Chen Mian took the golem core and examined it in his hand for a moment.
“Well? Does this thing have any other uses?” Loviki asked with some curiosity.
“If you have magical creations, it can be used as an endless mana battery.” Chen Mian put the core into his storage space. “But the most important part is the large number of magic runes inside. Studying them might teach us some interesting things.”
“As long as it's useful.” Loviki's lips curved upward as she sheathed her rapier.
“Let's go. Let's see if there's anything good inside.”
The three of them crossed the hall and continued forward. The area ahead was even darker, illuminated only by the faint light of a few scattered magic lamps.
The walls were covered in moss, and even the floor had accumulated a thick layer of dust. There were no footprints in the dust, nor any trace of human activity. It seemed this place had not been explored yet, likely just as the middle-aged man who sold them the map had said.
It had only appeared in recent days, and the powerful experts were all deeper inside the dungeon.
Without a powerful adventurer leading the way, defeating an ice crystal golem was no easy feat.
Flora extended her left hand, and a ball of golden light resembling fire appeared in her palm. Their surroundings brightened significantly, revealing the layout of the hidden area before them.
It was still a long corridor, but there seemed to be many rooms lining both sides of this seemingly endless passage.
There was no light inside the rooms; they were pitch black, and many of the magic lamps were no longer functioning. It seemed this place had been abandoned for a very long time.
Chen Mian walked at the very front, with Loviki following closely behind, her expression betraying a hint of nervousness. Flora, walking at the rear, observed their surroundings as they went, looking much calmer than Loviki.
“Chen Mian, didn't Leila say there are ghosts in the dungeon? Do you think there might be...” Loviki lowered her voice.
“Are you scared?” Chen Mian turned his head as he walked in front.
“I didn't say I was scared.”
“Then why do you keep looking behind you?”
Loviki immediately turned her head back and said defensively, “I—I was just checking to see if any monsters were approaching from behind!”
Behind her, Flora's lips curved under her cloak's hood, but she didn't expose her.
The corridor was very narrow, with a stone door every ten-odd meters on both sides. Most of them were half-open, and the air was thick with a damp, musty odor.
Chen Mian stopped in front of the first door and peered inside.
It was a small storage room.
A few clay pots sat on a stone shelf, along with a half-rotted wooden chest.
He walked inside and casually flipped open the wooden chest.
Inside were a few pieces of leather armor that had decayed into fragments, along with a bronze dagger covered in green rust.
The blade of the dagger was chipped and dull, and the hemp rope wrapped around the hilt crumbled at the slightest touch.
Chen Mian threw the dagger back into the chest. “This dungeon has existed for a very long time.”
Flora crouched down and picked up a shard of a clay pot from the floor. There was a thin layer of black carbonized matter on the inside. “This used to hold food.”
“You can tell?”
“Yes, it was likely some kind of grain.” Flora paused. “There is also a very faint smell of herbs, probably used for preservation.”
Loviki looked at the clay shard, her brow furrowing slightly. “Pots for holding food... Did people used to live here?”
“Not necessarily.” Chen Mian stood up and brushed the dust off his hands. “It could have been a supply point. Supply points in dungeons aren't uncommon. This dungeon probably isn't appearing for the first time either; I've seen quite a few battle traces left behind from many years ago along the way.”
The three walked out of the storage room and continued forward.
They entered many rooms along the way but found nothing of value. Almost everything was just ordinary items that had long since decayed.
Eventually, the three stopped searching every single room and simply walked along the dark corridor.
As they went deeper, blurry reliefs appeared on the stone walls on both sides. However, the text on them had been completely worn away, making it impossible to read. The totems depicted peculiar magical creations and creatures, including the ice crystal golem.
The deeper they went, the more damp and cold the air became. Occasionally, drops of water dripped from above, echoing clearly in the quiet space.
After walking for about ten minutes, another fork appeared ahead.
Chen Mian barely hesitated, stepping directly into the narrower corridor on the left.
Flora and Loviki quickly kept pace.
“Why choose the left?” Loviki voiced her curiosity.
“There are very unusual mana fluctuations on the left,” Chen Mian answered.
As they went deeper, the narrow corridor grew wider, eventually leading to another domed hall ahead.
Dark blue frost-steel crystals were embedded in the cracks of the domed ceiling, but what truly illuminated the entire space was the ground.
The ground was covered in mushrooms, patch after patch, almost completely carpeting the entire hall.
They varied in size—some were only as large as a fingernail, while others were as big as umbrellas. All of them emitted a faint glow in the darkness.
They lit up the hall brightly.
A fresh, grassy aroma filled the air.
“Are these mushrooms poisonous?” Loviki asked, staring from a distance at the rather beautiful glowing mushrooms.
Flora shook her head. She didn't recognize these mushrooms either; they were a species unrecorded in the outside world. Just like the strange plants Leila had mentioned appearing on the fourth floor, they seemed unique to this dungeon.
Flora crouched down and gently poked a palm-sized, light-blue mushroom with her finger. The mushroom's cap trembled slightly, and tiny, light-blue spores drifted from its edges, slowly dispersing into the air with a faint, fruity fragrance.
There were no negative effects.
“They should be non-toxic. It's just that all of these mushrooms are species I've never seen before. Each one looks like a product created through fusion.” Flora looked at the mushrooms on the ground with curiosity. The light-blue mushroom in front of her seemed to be a fusion of blue tree mushrooms, fluorescent mushrooms, and some kind of fruit.
Without human intervention, none of this would have been possible. The strange creatures in this dungeon were likely the experimental subjects of some powerful entity.
She reached out, plucked a few mushrooms, and put them in her bag.
“Flora, are these edible?” Loviki asked with some anticipation upon seeing this.
“I'm not sure. I want to take them back and study them,” Flora replied, shaking her head. “Mr. Chen Mian, these mushrooms are the creations of some entity, aren't they?”
Chen Mian nodded. “They should be the work of the dungeon master. As for the specifics, we might find some answers if we keep going inside.”
“Let's go.” Chen Mian stood up and continued forward. The mushrooms were densely packed, but there was a narrow path just wide enough for a person to pass through, as if it had been left there intentionally.
Rate on N.U.
