The irrefutable facts firmly established the guild’s moral high ground, leaving the speculators with no choice but to accept defeat, no matter how unwilling they might be.
Perhaps a few opportunists still harboring false hopes would secretly harvest mushrooms when the administrators weren’t looking, but that was now the patrol guards’ responsibility to handle.
Beside a newly demarcated mushroom field, Farr, Inanna, and others stood observing.
Inanna gently shook the Knight Puffshroom in her arms toward the mycelium carpet beneath her feet. This time, only a sparse scattering of small mushrooms sprouted from the carpet, appearing thin and lackluster.
“As expected, it cannot produce indefinitely…” Witnessing this scene, Farr’s face showed an expression of “just as I thought,” which actually aligned better with his understanding of the world.
After all, this was already the third catalysis on the same mycelium carpet. If mushrooms could still emerge endlessly, that would truly overturn his common sense.
It seemed that Miss Inanna, with the help of the Knight Puffshroom, could achieve the remarkable effect of large-scale natural magic on the mycelium carpet.
But the cost was similar to natural magic—it prematurely depleted the nutrients and magical power stored within the mycelium carpet, causing it to fall into prolonged lethargy afterward.
However, unlike ordinary plants, the mycelium carpet’s recovery speed was much faster. Even so, this was ultimately an emergency measure, not a long-term solution.
They couldn’t really expect Miss Inanna to run around with her knight every day to solve the terrifying food crisis.
“Miss Inanna, we are deeply grateful for your assistance this time,” Farr bowed respectfully to Inanna. “Whether in securing management rights or convincing those unreasonable adventurers.”
Inanna glanced at the four guards Erik had sent, then inconspicuously moved closer to Farr and lowered her voice: “Then in the report you send to the Duke’s mansion, you must explain in detail the necessity of me staying here!”
Farr looked at her with some surprise, immediately understanding: it seemed this duke’s daughter wanted to use this opportunity to play outside a bit longer.
Naturally, Farr couldn’t afford to offend Inanna and nodded in agreement.
For the first time, Inanna smiled at him: “Also, I don’t want to live inside the guild.”
“I’ll immediately arrange for people to build you a residence,” Farr readily agreed. “What specific requirements do you have, Miss?”
What Inanna most wanted, of course, was to live directly in a mushroom house—those mushroom houses that wrapped you softly and perfectly conformed to your body were simply ideal dwellings. Unfortunately, this was the surface, so she’d have to make do…
The reason they had already begun discussing whether to stay at the guild or nearby was that not long ago, the team Farr had sent to explore the dungeon’s current state had returned with news that shocked him—the dungeon’s condition was actually beginning to improve!
Except for the first floor, which was still in poor condition, the deeper they went, the fewer cracks there were, and they were continuously self-repairing!
Regarding this, Farr felt both joy and pain.
The dungeon’s return to stability was undoubtedly good news for both him and the guild in the long run, meaning there would be a steady stream of resource output again, not to mention the addition of mushrooms now.
However, in the short term… his misjudgments had caused him to stumble repeatedly.
The premium hoarding of mid and low-tier materials had brought massive losses, and the decision to relocate refugees had completely emptied his small treasury.
This series of “masterful operations” had severely damaged both the Mute Wind Town branch and himself!
And the source of all these erroneous judgments pointed to one person—that so-called formation master, Goog!
“This fraud with an undeserved reputation!” In the guild master’s office, which had just barely been cleared of visible mycelium, Farr was writing a report to be sent to headquarters while grinding his teeth in rage.
In the report, he harshly condemned Goog as incompetent, providing not a single piece of accurate key information, causing the guild to suffer major losses—his conduct was simply unforgivable!
He once again strongly requested that headquarters dispatch a truly professional expert team to conduct an authoritative assessment of the dungeon’s current state, and particularly emphasized the urgent need to eliminate Goog, this fraudulent pseudo-master!
…
As the news most concerning to surrounding adventurers, the miracle of the dungeon successfully self-repairing from the brink of collapse spread like wildfire through the crowds.
The adventurers who had been complaining about the ducal house and guild immediately cast all their grievances aside upon hearing this news, packed their gear, and rushed into the dungeon one after another.
However, what awaited them was not easily obtainable wealth, but a solid blow to the head!
This period without frequent human activity had allowed the monster population within the dungeon to surge dramatically, making it far more dangerous than before.
Making matters worse, after the “great exchange” through the cracks, every floor was now teeming with monster “exchange students.”
Poisonous flying gnats from the second floor, coin bugs from the third floor, and even venomous lizards and armored worms that shouldn’t appear were wandering the fifth floor…
Facing these unfamiliar and fierce monsters, the unprepared adventurers immediately tasted the bitter consequences of lacking intelligence.
The slightly luckier ones retreated in disheveled panic, while the unlucky teams silently perished in some corner of the dungeon, with only the diligent puffshrooms helping to collect their corpses.
The new difficulties filtered out large numbers of mediocre teams. Now, only truly powerful and experienced adventurers had the qualifications to continue deep exploration under unknown threats.
Among these adventurers, however, one team stood out oddly—they advanced rapidly toward the lower floors while completely ignoring the precious materials along the way.
Leading them was a swordsman, followed by a hunter and a mage. Their common trait was that they all owed “good old” Vera significant favors…
Unlike other profit-seeking adventurers, they had come to search for Vera and her companions.
The last sighting of Vera’s group was their entry into Mute Wind Town, before the mushroom harvesting craze had fully taken off.
But since then, Vera’s group had vanished as if they’d disappeared completely, leaving no trace.
The swordsman, realizing Vera had gone missing, had searched Mute Wind Town and the surrounding forests while questioning other adventurers, but found nothing.
Based on his understanding of Vera, she wouldn’t abandon the refugees to frolic in other cities, making this disappearance very strange.
After much consideration, they had most likely entered the dungeon—though he couldn’t understand why they would enter the dungeon at that particular time.
Therefore, as soon as news of the dungeon’s recovery spread, the swordsman decisively contacted the other two, forming this temporary search party. Their primary target was the fifth and sixth floors.
They would first search for clues on the sixth floor, where Vera commonly went, and if they found nothing, return to the fifth floor for “puffshroom lottery.”
It was called a lottery because it was common knowledge that puffshrooms would decompose adventurer corpses and take their equipment. If they drew something that could represent Vera’s group, they would have to accept the fact that Vera had already died in the dungeon.
However, when they reached the sixth floor, what they found was Vera and her companions sitting around a drilling puffshroom, happily drinking delicious mushroom soup…
