"You, say that again."
Duke Amala's knuckles were white, and the mahogany armchair's armrest groaned under the strain.
Sweat beaded on the back of the butler Eric's neck, but he still articulated each syllable clearly.
"After Pero and Oakes tricked the young lady away using your name, they first went to the Amethyst Dungeon, then crossed the border and fled to the Hermit Empire. Judging by the direction, they are likely seeking refuge with Duke Sigismund."
"Damn traitors! Damn vampires!" The solid wood armrest was crushed, and blood-red flames flickered in the Duke's pupils. "Inanna is still alive, the tracking mark is still there, and the revenge mark hasn't transferred. I must go save her."
"My lord!"
Seeing the Duke take down his greatsword and prepare to rush off to save his daughter regardless of the consequences, Eric had no choice but to shout.
"The moment you leave, Sigismund will bring the Blood Knight Order to flatten Highfort Fortress.
Once Highfort is lost, there will be no defenses left. By then, not only your ducal territory but the entire Southern Federation will be in danger."
"So you want me to watch Inanna die?"
The bluestone tiles beneath Amala's feet cracked, the spiderweb-like fissures expanding continuously. The aura of a top-tier LV70 human expert pressed Eric down onto one knee.
"The Diamond-Ranked Adventurer Team 'Silver Thorns' is operating nearby. We can privately commission them to search for the young lady in the Amethyst Dungeon.
Here at Highfort Fortress, you can create the illusion of leaving to lure Sigismund here, then deliver a crushing blow to avenge the assassination attempt."
After saying all that in one breath, Eric almost collapsed.
The pressure on Eric gradually dissipated. Amala sat back in his chair, reached out, and condensed the coordinates locating Inanna into a crystal, which he handed to the butler.
"Do as you say. Tell those adventurers, bring Inanna back alive, and I will give them a city!
But if anything happens to my daughter..."
"Yes, my lord."
Deep within the dungeon, in the mushroom garden.
Inanna, completely unaware that her father had begun searching for her, was watching the scene before her with a hint of fear at the edge of the breeding area.
Beside the deep pit where slimes were being bred, a hollow Puji filled with ordinary mushrooms was feeding the slimes.
As it was pouring the mushrooms, a slime leaped up and stuck to its foot, dragging the Puji down.
The next second, the slimes in the deep pit swarmed over, completely enveloping the Puji.
The wrapped Puji was still struggling, seemingly still salvageable.
"Linden, Linden, your slimes are eating the Puji!"
Linden, who was busy, heard the call and glanced back for a moment.
"Got it, I'll send a new Puji over. I told you the breeding area is dangerous, stay away from there."
Inanna wanted to say that wasn't what she meant, but seeing the Puji among the slimes, completely still and beginning to be decomposed, she swallowed her words.
The underground world is truly cruel.
The underground world is indeed cruel.
To survive in this cruel place, Linden was constantly busy.
The Puji's intelligence was limited to automatically finding paths after receiving commands.
Both farming and mining required Linden's focused micro-management, not to mention the constant harassment from various monsters at the mushroom garden's borders.
Even with LV5 Mental Integration, Linden found it quite taxing to manage.
Being able to spare the energy to show Inanna around was actually quite rare.
Although he didn't show it, Linden was actually very happy to have someone he could communicate with.
At least now he wouldn't need to talk to himself to ensure his language skills didn't deteriorate.
However, after that, he didn't have time to look after her and could only let her wander around on her own.
Linden needed to focus his energy on the mushroom garden's border, where swarms of fire mosquitoes were approaching again.
These flying insects, which looked like mosquitoes but were slightly larger than the Puji, had an average level of around LV20.
They were far from the strongest monsters here, but they were definitely the most annoying.
They could fly, were agile, appeared in swarms, and would use their sharp beaks to snatch up isolated Puji whenever they had a chance, making them Linden's biggest enemy in the early stages of his development.
Fortunately, Linden already had a mature counter-strategy.
Facing the swarming fire mosquitoes, several Puji with nozzles instead of mushroom caps forcefully squeezed out a sky full of slime mucus.
This mucus had strong adhesion and corrosive properties. If the fire mosquitoes got stuck in it, they couldn't fly and were forced to fall to the ground.
Meanwhile, large patches of purple mushrooms on the ground sprayed out hallucinogenic spores, incapacitating the fire mosquitoes that had fallen.
Soon, after losing 7 companions, the remaining fire mosquitoes fled without looking back.
However, Linden knew that these things wouldn't learn their lesson and would come back next time.
The Puji with chitinous shells on their heads finished off the unconscious fire mosquitoes one by one. These monster corpses were then thrown into the mushroom garden to become fresh fertilizer.
Seven Sins - Greed triggered
Plundered Skill: High Temperature Resistance LV5 → LV6
Leveled up?
Good, good. Once High Temperature Resistance is higher, he can try to sneak through the Fire Demon's lair and see what the upper level is like.
He opened the panel.
Race: Mushroom - Fungus Lord
Level LV42
Health: 420/420
[Magic: 8045/12450]
[Racial Talents:
Mana Gathering (Mycelium can absorb magic from the environment to continuously provide experience)
Scavenging (Decompose corpses to gain nutrition and experience)]
[Fixed State: Connected to Mycelial Network]
[Skills: Puji Creation LV5, Magic Storage LV4, Mana Perception LV4, Entanglement LV3, Mushroom Cannon LV6, Precision LV4, Mimicry LV2, Storage Sac LV4, Mycelial Network LV6, Familiar Manipulation LV6, Mental Integration LV5, Airflow Perception LV6, High Temperature Resistance LV6, Evasion LV6, Pecking LV7, Hallucinogenic Spores LV4, Chitinous Shell LV4, Digestive Mucus LV3, Rolling Charge LV5]
[Titles:
Seven Sins - Greed (Unique Title): Randomly steal skills/fixed buffs from corpses
Mosquito Killer: Damage against mosquitoes increased by 10%
Hero: Not restricted by race level, can randomly draw a special title or skill (Used)]
Linden's panel didn't even have attributes; his main body was just an ordinary-looking mushroom.
Having 420 health at level 42 was the normal state for a mushroom. Having over 3000 health like Inanna was truly outrageous.
As for Linden's abnormally high magic power, it actually included the entire mushroom garden.
The most outrageous thing on the panel was the Hero title. Even he found it absurd.
How could I, a mushroom, have such a title?
Linden had never met his summoner. He didn't know if it was a crazy archmage or a god with a twisted sense of humor.
But one thing was certain—the other party was definitely not normal.
Would anyone really specifically summon a mushroom hero?
However, thanks to this title, Linden drew Greed using the Hero's privilege, then used Greed to continuously steal skills from the underground monsters, and finally armed the Pujis with those skills.
From being chased by slimes for food in the beginning to now fencing off an area in the corner of the level to farm, the entire process was filled with hardship and tears.
It was hard to imagine what he would have done if he hadn't drawn Greed back then. Most likely, he would have turned into excrement.
So, why was he summoned as a mushroom?
This question had almost become his obsession, second only to climbing to the surface.
After dealing with the fire mosquitoes, Linden finally had time to see what the new little ones were doing.
Ah... they were secretly picking up the excavated amethyst