Chapter 29 – The Extra Intelligence

Beside Poisonmist Lake, three young adventurers lay beneath the caps of several enormous gray mushrooms, secretly observing a few mutated Puffcaps in the distance.

After the Puffcaps occupied the stratum, the spores they released had produced great numbers of blue and gray mushrooms in every size.

Experience suggested that although these mushrooms grew from Puffcap spores, they had no direct connection to the Puffcaps themselves.

The only link was that a new Puffcap might occasionally emerge wherever the mushrooms grew especially well.

The mushrooms here had broad, low caps, making them excellent cover.

Unfortunately, every breath carried the rotten stench seeping from the soil. A monster carcass must have lain here before.

Faye, the young woman with the shortbow, rubbed her nose. The smell was almost strong enough to destroy her sense of smell.

“Vera, stop dawdling. We won’t know whether it works until we try!”

“All right.”

Further observation seemed pointless. Vera lowered the two large cloth sacks from his back and pulled a dead Two-Headed Python from one of them.

The creature had a serpent head at either end, one black and one white, while alternating bands of black and white covered its body. It was a common monster on the dungeon’s Second Stratum.

All valuable materials, including the serpent fangs and venom sacs, had already been removed. What remained was nothing more than low-value serpent meat.

Vera coiled the Two-Headed Python, hoisted it over his shoulder, and took a throwing stance. Then he softly called the other young woman’s name.

“Fiona.”

“All right.”

Her nearly inaudible reply came from behind him.

Fiona raised a small wand about two hands long and cast a strengthening spell on Vera.

[Power Boost]

The Two-Headed Python immediately felt much lighter in his hands.

Vera bounced it twice, then hurled it.

The carcass uncoiled in midair and landed heavily near the Puffcaps.

Boom!

One startled Puffcap immediately fired.

Its Spore Cannon had already reached LV8. The blast struck the middle of the Two-Headed Python and blew the medium-sized monster from the Second Stratum into two pieces.

The three adventurers beneath the mushroom broke out in cold sweat at the sight of that power.

No wonder so many people had died to these Puffcaps, including skilled adventurers capable of reaching the Sixth and Seventh Strata.

One attack was already that powerful, yet monsters like these traveled in groups!

Rumor held that even if a party defeated one group of Puffcaps, a larger force would arrive and chase them down.

No one could blame most Silver-rank adventurers for crowding into the taverns to drink while they waited for a reliable strategy.

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After the Puffcaps confirmed that the Two-Headed Python was dead, two of them extended tendrils and balanced half of the carcass on each cap.

Then the whole group returned toward the Marsh Zone as though carrying home the spoils of a hunt.

The guide had been right. A monster carcass could lure the Puffcaps away!

More importantly, all the valuable materials had already been harvested. The remains were nearly worthless. Carrying them down was the only inconvenience.

“It really worked...”

Faye’s mouth fell slightly open. She still could not believe Vera had stumbled onto genuine firsthand intelligence.

Vera was equally excited.

“I knew it was real!

“Faye, Fiona, let’s wait before going to the caverns for Ironheart Orchids. I want to check that extra piece of intelligence first!”

Faye saw no reason to object, so she nodded.

The three followed the path toward the edge of the Gnoll Forest.

None of them noticed the two men who had been watching from beneath another giant mushroom farther away.

“They seem to have a guide. Do we still attack them now?”

The speaker was Nash, a Half-Elf.

Only half of his left ear remained. The handsome features inherited from his elven blood were still faintly visible beneath hollow cheeks and heavily bruised-looking eyelids, but his appearance suggested a man ruined by drink and vice.

His companion was a stocky Dwarf with a mouthful of steel teeth and a merciless gaze.

An ax blade flashed with cold light. The cap above them slid away at an angle, and Grunbar stepped onto the fallen stipe as he straightened.

“There’s no hurry. We can kill them whenever we please. Let’s see what they’re doing before we decide.”

All manner of people wandered through the dungeon’s shadows. Where adventurers hunted monsters, villains naturally arose to trap and murder other adventurers for money. Such people were known as marauders.

Nash and Grunbar were marauders hiding beneath the guise of adventurers.

Their combat levels had reached LV34 and LV36, yet they spent year after year roaming the Fourth and Fifth Strata in search of suitable prey.

The excessively young faces in Vera’s party had drawn their attention.

Besides, the Puffcaps on the Fifth Stratum had caused such an uproar lately that the deaths of three young adventurers would arouse no suspicion.

Nash took a packet of powder from his bag and scattered it over himself and Grunbar.

The powder blocked common detection skills. It was a tool designed specifically for use against adventurers.

Nash then used his own detection skill to follow Vera’s party from a distance.

This technique was the reason their ambushes succeeded time after time.

* * *

A small cave lay at the edge of the Gnoll Forest. Its entrance stood less than six feet high.

Hidden beneath Ironwire Ferns and Serpent Vines, it blended into the surrounding rock and was extremely difficult to spot.

Vera and his companions now stood inside, staring blankly at the Puffcap seated in the center.

They stared because the Puffcap was simply enormous.

It nearly touched the ceiling, and its width was every bit as great as its height. It shattered everything they thought they knew about what a Puffcap looked like.

Merely sitting there, it occupied a third of the cave.

Faye nudged Vera’s shoulder and whispered, “Is this the one from the guide? The Puffcap that trades all kinds of random items?”

Vera wanted to ask how he was supposed to know, but saying that aloud would certainly earn him a beating.

“Probably. I’ll try.”

He lowered the other cloth sack from his back.

From it, he pulled another carcass, this one belonging to a canine monster. He cautiously took two steps forward and placed it before the bulwark Puffcap.

The motionless bulwark Puffcap finally reacted to the carcass. Six tendrils made of hyphae extended from its back.

Vera retreated to his companions in an instant and drew his curved sword, but his caution proved unnecessary.

The tendrils wrapped around the carcass and pushed it into the Puffcap’s hollow body.

The bulwark Puffcap rummaged inside itself for quite some time. At last, it flung out an elegant buckler.

The engraved shield rolled and clattered across the stone until it reached the three adventurers.

They looked from the shield to one another, disbelief reflected in every pair of eyes.

It was not unheard of for highly intelligent monsters to communicate or even trade, but this was a Puffcap!

“That shield didn’t belong to another adventurer, did it?”

Faye thought of the many adventurers who had recently died on the Fifth Stratum. The Puffcaps certainly had not forged the buckler themselves.

“Do we leave it?” Vera clearly hated the idea. The shield looked well made, and even if he could not use it, it would sell for a good price.

To his surprise, Faye suddenly became excited.

“Leave it? Why would we do that?

“Come on! Let’s go back up and kill a few more monsters to drag down here!

“There can’t be an unlimited number of good items inside this Puffcap. We need to trade for as many as possible before anyone else finds it!”

She bent eagerly to pick up the buckler.

Before her hand could touch it, Vera kicked her in the shoulder. A crossbow bolt grazed Faye’s cheek and struck the ground, leaving a thin cut across her skin.

“Marauders!”