Chapter 516, Section 515: The Mushroom Cult

My niece's technique has its merits.

Elwin had never imagined that lightly scratching these parts of Puji's body could bring such a relaxing feeling!

The indentation where the mushroom cap connects to the trunk, the connection at the base of the tentacles, or the short legs being gently pinched...

As for the matter of Inanna touching him inappropriately?

The one who was touched was number fourteen. What does that have to do with the Sword Saint Elwin, who died in battle long ago?

Inanna's caresses continued until Number Four, who had already returned to his normal body, finally stopped by tapping Inanna's arm with his mycelial tentacles.

The master of balance, Inanna, naturally wouldn't favor one over the other, and picked up Number Four for another expertly rubbing him.

Only Number Ten stood silently in the shadows of the crowd, showing no intention of joining them.

However, it wasn't just spacing out; it was learning magic within the fungal web.

Specialized fungal citizens were flipping through magic books as it requested, and the images were then projected into Number Ten's consciousness through the fungal network.

Number Ten was well aware that Puji didn't need to train skills; the great Bacterium Master could grant him the vast majority of abilities.

However, this "vast majority" does not include the knowledge required for spellcasting, which it needs to learn on its own, and Number Ten itself enjoys this feeling of acquiring knowledge.

It plans to become the Puji Grand Mage.

Although he never revealed it, Number Ten firmly believed that he was the most outstanding creation of the Bacterium Lord!

...

When Inanna returned, the search team sent by Far had already begun trying to clear the passage that had been blocked by Number Ten.

Lin Jun used the bat-like creature "Puji" to bring Inanna to the sixth floor through the crack, and then took the hidden room to the first floor.

When Inanna emerged from the dungeon, Far, who had rushed over upon hearing the news, practically hugged Inanna's legs to pour out his grievances.

Who can understand the pressure that the news that Duke Alama is on his way to Mushroom City has put on him?

"Thank goodness... thank goodness you're back safe and sound!" Far wiped the sweat from his forehead, then noticed that there was another figure beside Inanna.

If it were any other mushroom species, Far might find it difficult to tell at a glance whether they were special.

But the four sword sheaths hanging on the 80-centimeter-tall body of Sword Saint Puji were too conspicuous, and it was clear that he was no ordinary Puji.

Far didn't ask any more questions. Alama was coming soon, and it wasn't his place to worry about Inanna's affairs.

Inanna also wanted to talk to her father about her desire to visit the Dwarf Mountain.

Under Fal's arrangement, Inanna moved back into the Adventurers' Guild and met Fifteen, who had just returned and was temporarily staying in Mushroom City.

When Fifteen first saw Inanna, he walked up with a smile, ready to say hello.

But the moment he caught sight of the sword-wielding figure beside her, his movements froze.

He only breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that there were four swords instead of the two swords he remembered.

Come to think of it, I rushed back from the Scarecrow Abyss without stopping.

Even if that puji that had utterly annihilated him were to immediately climb out of the depths, it couldn't possibly be faster than him on horseback, and it certainly shouldn't be standing beside Inanna.

But whether it was his imagination or not, he felt that the four-sword-wielding creature's "gaze" was fixed on him...

Sword Saint Puji was indeed staring at Fifteen.

It's rare to be so lucky; it's spotted Fifteen again. It's itching to try out the Four-Sword Style.

Unfortunately, this isn't a chance encounter in the dungeon; if a fight breaks out, it's hard to explain.

We had no choice but to give up.

Even though the Sword Saint had given up on picking a fight, Fifteen still felt a chill run down his spine.

Number Nine, however, remained quite calm; it already knew that Sword Saint Puji was its own mushroom.

Tentacles grabbed Fifteen's head, and short legs scrambled down, the mushroom cap brushing against Fifteen's cheek: "Don't panic, little Fifteen, I'll protect you if a fight breaks out!"

After making his boastful remarks, Number Nine turned around and huddled with Number Four to chat about the feelings within the Mushroom Clan. In the meantime, Inanna hugged him and gave him a good rub. Afterwards, she couldn't help but sigh, wondering why her own Number Fifteen didn't have such abilities.

...

After settling Inanna in, Far finally dragged his tired body back to his office.

Lillian walked behind him and massaged his shoulders and neck with a relaxing touch.

The past few days since Inanna went missing have truly exhausted him.

The pressure came not only from the Duke of Alama, but also from the growing calls from the people of Mushroom City for "increased search and rescue efforts."

How could a war hero just disappear in the dungeon for no reason?

Therefore, he had to temporarily set aside other political affairs and devote the main manpower and resources to the search and rescue, even risking angering the mushroom tribe in the underground city by sending people to try to dig out the underground passage.

Under immense pressure from all sides, Far felt his hairline starting to recede.

Fortunately, Inanna returned on her own, which temporarily relieved him of the crisis of premature baldness.

However, this doesn't mean he had an easy time.

He wasn't one of those good-for-nothings who just laze around doing nothing. Having finally been made an exception and become the city lord of Mushroom Capital, he had even greater ambitions to realize, and he had to catch up on the political affairs that he had temporarily put aside.

After a short 15-minute break, he sat back down at his large desk.

Most of the documents were various requests from subordinates, such as needing to allocate resources to add magic arrays to the city's defenses, or requesting the purchase of special materials from other places...

Farr quickly skimmed through the documents and approved them one by one, until one document made his pen stop.

"The Mushroom Cult..."

The content is simple: recently, some small gatherings worshipping mushrooms and Puji have appeared in Mushroom City.

There has never been a shortage of such emerging beliefs in this world, but the vast majority of them never gain traction.

Logically, such a belief of dubious origin should be directly classified as a cult. However, the problem is that the kingdom and the mushroom tribe are in the initial contact stage, and there are still many possibilities for cooperation in the future.

It's hard to say whether the Mushroom Clan is secretly pushing behind the "Mushroom Cult".

In that case, how to deal with this church becomes, to some extent, a diplomatic issue.

Currently, it appears that the main members of this faith-based group are the survivors of the Battle of Dragonroar Valley and their families, who are indeed the most likely to become believers in this church.

The number of people is not large enough yet, so we need to suppress them as soon as possible!

Far recalled the recent news from the Western Fallen Territory: the cult Hand of the Dead had taken advantage of the chaos there to quietly perform several sacrifices.

Not only humans, but even demons were sacrificed after being captured by them. And judging from the traces left behind, the scale of the sacrifices is getting bigger and bigger. I wonder what those madmen are planning to do next.

He summoned Mirabelle and ordered her to arrange for people to go undercover and investigate, at least to find out who was behind the Mushroom Cult.

What Far was most worried about was that this so-called "Baogu Cult" was actually a new skin put on by the Hand of the Dead.

If the Hand of Departure were to cause chaos in Mushroom Capital, he would likely have nowhere to turn and would be left with nothing but tears.

As for the relationship between the kingdom and the mushroom tribe... the duke is coming soon, so Far decided to ask Alama for his opinion then.

...

A few days later, when Alama finally arrived in Mushroom City, he was greeted by Inanna, who was holding the Sword Saint Puji.

Even with the Sword Saint's thick skin, he couldn't help but silently turn his mushroom hat aside in this situation.

(End of this chapter)