Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3118: Chapter 3119: Mushroom Concubine

Although they all wanted to get answers from the Mushroom Concubine, when they finished clearing the surrounding mycelium and truly saw the Mushroom Concubine on the eighteenth floor, they discovered the problem was even more serious than they thought.

The Mushroom Concubine... had lost her rationality.

The entire person was enveloped by a giant mushroom, with only a face emerging on the cap.

They could clearly hear the woman’s face, her mouth opening and closing, repeatedly saying "World Grinding Day is coming"; other than that, she showed no signs of rationality.

Her eyes, like corpses, were filled with black-veined whites interlaced with blood-red pupils.

Seeing them enter the room, she only manipulated the mycelium to attack them without any intelligent reaction.

"Although the Mushroom Concubine’s personality may be problematic, her wisdom was unaffected. Her condition is unusual; it feels like she has been sealed by this mushroom." Glaipnir remarked.

The Mushroom Concubine is a "Hill Grinder", emphasizing "human" over "hill grinder."

This current Mushroom Concubine was entirely different from the Temporal Body she remembered. The Mushroom Concubine’s Temporal Body was a tall humanoid female, but the current one simply displayed a human face on a mushroom.

Thus, in Glaipnir’s view, could the Mushroom Concubine’s loss of rationality be related to being sealed by the mushroom?

To this, neither Angel nor Laplace could provide an answer. However, Laplace being a man of action, regardless of whether the Mushroom Concubine’s spirit intelligence was sealed by the large mushroom, directly swung a dagger toward the mushroom.

However, unlike the mycelium that dissipated with a single sweep, Laplace’s dagger was stopped by an invisible light barrier before it could even penetrate the mushroom.

When the light barrier appeared, a grand aura instantly enveloped the cramped room.

In the next second, Angel and the others felt a sense of weightlessness, as if the surrounding space was becoming fragile, vividly colorful like an unfolding illusion.

When the fragile space reestablished order, they had already disappeared from the eighteenth-floor room, ending up in a glass-walled greenhouse.

...

Angel looked around at his surroundings; he first observed the environment around him.

In the greenhouse, there were several rows of ten-meter-long shelves, divided into three layers. Each layer contained many flowerpots, clearly visible with potting soil, but most of the plants inside were withered.

Outside the glass greenhouse, thick climbing vines obscured the view. Through the gaps in the vines, Angel could roughly gauge the greenhouse’s location; it should be on the rooftop of a building. He could see uneven buildings nearby and floating jellyfish mushrooms.

Seeing this environment, Angel was almost certain that he was in the "World Grinding Day" instance.

With the "Safety House" fairyland prompt, it further confirmed Angel’s guess.

This indeed was the World Grinding Day, and the greenhouse he was in was the safety house Laplace mentioned earlier, featuring two hours of absolute safety daily.

After observing the environment, Angel turned his attention to the "people" around him.

Yes, people.

Both Laplace and Glaipnir were also in this greenhouse at the moment.

After an awkward silence, Glaipnir was the first to break it: "It seems we’ve discovered a new rule of the World Grinding Day Dungeon. When we’re pulled into the instance at the same time, we’re not transported randomly but to the same safety house."

Glaipnir’s words carried a hint of self-mockery, but they did relieve the awkwardness of "everyone falling into the pit unwittingly."

Laplace: "...Perhaps I shouldn’t have acted so impulsively just now."

Angel shook his head, "It’s not your fault; it was just an attempt. Moreover, your attempt wasn’t completely without value."

Laplace looked at Angel with puzzlement, wondering what value it could have.

Angel: "When the light wall emerged around the Mushroom Concubine, I sensed the authority vein of the Wonderland of Dreams."

Laplace: "Authority vein? What does that mean?"

"It means the Mushroom Concubine is under protection by authority." Angel explained, "It’s normal for NPCs to be protected by authority, but the Mushroom Concubine’s situation is very unusual. She fused with a mushroom, and your attack on the mushroom triggered authority protection."

This only means that the mushroom is most likely the Mushroom Concubine.

Generally, NPCs should possess rationality, so her becoming like this may have hidden reasons. The answer might lie within this instance.

Laplace frowned, "You mean we should find out the true meaning behind the Mushroom Concubine’s mutation here?"

Angel shook his head, "No, I mean the safety house provides two hours of absolute safe time. Other new residents who fall into this instance are likely staying put if they haven’t left the safety house, waiting for rescue. Perhaps we should find them and get them out first."

Laplace: "???" How did the train of thought jump to here?

Angel: "As for finding the truth behind the Mushroom Concubine’s mutation... it’s likely a main quest or hidden task in this instance? But it’s not important to us right now."

Simply speaking, Angel is only responsible for... irresponsibly analyzing; whether it’s the truth or not, will be known once someone uncovers the mystery later.

Angel: "Is your pointer function still working?"

Laplace sensed and nodded, "Yes, there’s an exit two kilometers away. According to the pointer, this exit will close in ten hours."

"However, currently the pointer can only show the exit position. It doesn’t display the safety house location." Laplace: "Maybe it’s because we’re currently in the safety house?"

Angel: "The safety house’s location isn’t important; our goal now is to rescue people and then lead them out."

Angel’s original plan was to strategize from the outside, using God’s View to lock onto the new residents trapped here, then have others bring them out.

But now that he was also inside the instance... since he was already here, he might as well rescue them along the way.

Neither Glaipnir nor Laplace objected to Angel’s rescue proposal. Among the new residents trapped in the World Grinding Day today, many were familiar faces to Glaipnir, like Jeanne, who all belonged to the Charles Palace.

They were inherently without combat power, and in this perilous world, failure to rescue them quickly could lead to their demise.

Angel: "I’ll try to pin down their location first."

After speaking, Angel closed his eyes and merged his mind into the Authority of Wonderland of Dreams. Instantly, his perspective elevated to the Observer’s view of the Miniature Garden.

With this observation, Angel discovered some differences compared to other instances.

Previously, Laplace said that the cities here are enormous, and at that time, Angel didn’t quite understand. But now, he does.

Not only is the city large, but the entire map of the "World Grinding Day Dungeon" is vast, far beyond his imagination. It includes not only three mutually watchful cities but also expansive forest areas, wilderness areas, and mountainous areas.

Moreover, the map doesn’t seem fully expanded yet, because at the edge of the Miniature Garden, Angel saw some half-blurred shadows that are not monsters, but rather some concretization of the Wonderland Authority, like "code writers," continuously extending the boundary area.

It seems the instance also implies "expansion."

Setting aside whether the map will genuinely expand in the future, for now, the instance’s area is approximately as large as a province of the Goldfinch Empire.

For Angel now, a provincial area is certainly not large. But when he was still mortal, traveling from Gru Town to Viche Harbour purely by carriage took half a month, and both Gru Town and Viche Harbour were within Yamei Province, indicating that Yamei Province is actually not small, especially for mortals.

And this instance being comparable to a province in area is quite terrifying.

Although the Silver Coral Island instance, if considering sea area, should be larger than the World Grinding Day instance, for non-marine creatures, land area psychologically occupied is what matters; the sea area is just a number.

The most important thing is that the three cities within the World Grinding Day instance are all super large, each exceeding a thousand square kilometers.

If this instance didn’t have zombies, accommodating tens of millions in each city wouldn’t be a problem.

But even with zombies, bases can actually be built within the cities... Angel remembers some post-apocalyptic novels in the holographic tablet that have plots of base construction. If these three cities can open bases, the number of new residents they could accommodate in the future might exceed imagination.

Of course, accommodation aside, the actual number of residents is another matter. Even if bases are established, the number of people choosing to live here in the future might not be many.

After all, there are simply too many zombies here.

These three super-large cities were originally cities of massive inhabitants. If each city’s massive inhabitants numbered ten million, with thirty percent of the population becoming zombies, the total number of zombies across these cities would exceed ten million.

Furthermore, there’s more than just zombies here; Angel, with a mere glance, spotted many peculiar fungal creatures.

Including those enormous glowing mushrooms, floating jellyfish mushrooms, Dust mushrooms... and the Mother Nest mushroom Laplace mentioned.

The Mother Nest mushroom continually condenses various alien creatures, including zombies.

If the Mother Nest mushroom persistently produces, the monster count within the instance will be inexhaustible...

Laplace said this is a "combat instance," but perhaps that’s not accurate. For the majority of new residents, this should be considered... a survival instance.

However, having many monsters has its advantages.

This instance’s monsters have a unique "drop on defeat" setting, meaning that the World Grinding Day instance will be a major source of Enchanted Land Tools.

Besides marveling at the vastness of this instance himself, Angel also displayed the basic information of the instance to Laplace and Glaipnir through the sand table illusionary realm.

Seeing such a vast instance, the terrifying number of zombies, and those fantastically peculiar fungal monsters, they fell silent.

Never mind the new residents; even with their current strength, they absolutely cannot conquer this instance... Unless, real-world force can be brought in.

While everyone was commenting on this instance, Angel began pinpointing the new residents who fell into the instance.

Like before, relying solely on the naked eye to pinpoint new residents is close to impossible. The area of this instance is too large; the naked eye can’t possibly lock it down.

However, Angel can perceive through Authority, and by setting outsiders’ aura as the search target, finding them becomes easy.

Soon, Angel pinpointed the locations of the new residents who fell into the instance.

In total, there are 75 people, with 70 in the current city they’re in. Many were "swallowed" together, so many are in the same safe house; the nearest safety house, even less than a kilometer away, gathered six people.

But even so, finding all of them is still difficult because this city is too large.

Moreover, there are 5 unfortunate ones who fell into the other two cities, making rescue efforts significantly more difficult.

Angel marked everyone’s locations in the sand table illusionary realm and then opened his eyes to look at the two: "The distribution is too scattered; should we split up to search?"

First, search in batches by zone, after finding them, send them out. Then re-enter through random instance teleportation; with good luck, from the Southern to Northern city, even a second teleportation is possible, accelerating the process significantly.

Also, because there are 5 people in the other two cities, relying solely on travel to reach the other cities is nearly impossible; it’s too far.

Only through random teleportation is there a chance to send them to the other two cities.

So, splitting up to search is definitely the current optimal solution.

Laplace and Glaipnir had no objections, as long as they don’t touch those noticeably abnormal mushrooms, simply eliminating zombies is quite straightforward.

Furthermore, Glaipnir possesses "Bella’s Long Whip," Laplace has "Blue Palu Decomposition Knife;" they needn’t worry overly about combat.

However, even so, Angel specially reminded them to avoid getting hurt in this instance as much as possible.

Whether zombies here possess the infectious nature akin to post-apocalyptic zombies in novels on the holographic tablet is still uncertain. If infection does exist, and they accidentally get infected, whether some abnormal situation would arise remains unclear.

To be safe, caution is advised.

As for Angel himself, he can control the Heavenly Phenomenon Replacement Power, use various illusion techniques, making him safer against zombies than the other two, so there’s no issue regarding safety.

And rather than seeking people, Angel’s more important role is "interconnection." Through God’s View, he connects Laplace and Glaipnir, enabling them to promptly confirm the new residents around.

After assigning tasks, everyone selected a direction and dispersed.