This Dungeon Grew Mushrooms

Storm and lightning intertwined, arcs of electricity spiraling as they struck at every living thing nearby.

Following Aiden for a short distance, Lin Jun soon saw it—a smaller storm elemental.

“Smaller,” but still two or three meters tall.

This was clearly the “legacy” left behind by that Storm Elemental Lord.

Though the main body had been destroyed, the area where its power had erupted had turned into a zone of elemental contamination. Within it, countless lesser elemental spirits were now breeding.

Such elemental imbalance would take a long time to subside, but for the trapped Silverthorn Squad, those low-grade elemental spirits were a deadly threat.

When Ivan had teleported the four squad members and Aiden back to the underground chamber beneath Redstone City, the S-grade magic crystal was expelled and shattered. The old mage himself had immediately collapsed, foaming at the mouth and falling unconscious.

Now, the scene in the chamber was grim.

Aiden had lost an arm, his equipment ruined. The half-dragon Gaal had taken the brunt of the attack, barely clinging to life. Nova was in slightly better shape but still half-dead, spending what little healing magic she had left keeping Gaal alive.

Aside from the elf Night Owl, the entire team was severely wounded, forced to remain where they were to recover—a fatal mistake.

Had Ivan been awake, he would have ordered an immediate retreat. Unfortunately, there was no “if.”

The Storm Elemental Lord didn’t turn back; it headed north instead.

But the newly spawned storm spirits soon became their new problem.

These storm spirits weren’t strong, but with Night Owl being the only one still able to fight, they were dangerous enough.

She had to guard the chamber entrance, unable to spare any effort to move the others.

As time passed, Night Owl grew increasingly exhausted, while the spirits themselves became steadily stronger.

Fortunately, after some rest, Aiden had recovered enough to use illusions to escape on his own, though he was still in no condition to fight.

He said nothing about the Heartwood. The Silverthorn Squad would never agree to hand it over now, and that artifact was his only hope to bring help later.

If Night Owl couldn’t hold on, she’d have to flee with the Heartwood and one companion—meaning more danger and, possibly, resentment later.

Luckily, after Aiden escaped from Redstone City, he soon saw the spreading mycelium carpet.

“So my Heartwood is still inside the Redstone City manor’s underground chamber?” Lin Jun asked.

“It’s still there,” Aiden replied carefully.

“How long do you think they can last?”

“Two or three days… at most.”

That was still enough time.

Lin Jun felt the surge of mana gathering through the mycelium carpet. One after another, the shapes of pujis began to rise from the fungal surface.

Under accelerated magical growth, Lin Jun spent half a day nurturing more than thirty elite pujis, placing them under Aiden’s command to guard against the wandering storm spirits nearby.

Next, a new batch of special pujis began to take shape on the carpet.

They had only one skill: [Mana Storage LV8].

After their creation, these pujis didn’t leave the carpet—they stayed, constantly charging themselves with mana.

This process lasted for most of the day.

Eventually, hundreds of storage pujis were piled up in the area.

Meanwhile, because Lin Jun was short on active control capacity, some expendable pujis from Inanna’s marching army collapsed onto the mycelium carpet and were absorbed, unnoticed.

Losing a few hundred out of eight thousand was hardly noticeable—he could quietly replace them later.

The reason for this massive concentration of mana was simple…

[Achievement: Follower Creator (Quickly create a subordinate)]

A sudden vortex of magic appeared, forcing Aiden to stagger back several steps. The surrounding pujis and all the mana they had stored were swiftly swallowed into the vortex.

“Aiden, watch carefully—this is the noble fusion summoning of the pujis!”

Using [Follower Creator] directly, the mana limit of one mycelium zone would normally allow only a gold-rank puji to descend.

That alone wouldn’t be enough for the coming task.

So Lin Jun’s solution was to use these pujis as living mana batteries—spending half a day to amass energy and summon a weakened, crystal-less diamond-rank knight instead!

The massive vortex also drew the attention of several storm spirits from afar, which streaked toward it at high speed.

Aiden was about to order the elite pujis to engage when Lin Jun acted first.

[Mushroom Artillery LV10]

A blazing beam of mana burst from the fading vortex, hitting the foremost storm elemental dead-on and shattering it completely.

The explosion’s shockwave rocked the remaining two.

In that brief moment, the newly born knight puji leapt into their midst.

[Blade Storm LV8]

Whirling sword-winds erupted—storm met storm!

The two remaining elementals were shredded in an instant, dispersing into the air.

“Aiden, lead the way!”

——

At the entrance to the underground chamber, Night Owl’s figure flickered amid flashes of lightning.

She had just used a flurry of shadow leaps and enchanted dagger strikes to tear apart the third gold-rank storm spirit.

Residual elemental energy faded at her feet, but her face was pale with exhaustion.

Leaning against the cracked stone wall, she closed her eyes briefly.

Days of sleepless battle had dulled both her reflexes and her focus.

She could feel her once-proud speed lagging, her precision faltering.

Under normal circumstances, killing three gold-rank spirits shouldn’t have been this hard.

She glanced back toward the depths of the chamber.

Ivan still lay in the corner, face gray, breathing faint and barely perceptible.

Night Owl even wondered if, after absorbing the S-grade crystal and casting that overloaded teleport, the old mage had suffered irreversible damage—perhaps he would never wake.

Nova sat nearby, pale and weak, channeling the last traces of her mana to maintain the faint healing aura covering Gaal.

The half-dragon’s huge body was covered in blackened scars and elemental burns. With no potions left, his survival depended solely on Nova’s dwindling magic.

Aiden had been gone two days.

Unless a miracle occurred—and he somehow found help—they wouldn’t last much longer.

Which left her facing a cruel decision: who to save?

At most, she could take one person with her, using shadow travel to force a breakout.

Once she left, the other two wouldn’t last long before the rampaging elementals tore them apart.

“Why do I have to make this choice?! Ivan, wake up already!” Night Owl muttered, biting her nails in stress.

Suddenly, the familiar roar of thunder echoed from outside the chamber entrance.

“Again? Can’t I rest for just a little while…” she groaned, shifting her grip on the dagger.

But this time, the sound was far louder.

When she saw the figure filling the tunnel entrance, her face went pale.

“Diamond-rank?!”