This dungeon has mushrooms growing on it.

Chapter 249, Section 248: Try this.
"Why isn't there a soul in sight?" Horn stood on tiptoe, peering out from the wooden door frame of the Rotten Willow Tavern into the dimly lit interior, muttering in disappointment.

An adventurer carrying luggage passing by casually replied, "I heard they moved all their belongings to Norvid for refuge. It'll take at least three to five days to get them back."

"Tough luck!"

The horn had to find another place to land, but most of the hotels in town were still frantically cleaning up the mycelium clinging to the wooden structures, while the few that had finished were already fully booked.

"Tsk, what if we really end up camping in the wild..." Horn scratched his head, looking worried.

The Horn team really benefited from the "Puji Lottery" back then, and everyone got a lot of gold coins.

Especially Aimee, with the compensation from the expedition team, her net worth easily exceeded 100 gold.

With plenty of money, when the guild announced that the dungeon was going to be shut down, the group decisively retreated to a nearby city, enjoying life while observing the situation.

Although they were teammates, they each had their own lives, so they parted ways for the time being.

Now that the dungeon has been miraculously restored, it's time to regroup in Silent Wind Town as agreed in the previous letters. Horn wandered around the town and it seems he was the first one to arrive.

Unable to find a hotel, Horn had no choice but to wander out of town, intending to find a shady spot to camp, but the scene before him was unexpected.

The land surrounding Silent Wind Town has been divided into mushroom fields, and between the ridges, guild members are leading the recruited civilians, busy dividing up management areas and loudly explaining the precautions.

In other mushroom fields, guild members were holding notebooks, carefully sprinkling water and busy setting up makeshift shelters to block the strong sunlight.

Out of curiosity, Horn approached one of the guild members who was engrossed in taking notes. The other person didn't respond, but didn't stop him from looking either.

The horn glimpsed the logbook, which was densely filled with various methods to potentially increase mushroom production; clearly, they were conducting experiments.

“Hey, I say,” Horn couldn’t help but point to the bottom of the notebook, “you can try this method first.”

"Feeding creep with monster corpses?" The guild member looked up at him, his face full of suspicion. "Trading meat for mushrooms? That doesn't seem like a good deal at all! Why do you say that?"

Horn shrugged: "Just a gut feeling, isn't it? Those puji things love dragging away corpses, don't they? Besides, not all monster meat is edible..."

The guild member stroked his chin thoughtfully: "Hmm...that makes some sense..."

……

"Horns!" Before long, they heard someone calling their name from afar.

"Aimee! Noah!" Horn immediately grinned and rushed over enthusiastically with outstretched arms, only to be blocked by the latter with a look of disgust.

Amy glanced around, her brow furrowing slightly: "Where's Old Hammer? Hasn't he come back yet?"

"Hey, we won't be able to catch him this time!" Horn waved his hand, his tone tinged with schadenfreude. "That guy got drunk in the city and got into a fight, and ended up beating up even the guards who came to take charge! That miser is unwilling to pay the fine, so he's currently sitting in jail eating prison food, and he won't be out for at least half a month."

“Ha, dwarf!” Amy rolled her eyes, then stared at the horn. “How do you know all this?”

"Nonsense! I was drinking with him right there at the time!"

"Then why didn't you stop him?" Amy asked, hands on her hips.

"Me?" Horn gestured exaggeratedly to show his not-so-robust physique. "Do I look like someone who can stop that drunken bear?"

Noah sighed and asked, "So what do we do now?" "Let's just go down and scout it out!" Horn patted his chest confidently. "Don't worry, I've prepared the latest strategy. We'll only stay in the first five levels; it'll be absolutely safe!"

After a brief discussion, the three decided that the risk of operating only on the first five floors, which they were relatively familiar with, was indeed not high, and thus finalized their plan.

……

After a day of preparation, the three entered the underground city early the next morning.

Although there were far fewer cracks on the first floor, they were still a shocking sight to behold. The group moved very slowly, afraid of accidentally bumping into a crack. Fortunately, there were no monsters on the first floor that could force them to move.

Upon entering the second floor, Horn immediately distributed an insect repellent pill to everyone to drive away the newly rampant poisonous flying mosquitoes. Although those things are not fatal, they can make your face swell up like a bun!
The group's plan was to quickly reach the 4th floor, collect some monster corpses, and then take them to the 5th floor to draw lots and see if Puji had stuffed anything good inside.

However, as they passed through a dark stone corridor on the third floor, Noah suddenly called out in a low voice, stopping the horn and Aimee ahead.

"Look at that!"

Following Noah's direction, Horn and Amy's gaze passed over the stone corridor and landed at the other end, where an adventurer's corpse lay dead!

The reason they could immediately identify it as a corpse wasn't because of the arrows deeply embedded in the body, but because... the Puji had already started packing him up!
Generally speaking, even if you are seriously injured, the Puji will not touch you unless you are completely dead.

So if you see that Puji is already calling on friends to try to move it, then it must be completely dead.

Encountering a recently deceased adventurer in a dungeon is not common, but it's not a big deal. However, if there are gold coins scattered around the corpse, that's a different story!
The three did not rush forward, but instead cautiously scanned their surroundings. All three levels were traps, and the adventurer had obviously died in one of them.

Soon, the horn found several mechanisms on the ground that could be stepped on, as well as corresponding, inconspicuous holes in the wall—a typical pressure-triggered trap.

These mechanisms require a certain weight to activate; those who are light and agile can move about freely. Adventurers who judge safety by this measure are likely to pay a heavy price.

The group carefully navigated around the traps and reached the other side.

Just as Amy bent down, her fingers about to touch a tempting "gold coin," the horn grabbed her wrist!
"Wait!" he shouted, his dagger slashing precisely at a gold coin!
With a crisp sound, the "gold coin" split in two, and a foul-smelling, red and green viscous liquid gushed out from the broken edge!
In an instant, all the insects disguised as gold coins on the ground exploded with a "buzz" and soared into the air!

The three, who were prepared, reacted quickly and wiped out all the flying insects in no time.

"What a waste of time!" Horn shook off the slime from his blade, looking disappointed, and turned to leave.

"Wait!" Amy grabbed him again, her voice carrying a strange tone.

"What's wrong now? It's not gold again..." Horn complained and turned around, following Amy's surprised and uncertain gaze, only to see a heavy stone door carved with intricate and mysterious patterns!

"A...a hidden room?" The horn's voice was filled with disbelief, excitement, and a hint of uncertainty. He had never stumbled upon a hidden room before!
Amy and Noah shook their heads in shock; it was the first time they had ever experienced this before.

The three exchanged a look filled with surprise and excitement, and silently tiptoed toward the door.

Behind them, a Puji that had been waiting for a long time emerged and began to clean up the unwanted remains of the gold coin insects on the ground.

Having prepared for all possible traps, the bugler, with a mix of excitement and trepidation, pulled the trigger next to him.

With a dull thud from the stone door, and to the three's expectant gaze, a round, white, and languid-looking creature, Puji, seemed to spring out of the shadows, instantly filling the entire view of the entrance...

(End of this chapter)