Chapter 175 174. The Daring One Dies

In the shadow of the entrance to the Amethyst Dungeon, the air always carries a lingering smell of damp earth and a faint smell of corruption.

Vera tightened the scimitar at her waist and glanced at her two companions beside her - the mage Feiyin was nervously adjusting the cuffs of her robe, while her twin sister Feiling seemed much calmer.

"Vera," Feiyin's voice trembled slightly, and her eyes were fixed on the entrance that was like the throat of a giant beast. "Are we...really going down now? Didn't the expeditionary force just..."

“Just returned with a defeat?” Vera finished for her, but her eyes were unusually calm. “Yes, but because of this, now is the best time to go down.”

Vera turned to Feiyin and patiently explained, keeping her voice low to ensure that the scattered adventurers around would not hear her. "I asked around. Just yesterday, a team went down to the third floor and came out safe and sound. According to them, the Puji inside has returned to 'normal'."

The expedition team failed, and Puji still occupied the dungeon, but the adventurers still had to live their lives.

The brave ones have already started to explore further down, while the cautious ones are still watching the situation of the Pujis.

"We all know that Puji has a habit of stuffing the spoils into Fat Puji's stomach, and when the expedition team came out, they were all stripped naked!"

Feiyin suddenly realized: "You mean, the expedition team's equipment might be in some fat guy's stomach right now? Waiting to be...pulled out?"

"Right!" Vera snapped her fingers. "Before others react, let's collect more monster corpses to draw from. Maybe we can find something big!"

As he said this, he winked at Feiyin, and a smile of recognition appeared on the latter's tense face.

As the three were about to enter the dungeon, Vera's attention was attracted by two other figures at the entrance.

That incompatible outfit definitely doesn't fit in with the adventurer.

A sturdy, weather-beaten middle-aged man, wearing coarse cloth clothes stained with mud, tightly grasped a shiny old pitchfork in his hand, his eyes full of tension.

Next to him was a boy of about twelve or thirteen, who was also wearing patched old clothes and carrying a large empty basket on his back, which was almost half his height.

The boy had a look of recklessness and curiosity like a newborn calf, and was looking into the underground city.

They seemed to have been standing at the gate of the dungeon for a long time, and just now they finally walked in.

Vera whispered to a tall and thin adventurer who was leaning against the wall and wiping his dagger: "Hey, do you know what happened to those two people just now?"

Being interrupted, the tall and thin adventurer raised his head in dissatisfaction, but his brows relaxed when he saw the appearance of the person who came. "It turns out to be Vera. Thank you for your potion last time."

Vera smiled and waved her hand.

The tall and thin adventurer continued, "Are you asking about the two people who just came in? I don't know them, but judging by their attire, they are most likely farmers from Mula Village."

"Farmers? What are you doing in the dungeon?" Fei Ling couldn't help but ask.

There is almost no danger on the first floor of the dungeon, but that is for adventurers.

To obtain the status of an adventurer, one must at least reach the bronze level, which is LV20.

Monsters below level 5 naturally pose no threat.

But it’s different for farmers.

Although adult humans can generally reach LV10 or above, if they do not cooperate with combat skills and are unlucky enough to encounter two or three monsters at once, their lives will still be in danger.

So it's weird that peasants are entering the dungeon, and...

"The guild members don't care?" Vera asked in confusion, looking at the two guards standing at the door not far away.

Logically speaking, the guards should have stopped them since they were not adventurers.

"Hey, you can't leave them a way to survive, right?" The tall and thin adventurer spat on the ground. "I heard that their village was hit by a disaster. Some wicked person set a huge fire and burned all the crops in the fields to ashes! Seeing that they couldn't survive, they had no choice but to come to the dungeon to pick some mushrooms. These two people are not the first batch."

Vera nodded silently, feeling that she had heard such things quite often recently.

Without saying anything more, he motioned Fei Ling and Fei Yin to follow him and stepped into the dungeon.

As soon as you enter the first floor, the light suddenly dims, and only some mushrooms on the wall emit a faint fluorescence.

Although the dungeon has been occupied by mushrooms, the mycelium generally grows in corners, walls and ceilings, and the paths often walked by adventurers are very clean.

This is actually very unnatural. Combined with the recent rumors that Puji has advanced intelligence, Vera is more likely to believe it.

He believes it, but he doesn't think it has any impact on him. Wisdom is not born today. Couldn't the adventurers and Puji live in harmony before?

Just follow Puji's rules which are not too strict.

To be on the safe side this time, even though Feiyin could use magic to illuminate, they still rented a lighting Pooji, which was a bit like paying protection money voluntarily.

Not long after entering, they saw the farmer father and son not far from the entrance passage.

The boy was squatting on the ground, excitedly pulling out a cluster of gray mushrooms growing in the corner of the wall with his hands.

The middle-aged man was facing a formidable enemy, holding a torch, tightly gripping a pitchfork, and vigilantly scanning the surrounding passages.

"Wait a minute!" Vera's cold voice suddenly sounded, and it was particularly clear in the silent passage.

He rushed forward and decisively grabbed the boy's wrist just before the boy was about to pull out the mushrooms.

The boy was startled and his hand suddenly retracted: "What are you doing?"

The middle-aged man also turned around nervously, pointing his pitchfork slightly forward: "This... Sir?"

Only peasants would call ordinary adventurers "sir".

Vera didn't explain immediately, but just used her hands to push aside a few larger gray mushrooms, revealing a green mushroom hidden among them.

“Although it won’t kill you, if you don’t want to fall asleep after every meal, it’s better to pick out this green mushroom.”

Vera said goodbye to the farmer father and son with thanks.

…

When they went down to the second floor, Vera discovered that the lighting Puji did not return to the fungal mat this time, but continued to follow them in a swagger.

But going down the stairs was too difficult for its short legs, and it could only move down one step at a time with big strides, its whole body shaking. Vera was really afraid that it would suddenly roll down like a ball.

Fei Ling couldn't help but roll her eyes and couldn't bear to watch it anymore.

She leaned over and scooped up the lighting creature that was still struggling with the steps, and held it firmly in her arms.

"Let's go, short legs." The lighting Puji curled up meekly in her arms, and the light steadily illuminated the way ahead.

When the few of them finally arrived at the fifth-floor Fat Puji Cave carrying the monster's corpse, the scene before them made Vera raise her eyebrows slightly - the cave was not empty.

A pile of weapons and armor that had obviously just been "pulled out" were randomly piled in a corner of the cave, reflecting the cold light of metal under the dimming light.

Vera took a quick look and immediately identified a number of standard weapons and armors with church emblems and unique forging styles from the pile of equipment!

Without hiding their figures, their arrival was naturally discovered by the team that was drawing the lottery, and they looked back at them vigilantly—

It's the horn!

His rough face still showed the excitement of harvest and a hint of vigilance, but when he saw that the person coming was Vera, the vigilance instantly dissipated, replaced by a deep smile of "You're here too".

(End of this chapter)