“There would be… puffshrooms in a treasure room?” Amy stared at the scene inside the chamber, her voice filled with incredulous doubt.
“No, no, no!” Horn immediately protested, shaking his head like a rattle drum. “Which dungeon legend ever mentioned puffshrooms appearing in treasure rooms? Absolutely none!”
“Then this…” Amy was momentarily speechless.
Horn was also struck dumb.
He cautiously observed for a moment. There didn’t seem to be any danger inside, so he signaled Amy to guard the entrance while he brought Noah in to see what was really going on.
In the center of the room, an exceptionally rotund, shut-in puffshroom sat behind a table naturally formed from gnarled tree branches.
On the side facing the entrance, several knee-high, solid and plump large mushrooms stood prominently, shaped remarkably like round stools prepared for visitors.
The shut-in puffshroom wasn’t alone—behind it on the mycelial carpet, several ordinary-sized puffshrooms sat quietly.
As soon as they entered, two puffshrooms came forward, gently pushing them with soft tentacles, indicating they should sit on those peculiar mushroom stools.
Horn and Noah sat down with some curiosity. The mushroom stools were more elastic and comfortable than they had imagined!
At this moment, the shut-in puffshroom raised a thick tentacle. Horn instinctively tensed his body, his hand quietly sliding toward the dagger at his waist.
However, the shut-in puffshroom merely gave a flexible curl and scooped up an extremely bizarre-looking puffshroom from the nearby mycelial carpet—its mushroom cap was like an open mouth, with tiny sharp teeth around the edges, and it was already filled with clear water!
The shut-in puffshroom steadily placed this burrower puffshroom on the wooden table in front of the two men. Then, from within its own body, it pulled out a handful of bright red mushrooms and dumped them all into the burrower puffshroom.
“Delicious mushrooms!” Both men recognized these red mushrooms that had recently caused quite a stir.
But it wasn’t finished yet. The shut-in puffshroom curled up another puffshroom covered in sticky honey and carefully squeezed a few drops of golden honey juice into the “pot.”
Finally, it used the tip of its tentacle to dip into a hollow small puffshroom and extract a tiny bit of glowing flower fairy paralysis liquid, dropping just a small drop into the mixture.
With preparations complete, the shut-in puffshroom cradled the burrower puffshroom, which had begun to tremble slightly and emit heat, and gently shook it like a cocktail shaker for about two minutes.
Two minutes later, a puffshroom specialty dish emanating an indescribably enticing aroma was ready.
That strange, rich fragrance spread throughout the room, making even Amy, who was guarding outside, unconsciously swallow her saliva.
The two men in the room finally understood. They quickly took out wooden bowls from their luggage, and the shut-in puffshroom, cradling the burrower puffshroom with its tentacles, poured each of them a full bowl.
Horn was the first to lift his bowl, blowing on it before taking a big gulp: “Hiss… a bit hot!”
He had just finished complaining when his whole body suddenly shuddered!
An indescribable flavor—a perfect fusion of sweet and savory—exploded in his mouth, followed immediately by a subtle, irresistible tingling sensation that instantly shot from his tongue tip to his limbs, making his body involuntarily tremble slightly.
The paralysis spread quickly. Horn’s legs went weak, and with a “thud,” he collapsed directly onto the carpet-like mycelial mat. The surrounding puffshrooms immediately gathered around him…
“Horn!” Amy, who had been watching from outside, instantly drew her short bow.
“Wait! Wait! Amy, I’m fine!” From the pile of puffshrooms came Horn’s slightly slurred but vigorous voice.
Amy peered in with confusion and saw the puffshrooms had formed an orderly small circle, taking turns stepping across Horn’s back one by one. Horn, affected by that strange paralysis, had his eyes slightly rolled back, but his face showed an expression of pure enjoyment, with comfortable humming sounds occasionally escaping his lips.
Noah, holding his bowl of special mushroom soup nearby, looked at Horn lying on the ground in blissful euphoria, then at the fragrant soup in his bowl. He both wanted to quickly try this delicious dish and felt somewhat embarrassed about becoming like that in front of his companions…
The paralysis liquid dosage was very small. After just a few minutes, the tingling sensation receded from Horn’s body like a tide. He sprang up with a carp leap, stretching his muscles and bones, feeling completely refreshed with all fatigue swept away. The puffshrooms also tactfully stopped their “massage” service.
Amy, who had been waiting impatiently, decisively demanded to switch places, pushing the still somewhat dizzy Horn out the door. She and Noah also took turns enjoying this comprehensive puffshroom service.
When all three finally stood outside the stone door, they felt incredibly relaxed in their muscles and bones, warm and satisfied in their bellies, and refreshed in spirit. For a moment, none of them wanted to leave this place.
“That’s… it?” Amy smacked her lips with lingering satisfaction.
However, when they reluctantly turned back to look, behind them was only cold, rough stone wall. The heavy stone door carved with intricate patterns, along with the puffshroom restaurant inside, had vanished without a trace!
“So hidden rooms transfer this quickly!” Noah gazed at the empty stone wall, murmuring to himself with a hint of regret in his voice.
Horn stroked his chin, savoring the comfort and deliciousness from earlier, but always felt like he had forgotten something. After a long while: “Wait! Where’s the promised treasure chest?! Where’s our treasure?!”
…
Treasure?
The treasure naturally all belonged to the puffshrooms!
A puffshroom used its tentacle to curl up a pair of bracers, skillfully injecting magical power into them.
Buzz!
A magic shield flowing with faint light instantly expanded in front of the bracers.
Hmm… another skill equipment piece for the little treasury!
Lin Jun couldn’t enter the dungeon’s true super treasury, but that didn’t stop him from looting all the treasures that spawned beforehand.
Hidden rooms would automatically transfer at irregular intervals if Lin Jun didn’t specifically control them, occasionally appearing in adventurers’ sight.
It wouldn’t be good to always let adventurers find ransacked hidden rooms, so he simply created a puffshroom massage restaurant. Once everyone accepted this setting, it would be fine.
Lin Jun hadn’t cut corners on this either. Not only were the seasonings complete, but the core ingredient used top-tier mushrooms with [Delicious LV4]!
When his skills upgraded later, the mushroom quality could be even higher. You should know that those growing naturally on the surface could at most reach LV3.
Lin Jun discovered that [Delicious] was truly powerful. Besides creating delicious mushrooms and delicious puffshrooms, it could also be applied to creatures, like the minotaur in front of him who dared to cause trouble in puffshroom territory.
After breaking into Lin Jun’s controlled caverns and killing several puffshrooms in a surprise attack, even after being captured and parasitized by mycelial threads, it showed no remorse whatsoever. So Lin Jun simply added the Delicious effect to it and threw it to Little Pig.
Faced with that special aroma, Little Pig immediately demonstrated with her actions what could be called “bold eating manners.”
Her arm muscles bulged as she boldly pressed the minotaur, who was much taller than her, firmly to the ground. She buried her head in its thick neck and began sucking frantically!
The minotaur went from initial violent struggle and counterattack to rapidly losing strength, finally going completely limp and lifeless. Only then did Louisa, her face covered in blood, suddenly come back to her senses: “Oh no… I finished it all at once…”
A water-storing puffshroom used its mycelial tentacles to spray some water to clean her while asking: “How did it taste?”
Realizing her feeding posture had been too wild just now, Louisa felt somewhat embarrassed as she tidied her blood-stained clothes, smacking her lips as if savoring the taste: “I’ve never tasted such… delicious blood! It’s a pity—if only we could remove that bovine stench, it would be perfect!”
It would be normal if she’d never tasted it before—which humanoid creature would come with the [Delicious] skill naturally?
Seeing Little Pig’s endless aftertaste, this stuff… would it be really popular if thrown into the Empire?
