Chapter 337: Strange Fungi

The castle walls were far thicker than those of an ordinary house, making Quest's attempt to confirm his suspicions by sound a futile effort. However, as an experienced Spy, Quest's words were naturally convincing.

"Is this the Secret Door?" Aive came forward. "Could the mechanism be on this coffin?"

The Half-Elf leaned down, pressing every bump and groove on the coffin—made of some unknown wood—but couldn't find anything that could be considered a mechanism.

"I've been to a few Underground Cities before. Generally speaking, the mechanism should be near the Secret Door, right?" The Half-Elf stood up in confusion and began to study the other coffins in the room. "Don't tell me we have to arrange all of these in a certain order...?"

"Ron, could there be a clue in that notebook?"

"You're thinking just like a pure-blooded Elf," Yelena retorted. "Don't look at me like that. I'm complimenting you."

"Accustomed to overcomplicating things?" Quest chuckled. "Miss Aive, you don't seem to have considered the sequence of events. When the Vampire Count built this castle, he wasn't a Vampire yet. Naturally, he wouldn't have wanted to sleep in a coffin, let alone arrange the corpses of his subordinates into some kind of puzzle."

"Secondly, unlike an Underground City, this is the Lord's bedroom. Neither the Vampire Count nor his wife, Hecate, would have bothered with such a troublesome method, therefore..."

As everyone watched, Quest tapped along the wall for a moment before stopping in front of a wall sconce. He reached out, pushed the sconce firmly into the wall, and with a GRINDING sound, a stone door slowly opened by the head of the Count's bed, revealing a small, hidden chamber.

"That was incredible, Quest!" Delaford exclaimed, leaping inside excitedly. "How on earth did you notice that? I didn't see anything out of the ordinary in the castle at all!"

"We each have our own specializations," Quest said with a humble smile. "When it comes to setting and disarming traps in the jungle, I'm no match for you. But when it comes to 'finding things' in the homes of these lords, I'm the expert."

"Looks like an Alchemy Laboratory," Ron said, taking out a handkerchief to cover his mouth and nose as he cautiously stepped into the hidden chamber. "I never would have guessed our dear Lord Count was also a botanist."

Ron's knowledge of fungi was only rudimentary, but even he could recognize several common types being cultivated in the laboratory. These species, which favored dark and damp environments, were thriving here. The mature specimens were harvested, processed, and laid out as samples on the lab bench for the Count's research.

"He even set a suitable temperature and environment for this lab," Silvia said, carefully examining the entrance to the Secret Door. There was actually a series of Magic Arrays here, but because a thin sheet of lead was embedded in the middle of the stone door, it prevented Detection Magic from seeing what was behind it. "This is really strange. I would have thought he'd be more interested in studying Blood Magic."

"This must be related to that ancient empire," Ron said. He sat down in the chair at the lab bench and started opening cabinets and drawers, looking for experiment logs. He did find them, but after flipping through a few pages, he tossed the records back in disgust.

"This Count was a complete amateur! Who writes lab notes that just say 'Matches expectations' and 'Differs from the specimen in the ruins'? Who the hell knows what you were expecting!"

"Maybe he didn't intend for anyone else to read them," Silvia said. "Are there any left by his wife?"

Ron scooped up a handful of something that was half ash and half sludge from another drawer, its label long since fallen off. "I'm guessing this is it. Over hundreds of years, the Count took no measures to preserve them, allowing... let me see... allowing all records from over forty years ago to turn into this sorry state."

"And I even found some of the fungi he was cultivating in here! Doesn't this guy wash his hands after his experiments?!"

Ron disgustedly tossed the gunk from his hand and tried to shake off the fungus clinging to his skin. Strangely, however, the dark red fungus seemed to have taken root. No matter how he tried, he couldn't get it off!

'...This is not good.'

Feeling the Transformation on his hand, he realized the fungus was acting as if it were alive—no, fungus *is* alive! The difference was that this fungus was trying to use his flesh and blood as a breeding ground! Ron muttered to himself, then immediately yelled for Victoria's help. "Victoria, I need a Poison Protection!"

"I'm all out!" Victoria yelled, rushing in. Her words were like a bucket of cold water dumped over Ron's head. "That Vampire Count's fangs are poisonous! I used them all up fighting him!"

"What about Cure Disease? There's something wrong with this fungus!" Ron showed the others the fungus on his hand, which was still trying to eat through his skin. "You've still got Bear's Tenacity, right?"

"...I was expecting a tough fight today, so I didn't prepare any Divine Magic for Enhanced Attributes."

"Then what *do* you have? This thing is starting to bite me!"

The Priest of Heim thought for a moment. "Want to try a Blessing Magic?"

The Priest had already exhausted most of her higher-level Divine Magic, but she still had a few uses of Blessing Magic left. As Victoria chanted the blessing over Ron, he could clearly feel the fungus temporarily abandon its assault. This was merely a stopgap measure, however; Blessing Magic couldn't get rid of the fungus completely.

"And it only lasts for one minute," Victoria said, frowning as she examined the dark red mold on Ron's hand. "What on earth is this stuff?"

"How should I know? The Count's notes are as good as blank," Ron said, frustrated. He held his hand out as far as possible, trying to keep the fungus from touching any other part of his body. Frankly, this was the first time since arriving in this world that he had encountered a plant he didn't recognize at all! And he had fallen right into its trap!

Throughout the Multiverse, life forms in many worlds are identical or at least similar; otherwise, races like Humans, Elves, and Dwarves could not have flourished everywhere. Take this world and the one Ron originally came from, for example. The biggest difference between their common plants was their names. The studying Ron had done on Herbalism in this world was primarily to match the new names to the plants he already knew.

But as for this particular fungus, no matter how hard Ron wracked his brain, he couldn't recall any information about it. He quickly ruled out several similar species as well.

'This thing doesn't exist in either world? Then how did it get here? More importantly, how am I supposed to get free now that it's latched onto me?'