Chapter 65: Chapter 65

She wasn’t too sure, because she also noticed a faint aura of natural energy swirling around the little one’s mushroom cap. She’d only ever seen that on plants before.

If her nature-sense skill hadn’t improved, allowing her to sense even the faintest natural energy in small plants, she might have missed it.

Since it was a plant, her plant identification spell should work, right?

She asked the others to stay calm and began casting.

“Myconid Youngling. Peace-loving, intelligent fungal plant. Lives only in the Underdark; withers in sunlight. Members of the colony communicate through telepathic meditation. The spores they release allow brief telepathic contact with other intelligent beings. Skilled at tending fungi and plants…”

So it really was a plant! But also an intelligent creature.

She felt the little one’s mushroom cap tremble slightly—it had knocked itself out!

Poor thing must have been frightened. Mu Ying thought for a moment, then used Create Water to form a quail egg–sized droplet, quietly infused it with a drop of Spring of Restoration, and transformed it into a fine mist that rained gently over the little one.

Sure enough, its mushroom cap twitched again. After a while, two black bean-like eyes popped out of its chubby stem, staring at her curiously.

Once it was sure she meant no harm, the little one stopped pretending and eagerly wiggled its body, trying to let its whole cap soak up the rain.

But the water she’d conjured was limited, and soon it was gone.

The little myconid stretched out a tender white hand, patted its cap, and a glowing green spore floated down toward Mu Ying.

“Want more! Mushroom trade!” came a crisp, childish voice.

Mu Ying realized this must be the myconid’s telepathic spore. She was about to ask what “mushroom trade” meant, or about the dungeon, when a chorus of “Want! Want! Mushroom! Mushroom!” echoed in her mind.

Somehow, all the little mushrooms that had just fled in terror were now peeking out from the nightgrass, their beady eyes full of hope, though none dared come too close.

The little one in her hand twisted its body to hide from Huo Shaobai and the others, so if it weren’t still a bit scared, Mu Ying would probably be swarmed by myconid younglings by now.

What an adorable burden!

“Don’t disturb our guests! Kind young lady, thank you for your generosity. Please, bring your companions and follow this path to our colony. The little one in your hand will guide you—it’s their duty. All other little mushrooms, return immediately!”

The raspy voice grew more and more stern as it spoke.

The myconid younglings froze, then bolted away even faster than before. Thanks to the telepathic spores, Mu Ying could now hear their panicked thoughts.

“Oh no, the elder’s mad!”

“Waaah, my head’s going to hurt from the scolding!”

“Hey, you bumped into me!”

…

“Uh, Mu Ying, what’s going on here?” Lu You asked, full of questions, though the captain had just clamped a hand over his mouth.

Mu Ying rubbed her nose. “We’re actually pretty lucky. These mushrooms are a species called myconids—fungal creatures, gentle and peace-loving. I just helped this myconid youngling, so their elder invited us to visit their colony.”

“Elder? Where?” The ones from before were all as tiny as the chubby mushroom in her hand—surely all younglings.

“It spoke to me through that spore. They can’t speak any language, but they’re telepathic and can communicate with each other at any time. That spore let me connect with them briefly,” Mu Ying explained.

“So they’ve pulled you into their family group chat?” Lu You exclaimed.

Mu Ying nodded. “That’s exactly it.”

“No danger?”

“No dragons?”

“No kobolds?”

They asked anxiously.

Mu Ying nodded again. “Nope. You can’t fake thoughts. As long as we don’t provoke them, this place is safe.”"

"This time, Mu Ying walked at the front of the group, with the little myconid sitting in her palm, pointing the way. Its mushroom cap bobbed up and down as it gave directions.

A certain petty-minded werewolf, taking advantage of the fact that no one could see him, kept poking the little myconid’s mushroom cap, being as mischievous as ever.

Fortunately, the little myconid didn’t notice anything amiss. Through their psychic link, all Mu Ying heard was its muttering about how its mushroom cap felt heavier again.

Annoyed, Mu Ying quietly lifted her hand, dropped Shi Yin into her robe pocket, and reached in to poke him. Let’s see if he still dares to bully the honest little myconid.

The myconids could only communicate telepathically, and their entire species constantly shared their thoughts. As a result, they didn’t control their minds the way she did, which allowed Mu Ying to overhear many secrets—including some about the origins of the dungeon and information from beyond this world.

It seemed that in the myconids’ world, there was no such thing as privacy, and thus no concept of leaking secrets. That was how they managed to bypass the rules of the apocalypse game.

They were a branch of myconids that had split off from a place called the Underdark due to overpopulation.

Aside from the elder who led over a hundred adult myconids, all the other myconid young had been cultivated from reproductive spores after arriving in this world not long ago.

As for how they came here, it seemed they submitted some sort of migration application, after which they moved into this spatial fragment and were then packaged and delivered to this planet.

Once the fragment took root in the main world, its laws gradually became more complete and would eventually fully merge with the main world, becoming a part of it.

Some lower-level myconids could actually leave through the light gate.

But since they didn’t know what conditions were like outside and were afraid of being sunburned to death, they only sent some myconid young to stand guard at the entrance.

When Mu Ying learned the truth about this so-called dungeon, she was quite shocked. So the dungeon was actually a spatial fragment shipped to Azure Star, complete with various migrating creatures.

The integration of these spatial fragments into the planet would promote the evolution of the main world, making it denser and larger in area—a good thing on a macro scale.

But Mu Ying quickly realized that not all the migrating creatures were as friendly as the myconids—like the red dragons in the Dragon Nest dungeon over in Nihon.

For humanity, the invasion of such creatures could truly be called an apocalypse.

With this in mind, Mu Ying’s expression grew strange. Azure Star shouldn’t have any native intelligent life other than humans, right?

So where did her elven parent come from?

And Shi Yin, a space-time werewolf who had to travel to other planes to receive his inheritance, seemed even more mysterious than her, a half-elf. Why was he here?

At that moment, a wild yet reasonable thought suddenly popped into her mind.

Could it be that the two of them were also invasive species, just like the myconids?

Only, they arrived earlier?

Lost in these chaotic speculations, she barely noticed the various wondrous plants along the way. Before she knew it, she’d followed the winding path through the glowing forest.

It wasn’t until she saw the giant mushroom forest and the vast mushroom fields ahead that she realized they had arrived at the myconid colony.