This dungeon has mushrooms growing on it.

Chapter 240, Page 239: The Work of Restoring Life

There were so many mushrooms sprouting on the ground that a running puji was caught off guard and tripped over an exceptionally plump mushroom. Its round body lost its balance and rolled around like a bouncy ball, crashing hard into another of its companions.

As a result of the chain reaction, the Puji that was hit knocked down two more of the ones next to it, and four of them fell down at once, creating a brief gap in the Puji encirclement!

Sirian sprang to his feet, drew his elven dagger from his waist with a backhand motion, and with a flash of cold light, prepared to charge out through the gap.

"Don't be impulsive!" Fei Ling reacted quickly, grabbing Xi Rui'an and her voice changed.

"Calm down! Sirian! Don't provoke Puji!" Vera hurriedly tried to dissuade him.

The outsider elves might not understand, but surely the three locals did?

Provoking Puji here will only lead to trouble, and Vera is already regretting her earlier suggestion to accelerate the ripening of the mushrooms.

And indeed, that was the case. On the nearby fungal carpet, more and more mushrooms kept popping up, and in the blink of an eye, they surrounded the four of them.

Around their legs, there were dense clusters of mushroom caps, probably nearly a hundred!

Knowing the destructive power of the self-destruction, Vera didn't dare to move her legs at this moment. Large beads of cold sweat dripped down her forehead. Fei Ling and Fei Yin were also terrified, their faces pale, and they huddled together tightly.

"Now... what do we do?" Although Sirian hadn't sheathed his dagger, his arm had already drooped slightly. He had seen the Puji fight before.

“I don’t know…” Vera’s voice was hoarse, “We can only… see what they want to do…”

Before long, the poopies began to use their round, bouncy bodies to push and shove them forward.

Seeing that the direction they were heading led straight for the dungeon entrance, Fei Ling's voice trembled with tears: "They... they're not planning to take us into the dungeon, are they...?"

Doesn't this mean the dungeon will perish along with it?
No matter how unwilling they were, there was nothing they could do. At this moment, they had completely become prisoners of the Puji, and were helplessly swept up by the mushroom tide, entering the first level of the Amethyst Underground City.

Upon entering the first floor, the ubiquitous cracks in their vision instantly sank their hearts to the bottom.

Vera felt a pang of regret and said to the elf, "I'm sorry... perhaps I really should have rushed out just now..."

"Are all the monsters here...so...unique?" Sirian's tone was filled with disbelief, confusion, and a hint of absurdity.

"Ugh... Are they trying to push us into the swamp?" Fei Yin was so scared that she didn't want to move, but the Puji used their mushroom caps to carry her forward.

However, as they were pushed deeper and deeper by the plop, the terrifying spatial rifts around them visibly diminished!
They were led to the sixth floor, but the sight before them made them gasp – all they could see was a desolate, lifeless wasteland!

All the plants withered and turned black, crumbling at the slightest touch. The curse caused the destruction of half of the sixth floor's ecosystem. The cracks have now been stitched up, but the destroyed parts cannot be restored.

The puji swarm led them to the heart of this scorched earth, then stopped pushing and shoving.

"What...what does this mean?" Fei Ling looked at the motionless mushrooms around her, completely bewildered.

Sirius's emerald eyes suddenly lit up, as if he had thought of something.

He crouched down, ignoring the thick layer of ash on the ground, and gently pressed his hands onto the earth. A soft emerald green light emanated from his palms once more, but this time he did not use "Harvest Symphony".

He chanted the elven incantation in a low voice, and a tiny, yet incredibly tenacious, tender green trembled and pushed through the ashes, becoming the first glimmer of life in the vicinity!
After that green color appeared, the Puji ran away, leaving only a few behind them.

The sudden relief from the pressure made everyone breathe a sigh of relief.

“Sirius, what’s going on?” Vera asked, her gaze fixed on the fragile sprout. Sirius stood up, looked at the scorched earth, and guessed based on experience, “In the forest… some intelligent animals, when their homes are destroyed by wildfires or poisonous substances, will guide us druids to the damaged areas to seek help and restore the forest to life. These puffies seem to be doing the same thing? They… are asking us for help?”

Need help?

Vera felt there was some truth to it, but also felt something was off.

Asking for help... at least those animals certainly wouldn't kidnap the elf, right?

“Now…” Vera scratched her head.

Once inside, he discovered that the problem with the rift was not as serious as he had imagined; in fact, it was much better than when they left, and the roaming monsters were gone.

He wasn't too worried about safety now, but looking around, all he saw was desolation. How long would it take before Puji would let them leave?
Sirius sighed, bent down, and continued casting spells beside the tender sprout: "Let's keep doing this for now, I just hope we can find something to eat nearby..."

Half a day later, everyone shared the mushroom soup scooped from the strangely shaped, feverish body with odd expressions...

……

Regarding the rift on the sixth floor that emitted a terrifying curse and destroyed half of the ecosystem, Lin Jun, after careful consideration, ultimately chose to seal it completely.

However, Lin Jun left a small hole, barely big enough for a plop, in the gap connecting the five layers of the scarecrow.

A faint aura of curse seeped through this rift as well, but its influence and effect were limited, far less than that of the one on the sixth floor.

Presumably they are in different tiers of the same dungeon, so it's best to leave the weaker one behind.

Lin Jun was quite pleased to see that the elf could understand her meaning directly.

Honestly, if it were a lone elf in front of her, Lin Jun would almost have parasitized it, since this was a rare [Nature Magic] in her area.

But since the elf was traveling with Vera and the others, they had no choice but to give up on the idea.

The adventurers who used to spy on the dungeon every day naturally knew that these three guys were both enthusiastic and conspicuous.

She was the kind of social butterfly among adventurers, the kind of person Lin Jun least wanted to associate with—the risk of exposure was too great.

If they want to blend into the earth's surface, they cannot reveal that they can parasitize humans.

Lin Jun originally planned to keep them confined in place until they understood what was happening, and then let them move around freely!
Fortunately, the elf had exceptionally high comprehension, saving Lin Jun a lot of trouble.

As for their discovery of a reduction in underground fissures, that's irrelevant.

Anyway, by the time they've almost finished their work and return, the humans should have already noticed the changes in the underground city.

As for forcing them to work?

Anyone who knows the Amethyst Dungeon knows that Puji punishes those who break the rules, from blowing them up to looting them.

In comparison, making these few magical thieves roll up their sleeves and put in some effort to restore the ecosystem is an act of immense mercy!

However, to Lin Jun's surprise, her tree spirits seemed to sense something and actually came out of the secret forest to help the elves.

(End of this chapter)