The dim tunnel was filled with a nauseating stench. The green blood of the giant spider kept dripping down along its own massive web.
Arachno—just like its spider relatives—was, in the mouths of most illiterate adventurers, only ever worthy of being lumped together under the unified name of "giant spider monster."
Only those who truly understood them knew that this was a special kind of giant spider capable of weaving poisonous giant webs.
The thick webs were extremely conspicuous. Weaker monsters would avoid them from far away.
But there were always some monsters who, relying on their powerful bodies and great strength, never took spider webs seriously.
And Arachno's prey was precisely these kinds of creatures.
But today, it had clearly suffered a loss.
A giant axe was embedded squarely in the center of the spider monster's head, smashing it into a complete mess.
Huff—huff—
A bull-headed, human-bodied monster panted heavily as it lifted its axe. With a slight shake, it flung off most of the sticky blood and flesh clinging to it.
On its massive, four-and-a-half-meter-tall body, knotted muscles rose and fell beneath the fur with each breath. Even among Minotaurs, this was an exceptionally strong individual.
Under its brutal assault, the hunter had become the prey.
But it was not uninjured.
The poison from the web that had touched its left arm was spreading along its blood vessels. Even its LV5 poison resistance could only prevent it from continuing to spread.
Losing the use of one arm in a short time would definitely make survival in the dungeon extremely difficult.
Fortunately, this problem would not trouble it anymore.
A pitch-black dagger extended from the shadows, lightly circling around the Minotaur's thick neck. Its throat was cut as easily as tofu.
Looking at the Minotaur that had fallen to the ground and was now only twitching, Night Owl walked out of the darkness and complained to the three others who had just arrived:
"At least a level 40 Minotaur. This thing could be a treasure chest guardian on the eighth floor. If it weren't in such bad condition, I'd have had to spend quite a bit more effort."
"I've got a bad feeling. If this keeps up, sooner or later we're going to run into a real troublesome guy."
"Nova, how much farther is it?"
Nova rubbed the guiding crystal in his hand. "Almost there. The change in direction is getting bigger and bigger. That means we're very close."
"Garr, help me cut open its abdomen."
Ivan pointed at the spider's corpse and started ordering his teammate around.
"What for? The bodily fluids of giant spider monsters stink like hell…"
Garr looked very unwilling, but still pulled out a dissection knife and cut open the spider's belly.
Sure enough, a wave of stench rushed out. He hurriedly waved his hand and stepped back two paces.
Ivan, on the other hand, pounced over with shining eyes, completely ignoring the stench, and reached in with both hands to take out an organ.
"As expected, it's an Arachno. This poison sac is the best material for setting up a poison cloud ritual!"
After watching Ivan take out an exquisite box and carefully store away the foul-smelling poison sac, Nova finally ordered everyone to continue forward.
He had a feeling that at most, after three more caves, they would see the target.
In reality, after passing through just one more cave that had a few scattered fire mosquitoes, they arrived at their destination.
Outside the mushroom garden, the four of them stared at the scene before them in disbelief.
A group of Puji… occupying a territory even in the deep layers!?
No—more importantly, how could there even be Puji in the deep layers?
It was true that the deep layer area had monsters of all levels, but that definitely did not include Puji, which had no survival ability at all…
Not to mention anything else—wouldn't the few fire mosquitoes next door treat them like an all-you-can-eat buffet every day?
Garr stood there with his mouth open for a long time before muttering:
"If it's here… then I think I understand why that young lady is still alive…"
"One's coming over."
A Puji walked toward them on its short little legs.
Only then did Ivan remember to use Detection.
"Sure enough, LV1… hmm? Skills? There are…"
But someone reacted even faster than him.
At the moment the Puji walked over, Night Owl's figure vanished.
[Shadow Warp LV9]
As an experienced adventurer, she would never be fooled by something that looked harmless. The moment she acted, she went all out.
She appeared behind the Puji in an instant, and the black blade came down in a single slash—
Boom!
"..."
Only then did Ivan's warning come belatedly.
Fortunately, it was only a small explosion and didn't really hurt Night Owl.
But when she came out of the smoke, covered in soot and dust, she stared at Ivan fiercely, just short of questioning him out loud.
"Haha… sorry, it was too strange, I got distracted…"
"I've never heard of a walking mushroom that explodes. And those others don't look like ordinary walking mushrooms either."
Nova pointed at the few cannon mushrooms over there, timely changing the subject.
Ivan cast Detection again.
"Those ones can fire magic cannons. The power isn't very big, and they don't seem very aggressive?"
Indeed.
They had already taken the initiative and killed one self-destructing one, yet the other Puji still looked like they had no reaction at all—neither attacking nor running away.
Very strange.
"Do we clear them all out?"
Night Owl asked with her mouth, but her body was already preparing to move. She was still holding back anger after losing face just now.
But Nova pressed her down.
"Wait. The Duke's daughter is still inside. If we cause chaos, who knows what will happen."
"They're not very threatening and aren't attacking on their own. Let's just go in directly."
"Stay alert at all times."
That last sentence was for the half-dragonman. He had to protect his teammates in case of a sudden attack.
[Damage Substitution LV7]
[Shield Domain LV8]
[Group Defense Boost LV8]
The half-dragonman cast several protective skills in a row.
"Alright, let's go in."
Long before they entered the passage connecting to the fire mosquito nest, Lin Jun had already sensed them through the mushrooms in the tunnel.
Grand Mage Ivan did not notice Lin Jun, who was secretly monitoring the entire mushroom garden, and their conversation was also heard by Lin Jun word for word.
However—
He couldn't understand it at all…
As expected, people from another world really didn't speak Earth languages, huh?
Communicating with Inanna through the fungal web was actually a kind of mental local area network. What was transmitted were thoughts, not language, so naturally there was no language barrier.
Now that he had encountered real people speaking the language of this world, he indeed couldn't understand them at all…
Even though he couldn't understand, he had been here for so many years and had never seen a single human before. Now that a group like this had shown up, and they were clearly heading straight for the mushroom garden—
There was a 90% chance their target was Inanna.
The only question was whether they were here to kill her or to save her.
Inanna had a [Tracking Mark] on her. No matter how he thought about it, it must have been put there by her duke father.
So these people were most likely here to rescue her.
Actually, even if they weren't, Lin Jun didn't have any good options right now.
It wasn't that he wasn't willing to shelter the little follower he had picked up, but he currently only had 40 combat Puji and 100 logistics Puji.
And he had already looked at the four on the other side—lowest level LV52, highest LV58.
Each one of them was higher level than the earth worm, and their panels were full of high-level skills with good synergy.
With this lineup, even if he brought out his trump card, the strongest Puji, he would have absolutely no chance of winning.
As for escaping?
They had come straight here with precise positioning. Where could he even take her to escape?
Looking at the pink Puji that was still practicing magic in the garden in a silly way, Lin Jun felt he should probably give her a heads-up.
"Inanna."
"What is it, boss?"
"Your family sent people to pick you up, probably…"
"My family? Probably?"
"Or maybe they're here to kill you…"