Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3117: Chapter 3118: Corpsemor Men

"Lord Glaipnir, do we need to retreat now?"

As Angel was speaking with Glaipnir, an elder in a robe stepped forward, asking with a pained expression.

Glaipnir recognized the elder as one of the more esteemed representatives among the new residents.

Glaipnir pondered for a moment and replied, "If the mycelium continues to spread, it could be dangerous here, so..."

However, before she could finish, Angel interjected, "The mycelium has already stopped spreading."

Through God’s View, Angel observed that when the mycelium spread to the fifteenth floor, it seemed to have exhausted its energy. It only spread halfway across the fifteenth floor and then completely halted.

"Though the mycelium has stopped, as a precaution, you should still follow the previous plan and retreat beyond the alert zone," Angel said to the elder of the new residents. "Also, when you retreat, do not take anything from Silver Coral Island."

The elder nodded, and then, under Angel’s guidance, moved aside to lead the new residents beyond the alert zone.

After the new residents left, Glaipnir turned to Angel, "You instructed them not to take things from Silver Coral Island because you’re worried about another instance descending?"

Angel nodded, "Do you remember the Rainbow Sprite’s condition for appearing?"

Glaipnir: "Gathering point and rainbow."

Angel: "Exactly, following this logic, these instances likely all have corresponding trigger conditions. This time, the instance’s condition for appearing might very well be... mushrooms."

Everything was fine when there were no mushrooms outside.

But once someone brought mushrooms out from Silver Coral Island, the instance immediately descended.

Clearly, the condition for this instance’s appearance is definitely related to mushrooms.

If mushrooms could trigger an instance’s appearance, what about other items? The new residents have brought out quite a few things from Silver Coral Island. If these also trigger the conditions for another instance’s appearance, wouldn’t another instance descend?

While Angel thought that the descent of instances might not necessarily be a bad thing, if the instance’s mechanism was too troublesome—like one with even more problematic summoning rules than the Circus—then it would be quite annoying.

"In that case, perhaps the new resources should be isolated to some extent before use," Glaipnir murmured.

Angel: "Even with isolation, there may not be effective protection against the descent of instances. For example, resources like wood from Silver Coral Island might not trigger any instance when taken out. But if an instance’s condition is wooden crafts or wooden products, processing the wood might trigger an instance."

"So... it’s really unavoidable."

"However, you’re right; in the current situation of not knowing the instance conditions, having isolation is better than none. Moreover, after isolation, whether an instance is triggered or not, it’s best to have someone record everything for precautions."

Glaipnir understood Angel’s point and sighed, "This is all we can do for now."

"The conditions for various instances’ appearances are matters for future consideration; for now, let’s focus on assessing this current instance."

With those words, Angel prepared to use Authority to first enter Box Garden Perspective and assess what this suspected Mushroom Concubine-triggered instance was about.

But before he could enter Box Garden Perspective, he saw a figure appear out of thin air on the sixteenth floor.

"Laplace?"

Angel immediately recognized the figure as Laplace, who had recently entered the instance voluntarily. However, from the looks of it, there wasn’t much change in Laplace, except that she was holding a dagger emitting a faint blood-red glow in her hand.

As Laplace appeared on the sixteenth floor, the previously quieting mycelium suddenly became menacing again.

The nearby threads directly transformed and floated over.

Their purpose was clear: to touch Laplace. Once they managed to touch Laplace, they could send her back into the instance.

These mycelium threads could relay any new resident they encountered, but with Laplace, they experienced their first setback.

As the mycelium floated toward her, Laplace gently sliced with her dagger, severing the mycelium, which then transformed into light spots, merging into the void unseen.

Though she cut through the first wave of mycelium, there were still many more, not easily vanquished.

A massive wave of mycelium surged like bloodthirsty vines sniffing blood scent, transforming into a torrent of threads charging at Laplace.

While dodging, Laplace continued to clear the mycelium, each cut targeting the mycelium core precisely.

Some intimidating mycelium webs, Laplace only needed to find the initial connection point, make a slice, and the web would dissolve into glowing points.

In a matter of seconds, she managed to clear half of the sixteenth floor completely.

This showcased Laplace’s keen observation and execution power.

Though Laplace cleared over half the mycelium on the sixteenth floor, she didn’t intend to head upwards but instead cleared the remaining mycelium on the fifteenth floor before descending.

Angel originally planned to check the internal situation of the instance, but with Laplace’s return, there was no longer a need.

Once Laplace provided details, it would suffice.

Not long after, Laplace appeared at the entrance of the Rabbit Mansion.

Upon seeing Angel and Glaipnir at the door, she wasn’t surprised and merely nodded at them before approaching.

"Inside is an instance, probably a... combat-type instance? There aren’t challenges like in Little Treasure Tower. Instead, as soon as you enter, the instance process begins," Laplace clearly understood their concern and wasted no time explaining the situation she encountered inside the instance.

Upon touching the mycelium, she immediately entered the instance.

After entering, she found herself within the cellar of a small house. According to the fairyland prompt, this cellar was a "safe house," providing temporary safety, but offered only two hours of absolute safety daily. Exceeding two hours, the safe house’s aura would vanish.

This fairyland hint flashed briefly, offering no further information; there was no mention of the instance’s name, type, or objectives.

At that moment, Laplace was the only person in the cellar, with no signs of others or signs of the cellar door ever being opened.

It was clear that people entering this fairyland instance were likely transported randomly to different locations.

With no other people around or clues in the cellar, she decisively left the so-called "safe house."

Outside, she encountered numerous uniquely styled buildings that stretched endlessly, even when viewed from a high point.

She could ascertain that she was likely in some super large city.

However, the city had no living souls, appearing like a decaying city. Though the buildings seemed relatively new, the streets were stained with blood, and some buildings were overgrown with strange fungi.

Giant glow mushroom umbrellas reaching dozens of meters high, jellyfish-like floating mushrooms in the sky, and Dust mushrooms transforming into specks of embers were seen throughout the city.

Beyond this, Laplace also encountered many Chumei people.

However, these corpse grinders are likewise not living people, having turned into a certain bloodthirsty "corpse grinder."

They wander around the city in groups, densely packed, like the moss of the city, which is truly unsettling. They possess strong offensiveness and, upon seeing Laplace, frantically attack her.

These corpse grinders have strong explosive power, astonishing speed, and extremely terrifying climbing ability. If an ordinary person encounters them, they would likely be killed upon sight.

However, Laplace is not an ordinary person.

Although she did not bring a strong physique from reality, she perfectly inherited her combat will and combat skills. Furthermore, the dreamland rewards she obtained after passing the "Helen’s Dream" fairyland instance fully increased her physique, making her face these corpse grinders without any pressure.

After killing the corpse grinders, Laplace received a fairyland prompt again.

"The special dream ’World Grinding Day’ has been activated. This special dream is points-based. Points can be obtained by killing corpse grinders and completing side missions."

"Current points: 7."

"Target points: 100 points, reaching 100 points will unlock the ’pointer’ function."

Upon seeing the name of the "World Grinding Day" instance, Laplace immediately understood; her guess was correct. This fairyland instance is definitely related to her transient Mushroom Concubine.

However, she did not know where the Mushroom Concubine was at the moment. But that wasn’t important for now; at least through the fairyland prompt, she knew the goal of this instance.

Next, Laplace began a cleanse of the corpse grinders.

The points for each corpse grinder were not fixed. They seemed to depend on the strength of the corpse grinders, ranging from 1 point to 20 points. Laplace had seen them all.

Among them, the 20-point corpse grinder, upon death, condensed into a weapon shining with a bloody glow—this was the dagger in Laplace’s hand.

"Fairyland Tool: Blurrar Dismantling Knife"

"A sharp blade, from the Blurrar clan."

"Can be stored in a separate fairyland space."

This dagger did not have any special abilities, but according to the introduction, it came from the Blurrar clan, which happened to be hostile to the hill grinder clan.

Perhaps because of this reason, the dagger seemed even more effective against mutated corpse grinders derived from hill grinders.

With the Blurrar Dismantling Knife, Laplace felt like a fish in water on World Grinding Day, slaughtering a large number of corpse grinders in just a few minutes.

Her points quickly exceeded one hundred.

At this point, the fairyland prompt appeared again.

"Current points: 118."

"’Pointer’ function unlocked."

"Target points: 1000 points, reaching 1000 points will unlock a ’reward segment.’

What this ’reward segment’ is was not described, but Laplace speculated it might be similar to the cumulative rewards of the Little Treasure Tower? The higher the cumulative segments, the more rewards?

As for the already unlocked ’pointer’ function, it was much simpler.

It wasn’t a fairyland tool but a virtual pointer that can be summoned as long as one is in the World Grinding Day instance. Currently, the pointer can point to two places: first, to the nearest safe house; second, to the nearest exit.

Laplace initially thought if this pointer could point to other new residents who fell into the instance, she wouldn’t mind going to rescue them.

But the pointer currently did not have a person-pointing function.

And Laplace wasn’t concerned about the so-called safe house, so after obtaining the pointer, she directly proceeded to the indicated "exit" location.

This location happened to not be far, and Laplace just walked out. The subsequent events were what Angel and they saw.

After listening to Laplace’s narration, what Glaipnir thought, Angel wasn’t sure; but he felt quite peculiar at the moment.

This World Grinding Day fairyland instance... why does it resemble some novel plots from the holographic tablet?

Moreover, the setup of fighting monsters to drop treasures, this feeling of déjà vu is too strong.

Could the creation of the Wonderland of Dreams instances reference his thoughts?

"Did you think of something?" Laplace seemed to notice Angel’s strange expression and asked, puzzled.

Angel shook his head, "No, I was just wondering, those corpse grinders, might they be infected by a virus with strong contagiousness? Just by being injured by them, could one be infected?"

Laplace, Glaipnir: "???"

Laplace: "Why do you think so?"

It’s because that’s how novels are written.

Although Angel thought so, he certainly couldn’t say it. He coughed, speaking earnestly, "Previously, Glaipnir mentioned that the original hill grinders were very mild-tempered, but later seemed to have been affected by some virus and began to become aggressive. But this aggressiveness seems to manifest in living beings... But the ones you encountered in the instance were already dead and were called corpse grinders by the fairyland prompt."

"How could a corpse attack people?"

"So I was thinking, could it be influenced by a virus? Moreover, such a large number of corpse grinders, could it be due to strong virus contagiousness?"

"As for the infection I mentioned... it’s just a guess."

Angel’s explanation made sense as well. Laplace thought for a moment and said, "Whether being injured will cause infection, I don’t know either. I wasn’t injured."

Angel: "...I can see that."

Laplace’s entire body was almost impeccably tidy; one can imagine that even in the corpse grinder-permeated World Grinding Day, she probably navigated as if she were idly strolling through a courtyard, watching things as if from horseback.

Glaipnir: "More than the corpse grinder issue, I am currently more concerned about what the internal situation of this instance is about? And what about those new residents who fell into it, what’s their current situation?"

Among the new residents who fell into the instance, there were some people Glaipnir was familiar with, so she was very concerned about their safety.

Though Laplace could handle the corpse grinders, the new residents might not necessarily be able to.

Angel thought for a moment and said, "Perhaps we can get some answers to all our questions from the Mushroom Concubine?"

"Mushroom Concubine? You know where she is?" Laplace was taken aback; she had intended to search for the Mushroom Concubine in the World Grinding Day instance, but had no clues, so she gave up.

Angel nodded, "She’s currently on the eighteenth floor."