Chapter 66: Chapter 66

The mushroom forest was covered in damp, glowing moss, and the variously sized mushroom houses were the myconids’ homes.

The doorframes and little windows on the thick mushroom stalks were painted with beautiful fluorescent pigments.

From time to time, she could spot myconid young peeking timidly out from their mushroom houses.

They were shy and skittish, chattering wildly through their psychic link, and since Mu Ying was still in their “group,” she could hear everything clearly.

Of course, the most eye-catching thing was the giant spore servant before them.

The myconids’ main offensive power lay in the various magical spores they released, and in these giant corpses controlled by spores.

This one was like a small mountain, its entire body covered in spores, making it impossible to see what it originally was.

Riding on the spore servant’s back was the myconid elder who had previously communicated with Mu Ying via telepathy—the king of this myconid colony.

“Please, come aboard. I’ve prepared a delicious mushroom feast for you all.”

The group climbed onto the giant spore servant, which began to walk deeper into the mushroom forest.

“Mu Ying, can you ask the elder to add me to their group chat too?” Lu You was extremely curious and really wanted to know what these mushroom people talked about. Unfortunately, the little myconid guiding them was too timid and avoided them at all costs.

The myconid elder released a few spores and pulled them into the group.

However, Mu Ying noticed that although they were now in the group and tried hard to win the myconids’ friendship, they didn’t react at all to the conversation between the elder and herself.

“Don’t worry, young lady,” the myconid elder’s voice sounded in her mind. “We myconids have no secrets from true friends, but we also protect each friend’s secrets. They can only hear limited things.”

Mu Ying relaxed—after all, their conversation was a bit sensitive.

The myconid race, while possessing some means of self-protection, weren’t actually good at fighting. Level 4 was their limit. They much preferred hiding underground and growing mushrooms.

That’s why they were eager to befriend the natives of Azure Star and farm in peace.

To plant-based lifeforms, Mu Ying’s strong aura of natural power and her half-elven blood made her feel very close to the myconids.

Plus, she’d been kind to the myconid youngster who’d bumped into her earlier, so the elder was now asking her about this world and hoping to migrate to an elven village or somewhere with frequent druid activity to seek protection.

“Migrate? You can still migrate? I thought the dungeon—what you call the space—was already rooted and couldn’t move?” Mu Ying’s heart skipped a beat. These myconids, who could grow all sorts of mushrooms, were real treasures!

“Yes, but a native creature must carry the space core to move the whole thing, and it must be resettled within a day. The opportunity only comes once. You’re a druid and have elven blood—you’re the perfect candidate.”

“Would you mind settling in my territory?” Mu Ying’s breathing grew heavy with excitement.

Her territory’s population had stabilized. Would these myconids count as residents? And there were so many of them!

With their mushroom-growing skills, making money would be easy—no need to worry about paying fees.

“Territory? You’re a lord?” The myconid elder’s voice trembled.

“Yes, my territory has a protective shield, and no fighting is allowed inside. It’s only a village for now, but it’s much safer than anywhere else. However, residents have to pay five copper coins per day to stay, to help the territory develop. Your mushrooms should sell well, and with your abilities, once we establish a connection, you could even transmit images. We have something called a cinema in this world…”

Afraid they’d be scared off by the rent, Mu Ying hurriedly explained all sorts of ways they could make money. Although most people still struggled to survive and few could afford entertainment, the shopkeepers in her territory were all quite wealthy.

The myconid elder nodded repeatedly. “We volunteers who migrated here all got a generous settlement fund from the Evolution Center before we left! Migrate, let’s migrate right away!”

He was so excited that spores flew everywhere.

Mu Ying felt as if she’d just stumbled onto something incredible."

"“You all prefer living underground, so I need to return from a deeper cave entrance. Otherwise, when the dungeon merges with this world, I might end up exposed on the surface,” Mu Ying stopped the mushroom elder, who was eager to drag her off to relocate immediately.

After agreeing on a time for the move, Mu Ying calmly began touring the mushroom people’s village.

The mushroom feast was truly an eye-opener.

Although it was basically a big mushroom stew, there were mushrooms that tasted like meat, fruity mushrooms, and even juicy, bursting mushrooms—so many magical flavors that it was anything but monotonous. She enjoyed it so much that she was tempted to start growing mushrooms herself.

Bringing these adorable and capable mushroom people back to her territory was definitely the right decision.

“Who would’ve thought this dungeon would be full of cute mushroom people? I thought we’d be in for a big fight,” Lu You sighed. “But the mushrooms they grow are really delicious!”

As he spoke, he patted the bags of mushrooms he’d bought from the mushroom people—some edible, some poisonous—with great care.

“By the way, do you think things are so bad in Nihon because they messed with the red dragon’s treasure? Dragons are supposed to be greedy, after all.”

Their smooth journey made them question the supposed danger of this dungeon.

“That might be one reason. To giant creatures like that, we humans are probably like ants. Would you ever befriend an ant? Maybe we just got lucky this time,” Huo Shaobai said. What he didn’t mention was that if Mu Ying hadn’t gained the mushroom people’s trust first, their trip probably wouldn’t have gone so smoothly.

At first, the mushroom people had avoided them like the plague. Even after they could communicate telepathically, the naive mushroom children were fine, but the adults and elders never really let down their guard.

Mu Ying was definitely the biggest winner this time—her territory was about to gain a whole tribe of adorable mushroom people!

Just imagining these cute, glowing mushroom heads running around her land at night made her heart melt.

By the time they left the dungeon, it was already dark.

“What the heck is that?”

They hadn’t gone far when they saw a ghostly blue ball of light floating in the darkness of the forest ahead. As they watched, it flickered and turned into a warm yellow, like a pretty little lantern.

“Let’s go around it,” Huo Shaobai said. It was late, and it wasn’t wise to linger in the wild. Best not to mess with anything this weird—who knew what kinds of monsters were out there now?

They changed direction.

But the ball of light seemed unwilling to let them go, flickering in and out until it appeared right in front of them again.

“It seems like it wants us to follow it? Maybe something’s up?”

After making friends with the mushroom people today, Lu You felt it was better to assume good intentions—maybe they could make another friend? Besides, the light seemed so warm, maybe it just wanted to light their way.

Mu Ying’s heart skipped a beat at his words, and she quickly grabbed him. “I just remembered—it’s a will-o’-the-wisp, a level 2 monster. Wasn’t it hanging around the place we fought the other day? There were still some goblin corpses there!”

She’d seen it in the monster manual. She didn’t know if it meant harm, but she didn’t dare trust it easily. This was different from the mushroom people, who were weak and whose telepathic goodwill couldn’t be faked.

“A will-o’-the-wisp? That doesn’t sound good!” Lu You said sheepishly.

“It’s only level 2, we should be able to handle it. Let’s not go around—just head straight for the territory. If it blocks us, we’ll kill it,” Huo Shaobai decided.

They moved forward in battle formation.

The will-o’-the-wisp flickered ahead of them again, as if trying to light their way, showing no obvious malice.

But after a few minutes, Mu Ying felt something was off. When she’d left the cave, it was night and hard to tell directions in the woods, so she’d used a navigation spell to orient herself.

Now, it seemed the will-o’-the-wisp was subtly leading them off course. In the darkness, the warm light ahead was easy to follow without noticing.