Chapter 41 041

Find the hidden spot in the forest—while he came to that conclusion, he didn't move immediately.

'I can't search for it by myself, I don't have any exploration skills.'

Any ordinary party would contain at least one player that possessed exploration skills, however, Seojin needed to use a different method.

"I have to find something to guide me."

Seojin made his way through the forest. The forest was dark and his sight was limited, but he walked without hesitation. It wasn't as if the enemies here challenged him anyway.

The ogres at least tried to ambush him, but these crabs, the parastocks, emerged slowly before picking a fight. The lethargic movement was probably due to the mushroom that was controlling it, not the crab itself.

Seojin walked far and wide.

"…"

He soon found a parastock that was staring at him with grayish-white eyes, it didn't respond immediately even though it noticed him first.

Seojin made the first move.

Stanceshift: Petty Liar

Effective: 10 minutes

"Wait! I'm not your enemy. You must protect me and fight for me, that's your new role."

Seojin blabbed anything that came to mind after he used the skill. The choice of words didn't matter, what mattered was his stats.

Effect is greatly increased due to overwhelming stat difference!

Target — Parastock is friendly

However, the parastock remained in its spot. Seojin wouldn't have even known that the skill worked if it wasn't for the system message. However, he had already seen it plenty of times. Seojin approached the crab and used another skill.

White Lie

Effective: 10 minutes

Target — Parastock will listen to you.

"You are smart. You can talk, but you don't. Why? You're really smart. Come on, be smart. You can do it!"

'Will this even work?'

Seojin wasn't sure while even saying it by himself.

Effect is greatly increased due to overwhelming stat difference!

Target — Parastock's intelligence boosted greatly

Target — Parastock's stats boosted moderately.

Of course, the skill itself worked, but that wasn't the point. Seojin wasn't sure which creature had received the buff, the crab, or the mushroom. If it turned out to be the mushroom, not the crab?

'It will be hard to make a conversation. There's no way mushrooms can speak—'

*Kurrr.*

"…!"

The creature made a sound. Seojin hadn't heard them make a sound since he arrived, as his buffs were generally concentrated on STR and DEX. However, buffing INT resulted in this unusual circumstance.

'Which one was it, anyway? The mushroom or the crab?'

It could have been a meaningless snarl as far as Seojin knew, but at that moment…

Experienced: new language

Activated: Silver Tongue's Hidden Trait — Natural Sense

Learned: Language — Parastock

New Feature Unlocked: Language

"…?"

'Natural sense? What is that?'

Seojin opened the status screen as he kept an eye on the Parastock.

Trait: Natural Sense - Level 1

* Able to learn all languages efficiently. Effect is dependent on the level of the language being learned.

'Level 1 trait… I guess that means I can learn simple language instantly, like what happened just now.'

The parastock's language looked simple at first glance. Perhaps that's why he could learn it all with a Level 1 trait.

'Now, THIS is a trait, I actually feel like a Silver Tongue now. It was hidden too… does that mean there are more hidden traits?'

It was highly likely, but he couldn't confirm it before he had some evidence. Seojin opened the language tab.

Language — Valaran

* Proficiency: 100%

Language — Parastock.

* Proficiency: 100%

Language — Empire

* Proficiency: 33%

* Skill effect applied when speaking to target in target's language.

* Affected by proficiency.

This, too, was simple.

When talking to people of Valaran, his skill would be affected by the full 100% proficiency, but the effect would be nerfed drastically if he didn't know the language of the one he was talking to.

'But I didn't know the language of parastocks before this…"

Seojin stared at the stationary parastock. It didn't move an inch; it was just standing there. However, the moment Seojin was about to strike up a conversation, it spoke while clacking its pincers.

"Kill… me."

The parastock… spoke. Seojin was relieved as goosebumps popped up all over his body. It was clear that the crab had received the buff, not the mushroom.

* * *

Parastocks were not originally monsters, they were mere ordinary forest crabs. They were big but gentle herbivores, contrasting their frightening appearance. In some regions, they were even kept like livestock.

The change came in the blink of an eye.

'Squirmshrooms. While its name came from its origins as a mushroom, it's classified as an animal with intelligence.'

The first occurrence probably happened by accident—a spore coincidentally landing on a crab in a forest, coincidentally rooted down, and coincidentally happened to take full control.

However, while the start may have been accidental, the change that took place afterwards happened rapidly.

The first parasite, the squirmshroom, realized that using the bodies of the forest crabs would be much more useful for reproduction, rather than mindlessly spreading spores. They grew inside the host and turned it ferocious.

The gentle crabs could not resist the infected parastocks. As the number of parastocks increased, so did the amount of forest crabs disappearing. The forest became a dungeon once there was no longer a single forest crab left without a squirmshroom on its back.

"Whoa…"

Seojin let out a groan and closed the notebook.

<Dr. Draven's Diary>

Seojin had found it under the bark of a tree. The worn-out notebook contained the records of a man who explored this forest.

"He must have been trapped in the forest after it turned into a dungeon."

The records stated all of the changes that had occurred in this forest. Unfortunately, there was only information about the forest, nothing pertaining to just who exactly this Draven was.

'So, that's how it was…'

It was enough to figure out what was going on. These parastocks were not the enemies here, although it would be impossible to cure them… for now.

'The real goal is to get rid of these fungi.'

It was already too late and there was no use in trying to remove the ones that were already stuck to the backs of the crabs. However, the colony of squirmshrooms must have been somewhere, and that would be the place where the forest crabs were bred.

'Parasites can't survive without their hosts… I just need to remove the mushrooms and save those crabs.'

Seojin concluded as and looked at the parastock.

"Guide me to your kind.'

"Kill… me…"

"Yeah, I will, so guide me to your friends first. I'm sure your friends want to die too."

The parastock snapped pincers, staring back at Seojin with blurry eyes.

'That means it understood… right?'

The only thing this little guy could do was ask Seojin to kill him. Perhaps it was because the parastock's base INT was too low. Seojin thought it was a bit creepy at first, but soon enough he was somewhat used to it. The parastock stumbled forward… no, to the side, to be precise, as it was a crab. Seojin trailed behind it for a while.

"…Hmm."

Eventually, he frowned at the scenery before him.

"Mushrooms… There are mushrooms everywhere."

He had reached a remote corner of the Black Forest, quite far away from the normal quest route. Squirming mushrooms filled the expanse in front of him, to the point where it looked as if the earth was wriggling. It was unpleasant, to say the least, seeing the colony of red, spotty mushrooms, let alone the fact that he had to watch the forest crabs getting their bodies snatched away from them.

"This… this is a little creepy."

A blurry-eyed parastock picked up a squirmshroom and placed it on top of another crab. It only took a moment for the mushrooms to root themselves into the forest crab and turn them into parastock. It was clear that it had already evolved enough to make this their main method of reproduction.

"Now… how do I deal with this?"

It would not be difficult to neutralize all of the parastocks. However, clearing out the huge number of mushrooms would be a problem, unless he set fire to them, or something.

"…Wait." Seojin frowned as he murmured to himself. "Isn't this the same loot I got when I killed the parastocks?"

That meant that the colony before Seojin eyes was a mountain of loot, worth thousands of parastocks.

"…"

Seojin shut his mouth and bent over to pull one out of the ground. It popped out instantly, leaving a satisfying feeling in his hand.

Intact Squirmshroom

* The Squirmshroom is a parasitic plant. The fully grown, wriggling mushroom takes complete control of its host. Used as a rare material for alchemy.

The item description proved Seojin right.

"So, it's a goddamn…"

Goldmine. It was a goldmine that was worth a huge chunk of money. The once unpleasant scenery now looked like a jackpot to Seojin.

"…"

The freshly mutated parastock spotted Seojin and raised its claws at him sluggishly.

"Okay, go parastock! Give your friends what they want!"

He released the tamed parastock and sat down, starting to collect the mushrooms.

* * *

Six hours had passed since Seojin entered the Black Forest. He had collected all of the mushrooms and removed the Parastocks to save the forest crabs.

Dungeon Boss Defeated

He had killed the boss too.

Acquired: Extra-Large Squirmshroom

Extra-Large Squirmshroom

* A parasitic plant that grew gigantic thanks to the nutrients from its host. Used as a rare material for alchemy.

'It's finally over.'

Seojin looked at the pile of dust which was once the boss of this dungeon. The boss attacked the mushroom on its own back and soon collapsed, just like the communities had said. Seojin knew it was just a game, but it still left a bad taste in his mouth. After staring at the dust for a while, Seojin shook his head.

'That's how it was supposed to be. What else could I have done?'

The real goal was to save the forest crabs from the squirmshrooms. The final boss killing itself might have seemed absurd if he didn't know that, but it was a suitable ending for such a story.

'So, the only thing left is my reward.'

The bad taste in his mouth disappeared in seconds as Seojin grinned at the thought of profit. Between Jeriel and Rachael, the reward was going to be considerable judging by the efforts he had to put into the dungeon. On top of that, <Dr. Draven's Diary> could also lead to additional quests.

No monsters remaining in the dungeon

The familiar message popped up once again, it was already the third time Seojin had seen it. Seojin could predict what would happen next. Since there were no monsters left, he'd be removed from the dungeon.

However, things didn't go like that.

Dungeon Clear

Insufficient conditions to remain as Dungeon.

Dungeon — The Black Forest will be converted to Field — The Black Forest

There wasn't even enough time for him to grasp the meaning of the system messages.

"…What?"

Seojin was standing in the middle of the ant cave and many players were staring at him as he appeared out of nowhere.