This dungeon has mushrooms growing on it.

Chapter 306, Section 305: You've Got Moldy
On the eighth floor of the dungeon, in a dimly lit passageway, a team of adventurers cautiously advanced, carrying out the guild's latest exploration mission.

boom!
With a muffled thud, Lambert's medium shield firmly blocked the monster's swung claws. Almost simultaneously, his teammates' arrows and scorching fireballs whistled past him and struck the monster's head.

The monster let out a painful howl, locked onto the archer behind it, and made a move to pounce.

"Dream on!" Lambert seized the opening, swung his longsword, and severed the hideous head.

I was just about to breathe a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, a warning rang out from behind: "Get out of the way!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Lambert rolled to the side. The instant he left his spot, a viscous, translucent slime fell from the ceiling, slammed onto the ground with a "thud," and exploded under the oncoming fireball!

Lambert stood up, disgustedly wiping the few drops of slime off his armor: "These damn slimes are impossible to guard against! If you're not careful, the cost of repairing your armor will be as much as your mission reward."

As his teammate crouched down to deal with the monster's corpse, he chimed in, "Be grateful. You can only find these things on the eighth floor now."

After a brief reorganization, the team continued deeper into the area, eventually stopping in front of a room covered with dim runes.

The mage immediately crouched down at the edge of the magic circle in the center of the room, took out his tools, and began to carefully examine every line.

Lambert and his two teammates stood guard at the door, keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings.

Watching the mage's focused back, Lambert couldn't help but complain, "What's the point of this guild mission? Mapping a new teleportation path... but ever since the 'Collapse Incident,' the magic circle on the eighth floor has changed every few days. Isn't it a waste of time to map it?"

"They're probably trying to find a pattern in the changes," a teammate replied. "Without a stable path, we can't possibly get down to the ninth and tenth floors. We can't just give up on the last two floors, can we?"

"I think the guild's mind is no longer on this," Lambert said dismissively. "It's becoming more and more like a city lord's mansion, with the trivial matters of the commoners being the main concern, while our adventurers' work has become a secondary branch..."

At this moment, the mage in the room looked up: "Is it a fire trap magic circle, or has it already been triggered?"

"Then let's keep going!"

After clearing away scattered monsters and checking several messy magic circles, they finally found a seemingly stable teleportation circle.

The teammates quickly marked the positions on the leather map, and the group took turns standing on them.

However, just as the magic circle lit up and was about to activate, the mage suddenly cried out, "No! The magic circle has changed! It wasn't like this before! Get out of there!"

Lambert reacted extremely quickly, immediately trying to roll outwards, but it was too late; the intense light engulfed everything.

A moment later, the light faded, and Lambert found himself standing alone in a completely unfamiliar, empty stone chamber.

He looked down and saw that there was nothing beneath his feet; there was no corresponding teleportation magic circle.

“One-way random separation teleportation… This is troublesome…” Lambert’s face darkened, and he gripped his sword tightly.

Having lost a mage teammate skilled in magic arrays, the path ahead will likely depend solely on the sword in hand and luck.

……

……

……

While Lin Jun was clicking away routinely and testing the "Star Button" function in the core system, she suddenly noticed a disheveled figure appearing on the eighth step.

The eighth floor is connected by a teleportation magic circle. Lin Jun's fungal carpet could not be laid inside; it was only on the stairs. Therefore, he did not know what Lin Jun had experienced inside.

The unfortunate gold-level adventurer was severely injured, suffering from burns, corrosion, and several obvious bite marks from monsters. He lay on the ground, looking like he was about to die.

It seems there were no teammates with them; did the others die inside?

Previously, Lin Jun would have chosen to stand idly by, letting herself be destroyed if she died, or even if she was lucky enough to be rescued. But thinking about the intelligence she had obtained regarding the war…

……

……

……

The jolt pulled Lambert out of the chaotic darkness, and he vaguely realized that he was being carried forward.

Teammates... but with the physiques of his teammates, who could carry him fully armed?

He struggled to open his heavy eyelids, and what came into view was an exquisitely sculpted profile and a pair of clear, bright green eyes, like those of a forest.

It seems I am dead; even the God of Light has sent a messenger to fetch me.

"Vera, stop for a moment, he's awake." The owner of those emerald green eyes noticed the movement on his back and called out to remind him.

Vera stopped when she heard the sound, and carefully put Lambert down, letting him sit next to a large mushroom.

Lambert then realized that the surrounding environment was the relatively safe fifth floor.

Lambert asked instinctively, "My teammates..."

Vera crouched down: "We only found you collapsed at the bottom of the eighth step. How are you feeling? We gave you some first aid."

"I...can't move." Lambert tried to move his body, but found that he could only barely turn his neck.

“Ciriam said your spine may be injured,” Vera nodded toward the elf. “His natural healing spells are very effective for flesh wounds, but they are less effective for bone repair.”

"I see."

Lambert didn't panic. Although a spinal injury was troublesome, he could recover by going back and spending some money and time with a professional priest. It wasn't a big problem compared to his life.

"Thank you very much," he said sincerely.

“Don’t thank me yet,” Vera’s expression turned somewhat strange, “it’s just…”

"Just what?"

“See for yourself.” Vera lifted Lambert’s limp arm and held his hand up to his eyes.

On that rough, large hand, besides calluses, there were several pale white, semi-transparent strips. They didn't look like external attachments, but rather embedded between the skin and flesh, appearing and disappearing.

Do you recall this?

Lambert's face was grim as he desperately tried to recall fragments of memory from before he lost consciousness. In that blurry pain and darkness, it seemed... there really was a chubby, round little thing that had approached him...

"Maybe... *pfft*?" he managed to utter a guess, unsure of his own.

However, upon hearing this answer, Vera and the others exchanged a knowing look.

"See!" Fei Ling interjected from the side, "I told you it was moldy!"

"..."

"Anyway, let's bring him back to the surface first!"

However, when everyone reached the second floor, a miraculous thing happened: Lambert's spinal injury seemed to have healed on its own, and he was able to stand up and walk the rest of the way on his own...

(End of this chapter)