Chapter 27 – The Garden’s First Employee

Dylan sat on a boar hide inside a tent stitched together from several kinds of monster hide.

This was the Gnoll camp in the forest. Several Puffcaps had escorted him here.

The tent contained little beyond a few crooked racks made of wood and bone. Dylan could even see a human skull among them.

He could not sit still.

Following his instincts back to the dungeon had been an act of despair, but he had never imagined it would lead to this.

The Puffcaps were controlled by some mysterious will!

No wonder they had exterminated the Parasitic Trees and Emerald-Eyed Frogs, behavior far beyond anything required for survival.

Now that mysterious will had taken an interest in him.

More troubling still...

The tent flap suddenly lifted. A Gnoll covered from head to toe in grayish-white mushrooms walked stiffly inside.

It set a roasted pig trotter beside Dylan, then shambled back out.

On the way, it brushed against the tent and lost a mushroom.

Dylan’s throat tightened. Was this the ultimate fate of the parasitized?

Would he become the same thing?

He did not know, but he was beginning to regret returning to the dungeon so casually.

“Go on, eat. Make yourself at home.”

The voice appeared again. Dylan could only pick up the slightly charred pig trotter and force himself to bite into it.

So burnt... and so gamey...

Elsewhere, Evan had not intended to frighten him.

Dylan was human. Poisonmist Lake was no place for him to stay, and neither was the marsh.

The Gnoll Forest, on the other hand, already had tents. There was no reason not to use them, especially since the Gnolls would not need them much longer.

As for the taste of the pig trotter, Evan watched Dylan devour it in a few quick bites and decided his cooking must be rather good.

Wasn’t fine cuisine just roasting something and sprinkling salt on it?

After finishing the trotter, Dylan hesitated and pulled a Mana Potion from his coat.

Over the past two weeks, he had discovered that ordinary food could no longer fully satisfy his needs. He had to drink a mouthful of Mana Potion each day to ease his hunger. His guess was that the hyphae inside him required mana.

“You don’t actually need to waste potions.”

Dylan stopped with one hand on the cork and asked instinctively, “Then what should I do?”

The tent flap opened again. The same Mycelial Gnoll stood outside.

It beckoned to him. Dylan put away the potion and followed.

They walked to one end of the forest, where dozens of Mycelial Gnolls were felling trees.

The Gnoll led Dylan to the edge of the logging site. Many of the felled trees had been hollowed out, giving them an unfortunate resemblance to coffins.

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Dense hyphae filled their interiors. The sight made Dylan’s scalp prickle.

“Lie down in one and see how it feels.”

“What? This is... never mind. I’ll do it.”

The bizarre request made Dylan uneasy. After a moment’s thought, however, he realized his life was no longer in his own hands. There was little point in shrinking from the danger.

With the grim resolve of a man walking to the gallows, he lay down inside.

The instant his back touched the wood, hyphae reached for him. They writhed toward the growths on his body and... connected!?

“What is... oh...”

It was nothing but a ruined, hollow log, yet Dylan felt as though he were lying on a velvet bed.

Even more precious was the sensation of contentment. Of safety.

The tension that had tormented him for months rapidly loosened.

“Relax and stay where you are. We can chat for a while.”

The voice seemed to drift from somewhere far away. Dylan could no longer summon the slightest caution.

“All right... let’s talk...”

“Dylan, tell me your story. I’m curious why you came back after leaving. Did you want more Parasitic Tree seeds?”

“It wasn’t... for the seeds. I came because...”

Dazed, Dylan felt as though he were speaking to a trusted friend of many years.

He poured out every experience and every thought without holding anything back.

Watching him, Evan could not help marveling at how useful it was to mix a few Hallucinogenic Spores into a nutritional infusion.

Parasitic Fusion gave Evan absolute dominance over the beings it infected. Combined with the Mycelial Network, it allowed him to sense the general emotions of a parasitized creature while it spoke.

His earlier experiments on Gnolls had confirmed that.

With this sense, Evan could tell whether a host was lying.

Questioning someone one answer at a time, however, was painfully inefficient. It also did not look very friendly.

A gentler approach worked better.

* * *

“How long was I asleep?”

Dylan did not know when he had drifted off. The Gnolls that had been cutting timber now lay motionless in the hollow logs around him.

He had only hazy memories of what happened before he fell asleep, though he could guess most of it.

By all rights, he should have been on his guard.

Strangely, he felt relaxed in both body and mind, as though he had awakened in his own home. The crude wooden bed was the only flaw. Resting his hand against it was rather uncomfortable.

“Dylan, I understand your situation now.”

Evan’s voice appeared in his mind at just the right moment.

“I don’t mind giving you a place to live here.

“But just as you need to work for money in the human world, I have a few small tasks I need you to handle. Don’t worry, they’ll be much easier than working as an adventurer.

“I run an ethical enterprise. Room and board are included, and good work earns extra rewards.”

Dylan had no idea what an enterprise was, but he understood the offer. He asked the question that concerned him most.

“Will I become like these Gnolls?”

To Dylan, they seemed no different from the dead. In fact, they truly were dead.

“Gnolls?” Evan’s voice rose slightly. “Of course not. Your will remains your own.”

As long as you do not do anything suicidal.

Dylan nodded and went down on one knee.

“I, Dylan, am willing to enter your service. May I know your name?”

“Enough with the formalities. It feels awkward. I’m Evan. You can call me Boss.”

“Yes, Boss.” Dylan had been prepared to call him Master.

He did not ask who or what Evan was.

If Evan had chosen not to appear before him, then there were things he did not want Dylan to know. Asking would only invite trouble.

“One more thing. While you were asleep, I straightened out the hyphae growing all over the place inside you. I also gave you a skill. Consider it an advance on your wages.”

“You gave me a skill?”

Dylan plainly did not understand.

* * *

Bent Willow Tavern was as noisy as ever. Dylan gulped down watered ale. It had been a long time since he could visit a tavern.

His face was uncovered, and not a trace of hyphae could be seen. He looked like an ordinary man.

[Mimicry LV2]

Just as Evan could give skills to Puffcaps, he could also give them to parasitized humans.

The difference was that adding a skill to a human who already possessed many of them cost vastly more.

This one skill had consumed as much mana as creating forty combat Puffcaps.

It was worth the price.

Evan had acquired Mimicry from the Deep Strata early on. At its low level, the skill could only make crude changes to the color and texture of skin.

He had never found a use for it before. At last, it had a purpose.

Dylan now believed that returning to Amethyst Deep had been the best decision of his life.

That did not mean he wanted to leave the dungeon behind and resume a normal life.

Mimicry remained only a disguise. In truth, he was still half mushroom, and someone might expose him at any time.

He also needed the hyphae to replenish his nutrients. Trying to survive on Mana Potions alone would consume more gold than he could ever earn.

His presence in the tavern was due to Evan’s first assignment.

After Dylan drained another cup, several adventurers sat down across from him.

“You’re Dylan, right? I heard you have the latest guide to the Fifth Stratum.”

Dylan set down his cup, wiped the foam from his face with one hand, and grinned.

“I do! But I risked my life to get it, so it won’t come cheap...”