Chapter 19 – The Door Opens

Marsh Zone, Fifth Stratum of the Amethyst Deep.

Mud mixed with blood and seeped between Dylan’s fingers into the swamp. He hunched against a slick rock wall, barely able to move with the wound that pierced his abdomen.

He had failed before he had even begun.

The lone Parasitic Tree had discovered him before the Deep-Slumber Powder could take effect. Now Dylan was grievously wounded and disarmed, while other Parasitic Trees closed in from the distance.

“Bella.”

He whispered his daughter’s name. The desire to live burned in his eyes.

He could not die yet.

Bella was the only child born to Dylan and his late wife. She was intelligent, considerate, and remarkably talented. Despite her youth, she already possessed the strength of a Silver-rank adventurer. Her future promised far more than her useless father had ever achieved.

She deserved that future. She should not die now, and she could not be allowed to live in agony as an ugly Bloodghoul.

Dylan still had four packets of Deep-Slumber Powder. He still had a chance, if only he could escape the marsh.

“A dead end.”

At some point, a wall of stone had blocked the way ahead.

Dylan turned back, but five Parasitic Trees had already spread out across his route. Pale roots writhed in anticipation of capturing him.

If he had been uninjured, he might have broken through before they closed the circle. With a wound through his abdomen, that was impossible.

He seized a climbing vine hanging from the stone and tried to pull himself upward. The entire vine tore loose, revealing a stone door hidden behind it.

“Ha... cough... ha... A Hidden Chamber.”

In all his years, Dylan had never found one. Under any other circumstances, he would have been beside himself with joy. Such rooms usually held something valuable.

Now the closest Parasitic Tree was less than sixty feet away.

With no time to hesitate, Dylan searched the wall, found a protruding mechanism, and pressed it inward.

All he could do was pray that a legendary artifact waited inside to rescue him from certain death.

Dust and gray fragments fell as the heavy stone door opened inward.

Several mana projectiles shot from the darkness. They struck a Parasitic Tree whose roots were already reaching for Dylan and tore it in half.

Bioluminescent caps lit one after another in the chamber. Rows of strange, round Puffcaps appeared before him.

I have been imprisoned in darkness for ten thousand years.

Now you dare invade my domain.

Truly...

What in the world were those revolting treefolk?

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

* * *

Life in the Treasure Chamber offered endless food and water.

It was also extraordinarily dull.

The Mycelial Garden had at least provided monsters to fight each day.

Evan became so bored that he consumed every stalk of Glowgrass in the room, acquiring Bioluminescence, a skill that required almost no mana.

His level rose quickly as well. The pool was filled with concentrated mana, and by the time Evan had harvested most of it, he reached LV47.

Then he brought out the one-tenth fragment of Lava Heart he had collected.

It was truly the core of a Magma Fiend. Even broken and left for so long, it continued to radiate extraordinary heat. Without Heat Resistance LV7, Evan’s hyphae could not have touched it.

Decomposing the fragment raised him another level and yielded a new skill: [Detonation LV3].

He would no longer need Mana Crystals to create detonation Puffcaps.

It was fortunate that the Magma Fiend had died instantly. If it had survived with even a sliver of HP and activated Detonation, Evan might have escaped at his distance, but the three adventurers beside it would certainly have died.

The question remained: how could Evan leave?

He had produced forty new Puffcaps.

The limited space prevented him from relying on numbers, so he improved their quality instead. Every Puffcap possessed between five and seven skills.

They had bombarded the stone door together and failed even to damage it.

The Treasure Chamber must possess some form of special reinforcement. Their firepower should have shattered ordinary rock with ease.

Evan had not dared use Detonation against the door. The chamber was small, and the explosion might destroy him as well.

After an unknown period of confinement, something interesting happened.

The treasure chest refreshed.

A mana fluctuation passed through it, and the stone lid returned to its original position. When Evan opened it, he found a ring.

Unfortunately, the item provided no Stats. It was an offensive spell ring capable of casting Ice Spike three times a day.

The spell was no stronger than Spore Cannon and offered Evan almost nothing.

He could only wait for the chest to refresh again and hope the next treasure would help him escape.

A classic Teleportation Scroll would have been ideal.

Before the chest refreshed a second time, someone opened the stone door from outside.

* * *

Light poured into the chamber and fell across Evan’s true body beside the pool.

This was the air of freedom.

In the next instant, Puffcaps sealed the entrance and blocked the light, shielding his body from any possible attack.

Once the repaired prime Puffcap had tucked his true body safely beneath its shell, Evan examined the scene outside.

A badly wounded adventurer lay beside the door, afraid to move.

So this man had freed him. Well done.

Farther away stood several trees.

People?

Whatever they were, they were disgusting.

Evan opened their Status Panels and saw [Parasitic Fusion]. That explained the creatures.

He immediately blanketed the area in fire. The Parasitic Trees attempted to retaliate with their skills. One even began casting Fireball.

The resistance was useless. Evan’s barrage dispersed the Fireball before it fully formed, causing it to burn the caster instead.

The Parasitic Trees died quickly, leaving only the weakened adventurer.

Evan had no intention of killing him to preserve secrecy.

As long as no one discovered his true body, Evan did not care if word spread that strange Puffcaps had appeared in the maze.

The man had released him, and Evan had saved his life. Their debt was settled.

The problem was that the adventurer looked ready to die. His HP continued to decline at a slow, steady rate.

Allowing him to perish without an attempt at rescue violated Evan’s principles. He ought to try.

Unfortunately, Evan possessed no healing skill.

Puffcaps were expendable. If one broke, he discarded it, or patched it with hyphae when necessary. He could hardly patch a human with hyphae.

Could he call other adventurers for help?

He did not know where he was. Even if he found them, they would probably attack first.

Evan remembered the description of [Parasitic Fusion] and looked at the remains of the Parasitic Trees still soaking in the marsh.

It appeared to be his only option.

The Puffcaps dragged the unconscious Dylan and the tree remains into the Treasure Chamber.

Evan accelerated decomposition with his hyphae. It was a wasteful process. The mana consumed by forcing the breakdown far exceeded what the corpses provided.

But he obtained what he needed.

[Sin of Greed triggered.]

[Skill Plundered: Parasitic Fusion LV1]

Evan’s true body scattered spores across the fatal wound in Dylan’s abdomen. Reinforced by mana, hyphae fused gradually with his flesh and sealed the opening.

They even restored some of his vitality.

In the end, Evan truly had patched a human with hyphae.

He sensed the new presence in the Mycelial Network, neither human nor mushroom, and felt deeply uncomfortable.

Had the purity of his organization declined?