This Dungeon Grew Mushrooms

Watching Aiden return to the underground chamber alongside Night Owl, surrounded by the pujis trailing behind him, Nova felt as if an invisible hand had gripped his heart—an indescribable ache and remorse rising up.

“So… I used it too early?” The normally composed captain’s voice carried a rare tremor.

Night Owl wiped the blood from her face, showing a trace of sympathy, and gently nodded.

She held the Heartwood up to Nova and asked, “Can that… be restored?”

Nova gave a rueful shake of his head—nothing so cheap or easy existed. The life energy he had sacrificed to pour into Night Owl did not convert into extending her lifespan; it merely repaired her bodily condition comprehensively.

Even if Night Owl used the same method to feed him back, it would only improve his current weakness—there was no way to reclaim the life already spent.

Gaal, however, was the one who most needed that restored state.

“There’s an easier way to heal Gaal,” Aiden interjected at the right moment, nodding toward the knight puji perched atop his head.

Nova and Night Owl exchanged a glance; they knew of Pujis and had heard the rumors of their robust vitality. Previously they had scorned symbiosis with other beings, but with the situation so desperate, this option was far preferable to further draining Night Owl’s life.

They had never watched the transformation with their own eyes, so some hesitation remained.

“Are you sure?” Night Owl asked cautiously.

Aiden’s tone was confident. “Relax, I have experience.”

Seeing the capable pujis by Aiden’s side—especially the one on his head—lent weight to his claim; such a strong puji master was something new to them, which made Aiden’s words sound authoritative.

After brief discussion, they agreed to Aiden’s suggestion.

Aiden picked up the knight puji and gently shook it; spores drifted evenly onto Gaal’s near-death body, and the parasitic process completed quickly.

Out of habit or for show, Aiden pretended to shake it a little longer before stopping.

As mycelium fused with flesh, within half an hour Gaal’s breathing steadied and grew strong; his wounds showed marked improvement.

Nova and Night Owl finally exhaled in relief.

They checked Ivan next.

Unfortunately, Ivan’s vital signs were basically intact; his unconsciousness was simply a side effect of using the S-grade crystal.

[Status: Super-Magic · Mental Overload]

The negative status name sounded impressive, but mycelium could do nothing for non-physical injuries.

Aiden looked at Nova. “Do you want it too…?”

Nova considered, then declined for now.

Night Owl had already slipped to a distance, and Aiden, being tactful, did not press further.

Once things stabilized, Aiden produced the only remaining S-grade magic crystal he had. “Nova, you know why I came.”

Nova gently pushed the crystal back. “Aiden, thank you for risking yourself to save us. Without you, we’d be dead. We can’t accept this crystal—when we reach safety, the Heartwood will be our repayment for saving us.”

Nova’s gratitude was sincere, but the implication was clear: the Heartwood would be handed over only once they were in a safe place.

Lin Jun watched the Heartwood’s status panel, impatient to reclaim his property—having his things held by others never felt secure, and more complications might arise.

The knight puji tightened its protective grip around Aiden’s head.

“I will escort you out of this area plagued by elemental spirits,” Aiden finally chose a compromise, “but I must return immediately afterward to report.”

Nova and Aiden exchanged looks, then nodded to accept the deal.

With the Pujis’ assistance, the breakout became much easier.

The Pujis carefully lifted the three wounded; Aiden, the knight puji, and Night Owl concentrated on dealing with threats along the way.

Although elemental spirits were numerous nearby, diamond-rank ones remained rare.

Guided by Lin Jun’s perception, they consistently avoided the worst threats in advance.

Eventually, they reached the edge of the mycelium carpet where Aiden had first found them; the carpet had since spread forward a considerable distance.

At the agreed spot, Nova had Night Owl hand over the Heartwood as promised, while Aiden insisted on returning the S-grade crystal into Nova’s hands.

“No… we said we wouldn’t take this…” Nova protested.

Aiden interrupted, glancing at Ivan lying on the mycelium: “He saved my life back then—this is to repay him.”

Hearing that, Nova gave up resisting.

He took the crystal and, together with Night Owl, offered sincere thanks. Then they shouldered the two injured teammates and headed south.

Night Owl muttered under her breath in Elvish about how heavy Gaal was as the Silverthorn Squad’s figures gradually disappeared from Aiden’s sight.

Of course, Lin Jun could still monitor their movements through the mycelium network at any time.

But at that moment all of Lin Jun’s attention was held by that super skill—he had no other concerns!

The knight puji impatiently took the Heartwood from Aiden and immediately plugged it into its body.

Then Aiden’s thirty-odd elite pujis retracted and lined up, entering the underground mycelial conduits one by one.

The Pujis formed a long chain in the tunnels, the Heartwood-bearing knight puji guarded tightly in the center, with expendable pujis emerging from side passages to join the escort, ensuring absolute safety.

The long column of Pujis crawled unseen through the earth toward the direction of the Pujis Dungeon.

And, of course, Aiden went with them.

“Aiden! You did brilliantly this time! I’ll reward you with a huge S-grade magic crystal! A super-sized one!” Lin Jun’s excited voice echoed in Aiden’s mind, then he asked out of concern, “By the way, can you return on your own? Need some Pujis to escort you?”

Aiden politely declined the offer of thirty expendable escort pujis, saying it was easier to stealth himself back with illusion.

Lin Jun felt pleased and promptly focused all his attention on ensuring the knight puji’s safe passage, to the point that even Inanna’s marching force of eight thousand pujis experienced some minor disorder.

……

Meanwhile, deep within the Divinewood Dungeon.

An expendable puji carrying a voice puji arrived before a sapling.

“Boss! Boss! I got the item you wanted!”

Because of the prior incident, Divinewood had shut its backdoor; Lin Jun had no way to contact Divinewood, so he kept calling out from the outside.

The voice puji’s repeated sound echoed through the space.

After a long wait, the surroundings suddenly went dark—the familiar abyssal space, familiar glowing tumblegrass.

The tumblegrass circled the puji once. “The fragments?”

“I just got them and am bringing them over—giving you a heads-up so—”

Swoosh—

Before the sentence finished, two pujis were thrown out.