This Dungeon Grew Mushrooms

On the battlefield around the pink puji, the situation seemed to have reached a stalemate.

At the rear, the cap of a heavy-armored puji had been pried open a crack, and Inanna observed the battlefield through it.

There was nothing she could do — the pink puji was only Golden rank; if she dared to act cocky and rush the front line again, the demons would gladly butcher her and hand Lin Jun another skill level.

“Boss, can you still make one of those big puji like last time?”

Inanna felt that, given the current situation, only that giant puji could help them break through the demons’ defensive line.

“Wait. It’s not time yet.”

Inanna didn’t know what Lin Jun was waiting for, but she trusted him out of long habit.

Lin Jun could summon the giant puji right now and lead everyone straight to the foot of Tri-Mountain City to begin round two.

But… that would be far too dangerous.

The situation was even more complicated than expected.

Below Tri-Mountain City, the Sword Saint and the Prince were locked in a fierce battle with no clear winner.

From the west, a clearly abnormal enraged presence was rushing toward the city.

And at the northeastern end of the mycelium carpet, an abnormal cloud of roiling blood was rolling across the sky.

Instead of diving headfirst into that chaos, it was better to stall the demons here.

That way they could pin them down, and if things went south, Lin Jun could easily escape with the pink puji.

…

Outside Tri-Mountain City.

A blood-red cloud of bat-shaped forms covered the center of the battlefield. Now and then, a sharp sword light ripped through the bloody curtain, gouging trenches several meters deep into the earth.

Both armies silently shifted their skirmishes away from the core battlefield; no one wanted to be cut down by their own commander.

Ditas stared anxiously at the rolling field of blood. The Sword Saint had been trapped inside for a long time, and a shadow of worry settled on his heart.

The glow on Archbishop Ditas’s staff flashed brighter and brighter. With each swing, another light-attribute spell burst forth.

Under his fierce assault, the already wounded Duke Brennus staggered. If not for the support from demons like Ern, this human duke who had betrayed the race would have fallen long ago.

Ern, seeing their camp utterly destroyed by the countless puji and impossible to hold, decisively gathered his troops to defend only a few warehouses before rushing to assist at Tri-Mountain City.

Meanwhile, the numerical puji that had completed their demolition mission gathered outside the remaining warehouses, huddling together to discuss their final assault plan.

But the real situation at the center of the battlefield was completely different from what anyone outside imagined.

Prince Valerius was trapped in the most desperate battle he had ever faced.

The Sword Saint’s Qi Sense locked onto him without fail; each time, several sword lights sealed off every possible escape route.

Worse, the wounds carved into him carried a special power that blocked the blood clan’s powerful regeneration.

Valerius was forced to continuously manipulate the blood on the battlefield just to barely hold off that relentless assault.

What infuriated him the most was that there wasn’t enough blood — those puji had eaten far too much!

In truth, judging from the countless blood bats filling the sky, Valerius had summoned quite a lot already.

But against the Sword Saint’s storm-like advance, it still wasn’t enough.

【Treading the Moon LV10】

【Accelerate LV10】

【The Pinnacle of the Sword】

!!!

The Sword Saint flashed out of the blood mist, his twin blades swinging in two arcs of silver. Valerius tried to turn into bats and escape, but his injuries slowed him down by a fatal fraction.

The sword light swept across his neck.

The Prince’s head flew skyward, the fierce expression frozen on his pale face as the blood faded rapidly from his eyes.

The sky-filling blood bats began dissolving like bursting bubbles.

The Sword Saint planted his sword into the ground, chest heaving slightly — that single strike had consumed a considerable amount of energy.

All in all, the fight had been somewhat easier than he expected.

Time seemed to freeze.

“His… His Highness… is dead?”

The demon soldiers stared blankly; some even dropped their weapons to the ground.

The death of their commander sent the entire line into chaos. Fear spread like plague, and the demons’ formation crumbled.

Only Ern remained expressionless. “Hold the line!”

Before he finished speaking, sword light flashed — Ern was hurled into a ruined heap, and an arm spun through the air and landed where he’d stood.

Overhead, puji #9, empowered with a spore state, stood firmly before the severed limb and shouted:

“Victory! Humans will win!”

“Vi… Victory! Humans will win!”

A young soldier shouted after him, and then thunderous cheering erupted.

Amid the kingdom soldiers’ jubilant cries, the demons’ line collapsed entirely.

Many demons had seen the Prince beheaded; even those who hadn’t saw the blood bats vanish and understood instantly.

With Ern struck down as well, the last of their will to fight evaporated.

The werewolf-transformed church warriors roared, rending fleeing demons’ spines; where they passed were only torn limbs and scattered corpses.

Archbishop Ditas raised his staff, and holy light blossomed from the front lines, restoring the vigor of all nearby humans.

Human soldiers’ morale surged. They raised their blades and charged.

Lin Jun did not join in the celebration. He simply controlled his mycelium to climb rapidly over Valerius’s corpse — if he didn’t start decomposing soon, it would be too late!

Huh? It won’t decompose?

No — why is your panel still present?!

Lin Jun wanted to hack the corpse a few more times and quickly devour the Prince, but it was already too late.

The sky darkened.

Not due to clouds — but because a rolling sea of blood inverted itself in the heavens, dyeing the world in suffocating crimson.

“What… is that?”

The soldiers who had been celebrating stared blankly at the blood-soaked sky.

The werewolf-warriors growled, fur bristling involuntarily.

Even Archbishop Ditas’s holy light shrank and flickered under the pressure of the blood veil.

From its center, a figure slowly descended, seated upon a throne of living blood.

He was paler than Valerius. The blood-patterns on his dark-red imperial robes shifted as though alive.

He wore no crown — yet everyone instantly recognized him.

The Emperor: Mortis Dracon.

“Your Majesty…”

The severely wounded Ern crawled out from the rubble, his voice trembling with fanatic devotion.

The fleeing demon army halted instantly. Terror in their eyes turned to joy; warriors beat their chests in roars, and the blood clan spread their tattered bat wings to form ranks again.

“Why… would he be here?”

Ditas stared at the descending figure, despair tightening in his chest.

The Sword Saint’s expression emptied of emotion as he reached a hand into his robes…

Above, a pair of crimson eyes swept across the battlefield.

Upon seeing the church’s werewolf warriors, Mortis let out a soft, amused laugh.

His gaze finally landed on the Prince’s headless corpse.

“Valerius. How long do you plan to lie there?”

Blood surged.

A new head formed.

Every wound on his body healed completely.

Valerius dropped to one knee.

“Welcome, my lord!”

On Valerius’s status panel, a skill named 【Blood of Kin】 dropped from LV2 to LV1.