This dungeon has mushrooms growing on it.

Chapter 590, Section 589: Half Moon
Ding... Dong... Clang...

The permafrost was covered with a thick layer of snow, and a dull thud came from beneath the snow. A patch of snow suddenly collapsed, revealing a dark hole.

Immediately afterwards, a mushroom popped out through the snow, its cap still covered in ice shards.

It shook its body and then extended its mycelial tentacles, pulling out the two dwarves below.

"How long... exactly have we been crawling down there?" Pollock wiped his face, looking somewhat dazed at the snow-covered North. "Two days? Or three days?"

Gadin picked up the forging hammer, its edges slightly warped, and complained, "If I had known I'd have to carve this way myself, I should have brought a pickaxe no matter what!"

This underground passage that runs across the border of the empire is not a recent creation; when Puji first dug it, he did leave ample space.

However, due to prolonged disuse, the rain and snow that seeped in froze into ice inside the passage, compressing the passage space. Even Puji could barely pass through, let alone the two dwarves who were two sizes larger than Puji.

They had to walk and knock all the way out, which took them a long time to get out.

Fortunately, Puji not only gave each of them a temperature-regulating pendant, but also stored a lot of juicy and delicious mushrooms inside their bodies.

The crawling underground for those two days was arduous, leaving them covered in bruises, but the food was the most exquisite flavor they had ever tasted in their lives.

Although the price of delicious mushrooms continues to decline among humans, the mountains have not yet been covered with fungal carpets.

Merchants transported delicious mushrooms into the mountains, and the price increased many times over.

Although it was still many times cheaper than the delicious fruits of the past, it was still beyond the reach of two apprentice artisans.

This does, to some extent, fulfill their fantasies about "paradise".

The two dwarves, once outside, didn't forget their predicament. After catching their breath, they nervously looked around, fearing they were still within the Empire's borders and might run into a demon patrol – that would be the end of them.

All around was a vast expanse of white, seemingly nothing at all, but the sharp-eyed Gading still noticed something amiss.

"Who's there?" he roared, his voice booming. "You behind the tree, come out! I see you!"

The figure behind the withered tree hesitated for a moment before slowly emerging.

It was a human man, without shackles, but his patched, cheap coat and the faint branding scars on his neck indicated that he was a slave.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Gadin asked in a deep voice, still gripping the hammer handle tightly.

The man flinched, his voice trembling with fear: "I...I escaped from the Stone Valley Mine. I was starving...and beaten. I stole a heat stone and...I ran north as fast as I could."

He subconsciously touched his chest, where the small heat source he mentioned was hidden.

He looked extremely disheveled; his lips were purple from the cold, his cheeks were sunken, and he stood barefoot in the snow, shivering slightly, wrapped in tattered cloth.

Besides fear, there was also a sense of bewilderment after making a desperate gamble in his eyes.

Gadin and Pollock exchanged a glance, a hint of sympathy in their eyes.

The dwarves captured by the Empire will probably end up like this human.

"Just you alone? No weapons?" Pollock pressed.

The man hurriedly shook his head, even lifting his tattered shirt to indicate, "No, there's nothing there..."

Seeing that he posed no real threat, the two dwarves finally relaxed and hung their hammers back on their backs.

They wanted to help, but they had just arrived in this unfamiliar land and their future was uncertain.

The two of them looked at Puji, who was quietly standing to the side, without prior arrangement.

This little guy is the one who leads the way.

The tentacles reached into the body, pulled out a few still plump and moist delicious mushrooms, and rolled out another temperature-controlled pendant.

Heating stones are natural heat-storing stones that can maintain warmth for a long time once they are full of heat, but they are still far inferior to magical items like temperature-regulating pendants.

Given the current situation in the North, an ordinary heating stone probably wouldn't even last a night.

The man reached out with trembling hands and took the mushroom and pendant. A warm current immediately enveloped his almost frozen body.

He wolfed down the delicious mushrooms, even scraping up the sweet juice that spilled from the corners of his mouth with his fingers and savoring it back into his mouth – truly the look of someone tormented by prolonged hunger.

After eating a few mushrooms, he finally caught his breath and kept thanking Puji and the dwarves, his voice choked with emotion.

Puji simply beckoned to the mycelial tentacles, pointing in a certain direction, signaling them to follow. This journey lasted a full two weeks.

The mushrooms stored in Puji's body were quickly eaten up. Fortunately, on the third day after leaving the cave, they stepped onto a fungal carpet.

From then on, the guide Puji was always able to lead them accurately to the fresh, delicious mushroom clusters growing on the fungal carpet amidst the pale snow.

The initial concerns about the demon patrol gradually dissipated as the journey progressed.

Such extreme cold and desolation are practically a no-go zone for life. Apart from these few, who else would risk their life to venture into this snow and ice?

However, the boundless cold and monotony, and the sight of almost no living creatures except for the fungal carpet, made the two dwarves, who harbored dreams of a "blacksmith's paradise," feel uneasy once again.

Hope is worn down by the daily grind, while doubts quietly grow.

The journey was long and tedious, but fortunately, the human slave named Joel was a talkative man.

He was captured during a border conflict, and during his rest, he would often talk about his experiences as a slave in the empire—the depths of the mines, the shadows of the overseers' whips, and the silent disappearances of his companions.

Through these casual chats and shared hardships, the group gradually developed a friendship.

On the seventeenth day, just when they thought they were about to embark on another arduous journey, footprints appeared in the snow ahead!

This discovery instantly ignited their almost numb senses, meaning that their destination might be closer!
But amidst the excitement, a closer look at the footprints revealed a new set of doubts.

The small, round footprints, or those that had simply left a ditch in the snow, were probably plop-like. They had been looking at these footprints for half a month and wouldn't mistake them.

Mixed in with these were many larger footprints, some like thick boot prints, deeply embedded in the snow, others with distinct edges and clear claw marks, clearly not belonging to humans or dwarves.

This put the group, who were unsure of the situation, on their guard.

They followed the tangled trail of footprints and trudged for about half an hour through the increasingly fierce wind and snow.

Suddenly, the guiding creature stopped and pointed in a direction. The three looked in that direction, and instantly, even the howling wind seemed to stop.

Behind the swirling snow, without warning, a city rose on the horizon...

That's not an illusion.

The majestic city wall cuts out a solid and strange silhouette against the pure white sky.

On the city wall, several magic towers stand tall. Among them, the most conspicuous ones are not ordinary spires, but large magic crystals that float and slowly rotate, shimmering with magical light.

"There really is a giant city built in such a place..." Gadin could hardly believe his eyes.

Pollock was so moved that he shed tears, muttering "infinite ore".

Joel was also stunned, his mouth agape for a long time. The city before him, in terms of sheer size, would rank among the top even in the Empire, not to mention the brilliance on the city walls and magic towers. This was clearly not a city that was all show and no substance.

In the distance, Xinghuo, who had been waiting for a long time, led his men and Puji to greet them.

"Demon!" Upon seeing Starfire, Gadin's mood plummeted like a rollercoaster.

"Don't be nervous, this is not the Empire, and I am not your enemy." Starfire spoke in a slightly accented Common Human language, smiling as he approached the three.

However, the appearance of his human subordinates was clearly more convincing than Starfire's reassurance.

The humans in the group were well-dressed and had natural expressions, clearly not slaves, which made the three of them relax a little.

"You must be tired from your journey. We've arranged hot springs and a feast for you, but before that..." Xinghuo said, his squinting eyes glancing at the last human.

"careful!"

Gading reacted the fastest, shoving Joel aside.

Several barbed tentacles pierced the edges of their bodies and plunged into the snow.

After climbing out of the snowdrift, the three of them were surrounded by the puffies.

“Gardin… Joel…” Pollock’s voice trembled with sobs.

Gadin swung his hammer a few times: "Damn demons! I'll fight to the death! I'd rather die than be a slave!"

Then, without hesitation, he leaped and slammed down towards the swarm of poop-kiss...

(End of this chapter)