Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

Chapter 798: Chapter 784: Puki’s Mistake

Mist Castle in Vera Territory, on the eve of the mist coming ashore.

A few adventurers herded over fifty Fat Otaku Puki, stopping outside the manor gates. The manor’s servants were directing the small Puki to move boxes of packed luggage from inside, stuffing them into the round bellies of the Fat Otaku Puki.

Afterward, these Puki would help the manor owner transport his belongings to Oath City.

Compared to the delicate carriages that are afraid of bumps, potholes, or damage, and are highly reliant on roads, the Fat Otaku Puki, which are easy to control, can adapt to most terrains, and have almost no travel costs, have become the kingdom’s main transport force.

It even far surpasses the latter in terms of carrying capacity; any Puki Master can easily handle over ten Fat Otaku Puki, unlike carriages that require one person and two horses to transport a single cart.

As for why the manor owner hired a team of Fat Otaku Puki to move, it was because of a recently widespread rumor—the mist is about to strike.

Mist Castle is adjacent to the westernmost endpoint of the new defense line, Lar Fortress. If the United Kingdom fails to keep the mist beyond the new defense line, this Viscount’s territory will undoubtedly be engulfed by the mist, and staying here spells doom.

The rumor has been spreading for half a month, and people are fearful of what was previously just a mythical disaster. Many have chosen to flee with their families to the east.

Wealthy individuals, like this manor owner, hire Fat Otaku Puki teams to flee eastward; poor families, who have little to hold, take their family and Puki and hit the road.

In the past, people leaving their hometown and traveling far was gambling with their lives.

Starvation, disease, and banditry attacks were common occurrences.

Now it’s different; mushrooms are everywhere, hunger is no longer a threat.

As for bandits, ever since nobody went hungry, their numbers have sharply declined.

Another important reason for the decrease in bandits is that civilians now have the power to resist them.

The world today no longer belongs to the era where two or three silver level experts could control dozens or hundreds of civilians.

Dozens of civilians traveling together, with thousands of Puki trailing behind.

They might not have the guts to raise a blade against bandits, but they do have the courage to command Puki to charge, to release poison, or to self-destruct.

A thousand Puki, even if they’re all cannon fodder, aren’t something a small band of bandits can deal with.

Numbers equal power; this is the new logic Puki has brought to this world, and fools who don’t understand this have long perished under Puki’s grip.

However, the ease of population mobility is not good news for the nobility.

Land without inhabitants has no value.

Some small nobles close to the west have already taken harsh measures to restrict civilians from fleeing, though the actual effect isn’t much, but they’ve managed to retain some timid inhabitants.

The butler of Mist Castle also mentioned this to Vera, but the latter firmly rejected it.

"Without the inhabitants, what will become of your Mist Castle in the future?" the butler asked grimly, feeling even more distressed than Vera.

Vera patted him on the shoulder: "People must live to have a future. Cole, thank you for handling the territory affairs this past year. You should also seek refuge."

With the situation as it is, the butler could only nod helplessly, but he immediately asked, "Then Viscount, what about you?"

Vera tied the curved saber to his waist, smiling at him: "Of course, I’m going to Lar Fortress to contribute to protecting my territory!"

...

Vera ultimately decided not to bring any subordinates, choosing to go to Lar Fortress to help, like a true adventurer.

Fei Ling and Fei Yin naturally followed behind him, and the three were surprised when Sirean unexpectedly refused to go with them this time.

"I apologize, due to some reasons, I may not be able to go with you to contend with the mist." Sirean, holding No. 5, looked apologetic.

"Could it be that he’s scared because of the last experience?" Fei Ling whispered a guess in Vera’s ear.

"Fei Ling, shut up." Vera’s unusually stern tone silenced Fei Ling, "Sirean doesn’t owe us anything, and his choice can’t be wrong. Besides, I’m sure he has his own reasons for doing this."

Vera bid Sirean a heartfelt farewell and glanced at the Puki in his arms: "This is better too, I wouldn’t be at ease leaving No. 5 with anyone else."

"No no no, I want to go with Vera..." No. 5 wriggled its mushroom body, extracting a tentacle clutching the Telepathy Stone from Sirean’s grip, trying to touch Vera’s hand, but was discreetly pulled back by the elf.

Watching the trio’s backs disappear into the distance, Sirean, stroking the trembling No. 5, sighed.

It’s not that he didn’t want to go, but his presence would actually pose a danger to Vera and the others when facing the mist.

Those past memories held too many uncertain dangers.

The same went for the Puki in his arms.

"I hope humans realize this soon enough."

...

Similar to Fungus Castle, the humans also assembled many elite teams, distributed in the direction of the mist.

This was initially the experience summarized from the Archipelago’s dealing with the mist; Fungus Castle was just imitating.

The difference was that Fungus Castle’s elite teams had knight-level Puki generated with vast magic power by Lin Jun, while on the human side, although they brought Puki, there was no comparison in quality and they could only assist in combat.

Vera’s arrival somewhat startled the commander of Lar Fortress—he was the only noble who willingly came without any summons.

Naturally, he couldn’t send Vera to the most dangerous line of interception and could only place him within the city.

Although Vera was indeed no weakling, the commander of Lar Fortress didn’t think the situation had reached the point where a noble like him was needed on the frontline.

It wasn’t that he underestimated the mist; on the contrary, the United Kingdom had given ample attention to this mist.

The members of the team were experts summoned from various parts of the kingdom, with many having experience in combating the mist in the Archipelago.

According to past experiences, blocking the mist until it recedes was more than sufficient.

However, they did not anticipate that the Puki, originally meant to assist in battle, would significantly expand the difficulty range of the mist.

When the mist surged, some elite teams immediately fell into scenarios, never heard of before, not part of anyone’s memory.

Some faced moderate difficulty, resolving a few villains of less than gold strength in an unfamiliar town and it ended; others found themselves in an unprecedented super battlefield, where these elites were like pebbles in the ocean, disappearing entire teams in the illusion of the mist without a ripple.

The unknown situation caused chaos, and it took people quite some time to realize the culprit was actually Puki!

This wasn’t Lin Jun sabotaging them, as even Lin Jun himself didn’t know Puki would cause such a situation before this.

Various teams discarded their Puki promptly, but it was already somewhat late.

Despite having set up three lines of interception, the unexpected circumstances still resulted in gaps in the defense line.

The mist, unhindered, enveloped Lar Fortress.

And at this moment, Lar Fortress couldn’t transfer away the large number of Puki inside in time, and the entire fortress fell into an unknown illusion realm...

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