This Dungeon Grew Mushrooms

Outside the valley, several demons were half-squatting on a stretch of fungal carpet, troubled by their newly assigned task—clearing the fungal mat.

A mage raised his staff, and blazing flames erupted from its tip, the scorching heat forcing the others to retreat two steps.

The flames burned for several seconds, and as soon as the spell ended, everyone hurried forward to check the results.

It couldn’t be said there was no effect, but the outcome was frustratingly inefficient.

Only the section directly burned by the center of the flames turned charred black, while the edges were only faintly yellowed—still looking very much alive.

Worse yet, the fungal mat showed no signs of igniting at all. Once the spell ceased, not even a spark remained.

Before this, they had also tried contaminating the soil with strong poisons, but the results were equally disappointing.

“Not this, not that! How the hell are we supposed to clear this damned fungus? We can’t possibly dig it all up with shovels, right?!”

“This is insane! Those poisons and flames could kill me ten times over—how are these fungal threads tougher than me?”

A soldier poked the still-tough blackened edge with his scabbard, incredulous.

“Stop whining. Everything has a weakness. Use your heads,” the team leader snapped.

“What about the other groups? Any progress?”

They craned their necks and saw another team far away, similarly gathered together with no large-scale action—clearly facing the same problem.

Just as all the demons were at a loss, a half-demon rider sped over on a pack beast, bringing news of a method discovered by another squad:

“Use fire!”

“We did try fire magic! It didn’t work!” the leader immediately retorted.

“Not magic fire!” the messenger stressed. He pulled a bundle of torches from his mount and handed them out. “Use these. Ordinary torches. They burn hot when close!”

Skeptical, they lit the torches and tried bringing them near the fungal carpet.

Sure enough—although the fungus still couldn’t be ignited, the moment ordinary fire drew close, the fungal threads within range rapidly withered and died at a speed visible to the naked eye—far more directly and effectively than magic flames.

Looking at the vast expanse still needing clearing, the demons finally showed relief.

At the very least—they had found a workable entry point!

Lin Jun also let out a breath of relief. He had finally thought up a “weakness” for his own fungal mats in time.

His fungal resistance was extremely high; even though the resistances were weaker due to the fungus having no inherent elemental attributes, they still far surpassed normal plants.

Killing a small patch wasn’t difficult—clearing a large area was the real problem.

Without Lin Jun actively stopping the flow of mana, these demons would truly struggle to remove even the surface-level fungal mat outside the valley.

As for the underground fungal network… just pretend it doesn’t exist. Give Little Xi[“Sigismund”] any more trouble and he might give up on Lin Jun entirely—then he’d be the one panicking.

…

The demons’ movements naturally drew the attention of Arama and Lorenzo inside the valley.

To figure out their intentions, they summoned Warren, the deputy familiar with the Puji Master system, and… Inanna.

Regardless of how Arama felt, this daughter—capable of indirectly commanding thousands of puji via her knight puji, and performing “rituals” on the fungal mats to mass-produce them—was undeniably the valley’s top authority on puji forces.

Inanna walked in holding her knight puji. Soldiers she passed saluted respectfully or greeted her warmly. Her reputation in the army was no small thing now.

Only Arama still habitually regarded her as a daughter needing protection.

Once the two arrived, Arama first asked Warren:

“Warren, with your understanding of Puji Masters, what do you think the demons are trying to do outside?”

Although Warren wasn’t a Puji Master himself, he’d been chosen by the butler Eric to assist Inanna—his knowledge far exceeded the norm.

After observing for a moment, he answered:

“My lord, it appears the demons want to clear the fungal mat to cut off the supply source of our puji. Although Miss Inanna’s… ‘rituals’ are powerful, she cannot conjure puji from nothing—they ultimately require mana. I suspect the demons want to sever the fungal mat’s way of absorbing mana from the environment.”

“How does the fungal mat usually collect mana?” Arama asked.

“Mainly sunlight, energy-rich corpses, or naturally mana-dense environments like certain dungeons,” Warren explained—basic knowledge discovered back when mushroom fields were first cultivated.

“Sunlight…”

Arama looked up at the dim valley, its light blocked by towering cliffs. Sunlight was clearly not an option.

Lorenzo asked,

“What about those demon corpses from earlier? How many puji can they produce?”

Warren could only shake his head—estimating that precisely was difficult.

At that moment, Inanna spoke up:

“With those corpses alone, under the previous defense intensity, they can last… at most half an hour.”

“You—how do you…”

Arama instinctively started questioning how she knew, but recalling that the entire puji defense was under her control, he swallowed the question and began thinking seriously.

“So many corpses, yet only half an hour…”

He reconfirmed with her, then left to reorganize the defenses.

In truth—even half an hour was already exaggerated.

Given the valley’s incomplete fungal coverage, nearly nonexistent sunlight, and environmental mana interference, relying solely on those goblin corpses would barely produce a few hundred disposable puji—nowhere near enough.

In battles of that intensity, they wouldn’t even last ten minutes.

Moreover, many puji had required Lin Jun’s own mana to accelerate their generation—a massive drain.

The “half hour” figure was already after Lin Jun secretly subsidized the mats through the underground network.

…

As the last trace of daylight vanished, the three-colored moons once again rose into the night sky.

Pressed for time, Sigismund returned once more.

The valley entrance was again drowned in a sea of puji, but this time, the demon army was clearly prepared.

The demon mage corps altered their tactics.

They no longer cast single-target lightning bolts or fireballs, but instead used area spells—Fire Wall, Wall Creation, and other battlefield-altering or sustained magic.

Although weakened by the valley’s chaotic mana environment, they were still much more effective than before.

Meanwhile, the demon ground troops focused on sweeping up puji crawling out of crevices and holes, their formation tight and response steady.

Like this, the demons’ advance wasn’t exactly easy—but they could finally push forward steadily without suffering major casualties or mana drain.

When the expected half hour passed and no more puji fell from the cliffs, and when the puji tide visibly thinned—Sigismund finally smiled.

Clearly, his roommate hadn’t lied.

Cutting off the fungal mat meant the valley lacked sustained mana, and the damned puji could no longer be produced.

“Full assault!” he ordered without hesitation.

Repressed for so long, the demon soldiers roared and launched a furious attack on the humans’ final defensive line.

Clashing metal, spell detonations, shouts, screams—echoed through the valley.

The battle for survival had begun.

Of course, Sigismund remained cautious. He kept a reserve force guarding the retreat path and monitoring the fungal mats on the cliffs.

If any signs of mass puji generation appeared, they would immediately sound the alarm and destroy them—preventing this from being a human trap.

His gaze swept over the battlefield and locked onto a familiar figure on the human side.

“…I’ve delayed too long. It’s time to end this.”