Gululu—
A long-lost hunger forced Louisa to open her eyes.
The back of her head pressed against jagged rocks. When she opened her eyes, what she saw was a cramped, damp pit, and the stench of rotting earth filled her nose.
No, calling it a basement was giving it too much credit. This was just a makeshift burrow dug out of the soil. Not far away, a Puji was still shoveling dirt to expand the space.
She remembered what had happened earlier—before the two cannon fodder scouts even came back, they were already surrounded by endless Pujis.
Endless!
Even now, recalling it, the despair remained—knowing halfway through the fight that they could not win, that even escape was an impossible luxury.
But… why wasn’t she dead?
When her last blood sphere shattered, she should have been blown to pieces, just like her subordinates. So why was she waking up here intact in this burrow?
Were the Pujis keeping her here to die slowly, or was there another reason?She didn’t know. What she did know was that she was hungry.
Louisa glanced at the Puji still digging away, which seemed not to notice her awakening.
She struggled to her feet, leaning against the wall. The exit was right in front of her. If she could just reach it—
Something terrifying happened.
After her third step, a mushroom suddenly sprouted from the palm of her hand. White stem, gray cap, looking like an ordinary mushroom.
But growing out of her flesh—that was horrifying.
Panicked, Louisa yanked it out, only to feel as if she were tearing out her own flesh. Already weakened, she nearly collapsed.
What was happening to her?
Countless dreadful possibilities spun in her mind. Almost without thinking, she stepped forward again.
This time, two blue mushrooms sprouted side by side on the back of her other hand, seamlessly fused with her skin.
“What… what is this?”
Terrified, Louisa stumbled back until her back hit the wall. Only then did the mushrooms stop growing.
She understood now—she could not leave this place…
If she were slain outright in battle, she could accept that. But to be slowly turned into mushroom feed—this she could not bear.
She tore the mushrooms off again, gritting her teeth against the pain. This time she dared not step toward the exit again.
But if she stayed here, she would simply starve and become mushroom fodder anyway.
Louisa had taken this mission voluntarily. Unlike some of her kin who grew complacent after gaining titles, she wanted to climb higher. Stuck at level 50, she needed her next chance to advance.
She had known this mission wouldn’t be easy, and had imagined many possible fates.
Slain if discovered by the human Church. Instantly killed if she ran into a powerhouse. Or if the scripture had already been seized by humans and used as bait to lure her in.
She had thought of many deaths. But never this—never being compost for a swarm of Pujis!
“Say with your mouth: today’s weather is really nice.”
Louisa’s eyes widened. She looked around, but saw no one.
Where had that voice come from?
And what nonsense was it saying—today’s weather is nice?
She was in a hole underground—how could she see the weather?
As she puzzled over it, the voice came again, repeating the same words.
“Say with your mouth: today’s weather is really nice.”
This time, Louisa realized—the voice was inside her head!
“Who are you? What do you want? Do you know what it means to imprison a vampire viscount like me?”
She demanded furiously. But there was no reply.
Instead, a tiny mushroom sprouted beneath her eyelid, its cap covering her left eye.
“Ah… ahh…”
“Say with your mouth: today’s weather is really nice.”
The voice repeated for the third time. Trembling, Louisa opened her mouth and spoke in the human common tongue: “Today’s weather is really nice.”
“…”
A short silence.
“I meant, say it in demon tongue…”
A strange dread twisted through Louisa, but she no longer dared defy the voice.
“Today’s weather is really nice,” she repeated, this time in the harsh syllables of the demon tongue.
The voice vanished. Louisa dared not ask further. She just crouched in the corner, blankly watching the only other living thing in the burrow—the Puji digging the dirt.
Time passed. When hunger blurred her vision, the voice returned again.
“Say: I am a little pig that loves to eat.”
This time Louisa didn’t even think. She obeyed at once.
A miracle occurred. As soon as she spoke, two Pujis dragged in a dead wolf from the tunnel, tossing it at her feet.
Beast blood. And from a carcass. To a vampire, it was like stale pig slop—living on it long-term would leave her weak.
But now she had no choice. Rotten meat was better than starving to death.
Ignoring the fur, Louisa bit into it. The blood sliding down her throat finally brought a spark of life back to her eyes.
…
Excellent. A demon-tongue learning machine acquired.
Though demon speech wasn’t useful for now, better to be prepared. A mushroom wandering the world should know another language or two.
The prison cell was one Lin Jun had dug beneath the Mushroom Grove. Rounded up, it counted as employee housing.
He decided to dig a few more—reserve rooms, so to speak.
If not for that mage Hark escaping all the way to the first floor, Lin Jun would’ve captured him too.
If he could pass entry assessment, bringing him under command wouldn’t have been impossible.
Who would’ve thought a Gold-rank nearly accomplished what a Diamond-rank vampire could not—escaping the dungeon.
Armed with a few scrolls and sheer desperation, he had fought through, bleeding, nearly breaking free.
If not for the church warriors’ light barrier outside…
A pity. Because he reached the first floor, where adventurers or the Church could stumble on him, Lin Jun had no choice but to dismantle him completely—bones tossed to the slimes for feed.
Even though Hark couldn’t have leaked much, at worst forcing Lin Jun to relocate the Yellow Scripture again, that would have been a blow to his face!
What would people say?
Five floors of Pujis, unable to stop a single Gold-rank mage? Where would their deterrence be? Wouldn’t any strong adventurer then try to test the rules?
So it had to be done.
From this battle, Lin Jun now had a clearer measure of himself against Diamond-rank strength.
As it stood, unless a Diamond-rank came with a full party and plenty of supplies, they could hardly pose a real threat to his Puji army.
After all, Louisa had drained three bottles of high-grade mana potions and hadn’t even reached a fifth of the way up the stair tunnel.
At the same time, he had gained a clearer sense of his elite Pujis’ strength—between Silver and low-Gold.
Four against two. If not for Hark fleeing, the fight would’ve ended with all four elites dead at the cost of one Gold-rank heavily injured.
Still, for a core fighting force, that strength was enough.
Overall, the harvest was rich. But new problems had cropped up.
The Church of the so-called Lord of Light had begun searching the dungeon with adventurers for Louisa’s trail.
After all, Amethyst Dungeon lay within human territory. Killing or capturing a vampire viscount wasn’t much of an issue. But clashing with the Church? That could cause endless trouble.
Hopefully they knew their place and limited themselves to the outer areas. Because the Marsh Zone and the Mushroom Grove—those Lin Jun would never permit them to enter.