Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

Chapter 694: Chapter 683: Gray’s New Mission

Tap——Tap——Tap——

The sound of footsteps echoed in the corridor outside the prison door. Gray, sitting on the stone stool, put down the book in his hand and directed his attention to the door.

Back then, because the intelligence he brought back from the Northern Territory was erroneous, it led to the Demon Race losing two extraordinarily potential tribesmen consecutively.

Although the blame couldn’t entirely be placed on Gray, he certainly couldn’t escape responsibility.

Upon returning, Gray was thrown into a prison cell by the patriarch Dean, sentenced to ten years.

For a Demon Race with a lifespan of three hundred years, it wasn’t considered a severe punishment.

Considering that the Blood Race Prince Visarius lost his beloved daughter and was boiling with rage, he might keep an eye on the returning Gray, and Gray himself wasn’t sure how much of a protective aspect there was in this imprisonment.

At least, his prison conditions were not bad.

He wasn’t shackled with sturdy, heavy locks, nor was he starving or freezing.

The prison guards occasionally even brought him a couple of books for distraction.

Gray was prepared to stay obediently for ten years, but an unexpected turn occurred.

"Gray, you have been pardoned." the messenger outside the prison door said.

"Why?" Gray asked in confusion.

The responsible Demon Race for delivering the message didn’t rush and explained the current situation outside to Gray briefly.

The rise of the Northern Territory, Eugene’s last words, the soldiers who retreated...

"Those folks at Fungus Castle are likely monitoring all outsiders through the Fungal Mat, with several Lord Level experts!"

"Now it seems you survived and managed to escape twice, it’s already quite fortunate. The intelligence issue wasn’t your fault."

"But don’t blame the patriarch. Back then, no one knew about this situation. The patriarch locked you up following the rules, and upon realizing the mistake, sent me to bring you out immediately, isn’t that so?"

Gray nodded blankly: "I’m not discontent, it’s just what you said..."

He couldn’t understand how over the span of more than a year, the Demon Tribe, which initially had a back-and-forth conflict with the two Northern Territory tribes, suddenly evolved to a state even a Duke couldn’t escape from?

Were they pretending to be weak back then?

After all, forces can suddenly expand, but top experts take time to grow.

Several Lord Level forces couldn’t possibly have been cultivated within less than two years.

Moreover, Fungal Mat... surveillance...?

Remembering his ignorant self back then, the memory of entering the Fungal Mat sent a chill down Gray’s spine.

As they walked, the messenger said, "Anyway, manpower is lacking right now. Although you’ve just been released, you must quickly start working, change into your outfit, I’ll take you to meet your action partner."

...

The partner arranged for Gray was called Ke, a rare spiritual series spellcaster among the new generation of the Demon Race.

Level 41, just crossed the Gold Level threshold, his strength wasn’t considered outstanding, but his ability was rare. Such spellcasters have always been scarce, even if their level is low, they are enough to be respected.

And the task for both of them was to pinpoint those problematic parasitic individuals in Cold Bay Castle, a northern frontline city.

The location of this city was not ideal, it didn’t have very strong defenses, yet it was one of the closest cities to the Northern Territory, enduring the erosion of the Fungal Mat every day.

Cleaning the continually spreading mycelium became the daily duty of the city laborers and even the soldiers.

When Gray and Ke arrived outside the city, it was the busiest time of the day.

Outside the city gates, a dense crowd spread across the wasteland, stretching as far as the eye could see.

Some wielded hoes, digging the ground, others poured pungent liquids onto the mycelium, and others held torches, burning everywhere.

But honestly, the effect was limited.

The once effective flames suddenly lost their use, relying solely on manpower to resist the Fungal Mat.

Sprinkle with the wilting powder, the surface layer indeed died off, but before long, the fresh mycelium underneath reemerged.

More troublesome was underground, where earth mages occasionally dug out a few digging Puki from beneath, those round things struggled fiercely when dragged out.

Mobilizing such a large workforce barely maintained the area inside the city walls. The gray-white Fungal Mat outside had long spread over mountains and valleys, stretching beyond sight.

From the sky, Cold Bay Castle resembled an island surrounded by gray-white tides.

The nobles responsible for city defense saw it but were helpless.

Were it not for his duty, he would have given up on this city.

Just look at the situation now, all manpower is combating the Fungal Mat, the enemy doesn’t even need to besiege, they just need to send a few small units to disrupt the workers, delaying the mycelium clearing progress, before long, the city will be filled with mycelium internally as well.

Furthermore, among those parasitic individuals, traitors have begun to appear.

The "problematic parasitic individuals" Gray and the others were looking for referred to those who, for some reason, attempted to bring Puki inside the city to spread spores.

...

Upon entering the city, Gray quickly sensed something amiss about the atmosphere.

As a city that was not too important and likely wouldn’t hold up long under attack from Fungus Castle, many parasitic soldiers were naturally assigned here for defense.

They probably accounted for a third of the city’s total force.

Gray noticed that within the city, parasitic individuals and normal soldiers were distinctly separated, rarely interacting.

The ordinary soldiers looked at the parasitic ones with eyes full of vigilance, even disgust at times.

While the parasitic individuals’ returning gazes carried resentment and anger.

"This won’t do..." Gray stood in the middle of the street, surveying and concluded, "If this situation continues, before the enemy arrives, chaos might erupt within the city."

"We are here to prevent this from happening, Gray senior. As long as we pull out those traitors among the parasitic individuals, things will improve."

They finally arrived at a corner of the city where a spore diffusion incident had just happened.

Gray saw the corner of the wall had been burned once, leaving some charred mycelium.

Clearly, before they arrived, the city soldiers had already controlled the situation.

They had even called over nearby laborers for questioning, attempting to find the spore spread culprit, but evidently, they hadn’t gained anything.

"Let me question them!" Ke swaggered over.

"Who are you...?" A captain-like Blood Race member frowned at them.

Failing to find the perpetrator was troubling enough, now unexpectedly ran into these flamboyant fellows, he couldn’t possibly show a pleasant face.

However, after Gray and the team presented the investigation order signed by Dean, he had no choice but to let them join in.

Without delay, Ke approached the first laborer, placing his hand on the worker’s shoulder, and asked: "Do you know who planted these mushrooms?"

That Lizardman laborer shook his head rapidly: "I really don’t know, though I live nearby, I haven’t walked this way recently!"

Ke nodded, then placed his hand on the second person, continuing such inquiries.

Watching this, the squad leader couldn’t help but sneer, saying disdainfully: "What can this even glean? Stopping at the right point is necessary for joking around, we don’t have that much time..."

The hand already on the third person, Ke suddenly said: "You’re lying!"

"I...I didn’t..."

The parasitic person with mycelium on his face showed panic in his eyes, then suddenly reached out for Ke.

However, before he could touch Ke, Gray already dashed up, grabbed his neck with one hand, and pinned him against the wall.

Soon afterward, Gray’s arm burst into flames, enveloping the guy still trying to resist, burning him half to death.

"You’re really dependable, Gray senior!"

After tossing away the inert, defeated fellow, Gray turned to Ke: "You’re not very combat-capable. Next time you spot a problematic individual, remember to signal me with your eyes beforehand."

Then he looked doubtfully at the speechless squad leader beside him: "Question him, we might extract some information."

"Ah... Oh, oh..."

...

Not long after, the interrogation result was out.

The incident wasn’t perpetrated by this parasitic individual, but he knew some inside information.

From his mouth, Gray and the team learned that within the city, indeed a group of parasitic individuals disgruntled with the current situation had gathered, conspiring something.

And they typically gathered at a place known as the alley of waste within the city.