Chapter 1 The Duchess's Daughter Turned into a Mushroom
"Let me go! Who are you? Let me go!"
When she woke up, Inanna found herself stuffed into a sack and struggled to twist her body.
"Perro, did you water down your unconsciousness spell? She's already awake."
"Idiot, don't call me by my name. Her duke father poured so many resources into her; her resistance is low. It's already good that she woke up now."
Inanna suddenly froze. These were two voices she recognized.
"Perro? And you, Oks! Did you betray me? Did you betray my father?"
"It's all your fault for talking too much. She recognized us," Perro said angrily.
Oks, however, seemed unconcerned: "What's there to fear? She won't have the chance to tell anyone."
What does that mean? It's not just kidnapping?
"What are you going to do?"
Realizing she might be in mortal danger, Inanna grew even more furious.
The bag on her head was roughly torn off, and her first sight was Oks's hideous face.
"What are we doing? Young lady, you're going to be the dinner for the beasts today!"
Inanna looked around. The dimly lit walls of the passageway were dotted with purple crystals of various sizes.
Had she been brought to the Purple Crystal Underground City?
"You two rat-faced traitors, the old man never wronged you! How dare you betray him?"
"Because your father is finished. Do you really think he can stop the empire's attack? Killing you will be the final straw that breaks him, and killing you will allow me to become a nobleman."
Thinking of the title promised by the mastermind behind it all, Oakes couldn't help but laugh.
"Stop laughing, you'll attract monsters." Perro impatiently interrupted the laughter, "That's it, put her down."
Inanna was thrown to the ground, still looking like she wanted to bite someone.
Oakes looked at Inanna's beautiful face and said regretfully, "Such a beauty, but she's just like her father. I was actually looking forward to trying out what it's like to be with a duke's daughter."
"This is the sixth layer. If you don't mind the monsters chewing your bare butt to pieces, you can go ahead now."
"Just kidding. Once you become a noble, what woman won't be available?"
Perro raised his wand at Inanna and recited an obscure spell.
"Transfiguration?"
Inanna immediately recognized the magic Perro was using. She kicked at him with her bound feet, trying to interrupt the spell, but was grabbed by Ox.
"If you have the guts, kill me! You killed… me…"
As the Transfiguration spell was completed, Inanna gradually lost the ability to speak and transformed into a creature with only a pair of short legs, commonly known as a walking mushroom.
After finishing the spell, Perro took out a bottle of starlight-infused potion with a hint of regret and poured it over Inanna.
This scene left Oks, standing nearby, marveling in astonishment.
"Solidification potion? You're really willing to use that. In my opinion, why go through all this trouble? Just kill her and throw the body down to feed the monsters!"
Listening to Oks's mindless remarks, Perro felt like he was about to have an attack of annoyance.
"Go ahead and kill it. But see if you end up with the duke's mark of vengeance. When he comes after you, abandoning his territory, don't blame me."
"Location magic, mark of vengeance—she must have it on her. The safest method is to let the lower-level monsters eat her clean."
As he spoke, he kindly cast an extended version of the slow fall spell on the puppet Inanna had transformed into, to prevent her from being crushed to death.
"Forget I said anything." Oks didn't get angry even though he was looked down upon. He came to Inanna's side and said, "Goodbye, young lady."
He kicked her away, watching as Inanna was swallowed by the fissure.
This was a fissure leading straight to the depths of the dungeon. No one who fell into it had ever climbed back out, let alone a defenseless puppet like her.
————
Damn it!
How dare you deceive me using the old man's name!
I'll kill those two beasts with my own hands!
…
It's so dark around me…
This fissure seemed truly bottomless; even the extended version of the slow fall spell couldn't reach the bottom.
Feeling the increasing speed of her fall, after her anger cooled, the sixteen-year-old girl who had never faced death before finally felt afraid.
Am I going to die like this?
Puff—
Inanna felt herself land on a soft, elastic bed that bounced her high into the air, bouncing back and forth a few times before she finally landed with a thud on the ground.
She wasn't dead! She was indeed favored by fate.
But where was she?
Puchi had no facial features and couldn't see anything, but could vaguely sense the objects around her.
What caught her seemed to be a three-meter-wide... giant mushroom?
What were those sounds around her? The figures flashing before her eyes felt so familiar...
Aren't these the same Puji that transformed into this form?
Why are there so many of these lowly Puji at the bottom of the food chain in the dangerous depths of the dungeon?
And there are so many of them!
Uh, why are they surrounding me...
————
As the owner of the mushroom farm, Lin Jun felt that she had been too distracted lately, causing her to make some elementary mistakes.
Sure enough, there was a puffball mushroom on the farm that was beyond her control. She didn't know if it had grown and fallen naturally before she had a chance to connect it to the fungal network.
It even has a pink mushroom cap, standing out among the sea of green and gray caps.
Is it a mutation?
Fortunately, it's easy to fix—just connect it with mycelium and route it to the fungal network channel.
But why is it resisting so fiercely?
This uncontrollable mushroom, when faced with the mushroom sent by Lin Jun to connect it, started running around wildly.
It knocked over a few mushrooms, then trampled around in the mushroom field, turning the mushroom garden into a mess.
Fed up, Lin Jun commanded a large group of pujis to surround it, pinning it in place so it couldn't move, and finally connected the mycelium.
"Ah! Get away! Get away!"
What the hell is this thing?
As soon as the puji connected, Lin Jun was bombarded with screams, so loud that his mycelium erupted.
"Quiet!"
The unavoidable command was transmitted through the mycelium network to every puji, and for a moment, the entire mushroom garden came to a standstill.
"Damn it, no, all areas should continue normal operations."
After restoring the mushroom garden's operations, Lin Jun finally focused his attention on this peculiar mushroom.
He had come to his senses—this was definitely not one of his own mushrooms, but an outsider.
How strange—how could there be an outsider mushroom in this remote corner?
"Speak! Where did you come from?"
"Who are you? How dare you speak to me like that? Wait, how am I speaking now?"
Hmph.
This creature was clearly in a state of confusion, unable to speak coherently. Lin Jun decided to bring up her interface directly.
[Name: Inanna Saint-Clair]
[Species: Mushroom-Puff]
[Level: LV28]
[HP: 3280]
[Strength: 1]
[Agility: 1]
[Constitution: 1]
[Intelligence: 33]
[Spirit: 24]
[Race Talent: Spore Dispersal (Can actively spray spores around, triggers upon death)]
[Fixed Effects:
Church Blessing (Provides Light Element Affinity LV4, Light Magic LV4)
Mark of Vengeance (Transfers to the killer upon death, allowing the caster to track the killer and deal additional damage)
Tracking Mark (Location Marker)
Fruit of Life (Gains 3000 additional HP and Life Recovery LV4)
Dragon Crystal Potion (Provides high resistance in all areas)
Permanent Transformation (The transformation effect will persist permanently unless the magic is dispelled)
Mycelium Network (A short-range mental network formed through magical resonance between mycelium threads)
[Skills: Riding LV4, Elemental Affinity (Water,Light) LV4, Magic Storage LV3, Magic Manipulation LV4, Light Magic LV4, Water Magic LV3, Cloth Armor Mastery LV2, Dagger Mastery LV2, Magic Resistance LV6, Physical Resistance LV6, Mental Resistance LV6, Corrosion Resistance LV6, Toxin Resistance LV6, Paralysis Resistance LV6, Heat Resistance LV6, Cold Resistance LV6, Dizziness ResistanceLV6, Underwater Adaptation LV6, Astrology LV1, Ancient Elf Language LV2, Life Recovery LV4]
I've got over 3,000 HP and all resistances at LV6—what a super-powered little cutie!
(End of this chapter)