disappeared before Louisa could catch it, and the Yellow Book secretly collected the dead Cave Dwellers' souls.
• Linden arrived with the Puji army and examined a nearly decomposed Six-Clawed Monster on the Fungal Carpet.

After the monsters’ ambush, Linden punished Yellow Book, rewarded Little Black, and absorbed the corpses, gaining Refractive Invisibility and other skills. He tested invisibility and combined Holy Barriers, which Little Black accidentally shattered with one claw.

• Louisa convulsed after drinking purple blood while Linden watched, and Little Black tore a page from Yellow Book for stealing food.
• Linden rewarded Little Black with Eiding’s gemstone earrings for detecting the invisible attackers and protecting Norris.
• Linden considered the unknown monsters’ origins and ordered increased scanning of his territory in the Deep Zone.
• Linden absorbed the three monsters and gained Refractive Invisibility, increased Cold Resistance, and a higher Claw Strike level.
• Linden tested Refractive Invisibility on Puji and found it concealed them better when they stood still than when they moved.
• Linden had four Puji combine their Holy Barriers into a dome, but Little Black lightly scratched it and shattered it.

Linden reclaimed territory, disciplined the Cave Dwellers, and prepared Norris for another round of skill enhancements. After upgrading Norris’s abilities, Linden used Hallucinogenic Spores to knock him out, leaving the Yellow Book trapped against a Self-Destruct Puji.

• Linden sent Piggy and Louisa to reclaim Caves Four, Seven, and Eight from the monsters that had captured them.
• Linden ordered Cave Dwellers who fought, harmed Puji, or damaged facilities to grow mushrooms as punishment, and sent three groups to establish new settlements.
• Linden decided to enhance Norris’s [Mental Integration], [Claw Strike], [Corrosion Resistance], [Physical Resistance], [Magic Resistance], and [Mimicry] skills.
• Norris begged the Yellow Book to forgive him for using it as a shield, but it refused to reconcile.
• Linden’s Puji surrounded Norris and covered him in Hallucinogenic Spores, knocking him unconscious while the Yellow Book remained pressed against a Self-Destruct Puji.

Louisa cleared the Mud Monsters from Cave Eight and found the Snake Cave mysteriously emptied before a hidden Beetle swarm attacked her. Linden identified the Kis-Pincer Beetles and spotted a powerful Kis-Eyebug among them, which appeared to be the eyeball Norris had mentioned.

• Louisa and the Puji cleared Cave Eight of its rapidly multiplying Mud Monsters.
• Louisa entered the Snake Cave and found its Snake Monsters gone, with crushed eggs, drag marks, and traces of blood left behind.
• Louisa detected concealed Beetles and struck them with a crimson blade, revealing the swarm and triggering a fierce attack.
• Louisa transformed into a bat while the Puji fought back by self-destructing amid the Beetles.
• Linden identified the attackers as Kis-Pincer Beetles and detected a level 31 Kis-Eyebug that seemed to match Norris's description.

Linden drove a swarm of mentally controlled Kees beetles out of Snake Cave and discovered that the special eye bug was controlling them. He planned to turn the cave into a forward base and personally investigate the nearby threat.

• The Kees beetles overwhelmed the Puji inside Snake Cave, but their charge outside was destroyed by Puji ranged fire.
• Linden sent Hallucination Puji to fill the cave passages with poisonous spore mist, knocking the beetles unconscious and forcing the survivors to retreat.
• Linden watched the special eye bug escape through a particular passage and confirmed that the beetles' Mental Control disappeared after it left.
• The Puji cleared Snake Cave, and Linden planned to reinforce it as a forward base after its Fungal Carpet was established.
• Linden decided to investigate the Kees himself because their controlled monsters could threaten his caves and supply lines.

The chapter contained a recommendation for Goblin Heavy Dependence, describing an adventurer who fixated on Goblin bounties. It ended with a complaint about mushroom soup that lacked fluorescence.

• A man asked his brother why they had become adventurers.
• His brother answered that a Goblin bounty paid three silver coins.
• The man asked about the ultimate goal of their work, but his brother repeated the bounty amount.
• The man pointed out a quest to clear a Goblin nest, and his brother charged off.
• The narrator complained that his mushroom soup lacked fluorescence and was not authentic enough.