This highland deep in the lightless forest is higher than the terraces everywhere, and is surrounded by a circle of towering Zeke wood mushroom stalks, forming a natural fence.

In the quiet atmosphere, there were only vague murmurs coming from the high ground from time to time.

Brian and Hesiah moved toward the high ground with cautious steps.

When they were about to reach the entrance of the highland fence, a strange breeze blew by, and a horrible stench hit their faces.

Hesiah frowned and covered his mouth and nose. Even Brian had to work hard to steady his breathing to prevent himself from suffocating.

He clearly felt that the stench was mixed with a disgusting strong mushroom aroma, which was the smell of rotting fungi.

"Is there any problem?" Brian cast a concerned look at the sword mage beside him.

To be honest, he was really worried that this girl wouldn't be able to stand this kind of atmosphere, so she wouldn't even have the courage to go in.

Because the high ground ahead is the newly established association of the myconids - the Masters Association.

The members of the association are all myconids inspired by the fungus queen Zugmoy.

These myconids greedily share the pleasant images of Philo, the myconid king, through the spores of Zugmoy.

And they searched the Underdark for the corpses of various races and monsters to conduct experiments on activated spores, so that their territory looked like a fungus garden full of filth.

With her strong willpower, Hesiah resisted vomiting out everything in her stomach. She turned to Brian, her face pale but full of determination, "It's okay, I can still hold on, let's go..."

."

Just then.

A terrifying, mucus-like roar, together with the stench of dead fungi, came from the high ground toward which they were heading.

Then, something rushed towards the two of them at an alarming speed.

Brian held his breath and concentrated on observing the oncoming monster, with his right hand always ready for deadly magic.

Hesiah's rune sword suddenly shone with bright rune light, and her silver-gray eyes stared at the two strange, round creatures, their bodies looming in front of Brian.

These two roaring monsters have three rotten thighs, and their eyes and noses are arranged on a vine-like fleshy handle, twisting and swinging from the top of their bloated and ulcerated bodies.

The monster's thick dark green liquid is constantly oozing from the many fungal pustules on their bodies.

As they ran and roared with phlegm, little drops of juice fell on the sparkling bacteria on the ground.

These were two fungal creatures similar to scavengers. Brian recognized the monsters in front of him.

Any creature of Large or smaller size can be resurrected by the Myconoid's animated spores and become a spore slave.

The biggest difference between them and undead creatures is that their whole bodies are covered with small mushrooms similar to mold. Both their smell and appearance are more terrifying and disgusting than undead creatures.

——"Freeze ray!"

Brian stretched out his finger from a distance, and an icy blue ray hit the scavenger spore slave rushing toward him.

The body of the spore that was hit froze up, and was instantly covered with a thin layer of frost at a speed visible to the naked eye, standing motionless among the bacteria like frozen carrion.

Seeing the 100 experience points gained, he was about to deal with another monster, but found that Hesiah had already rushed forward, and killed it easily with a precise and fast swing of the rune sword.

"Get out of the way!"

Seeing this, Brian realized the danger and quickly alerted the sword mage.

"Um?"

Hearing Brian's cry, Hesiah looked stunned and instinctively prepared to stay away from the body of the spore slave.

Unfortunately it's too late.

She was horrified to find that the monster she had killed suddenly burst open like a grape skin overflowing with juice, releasing a cloud of fragrant spores that enveloped her.

Immediately afterwards, the monster's deflated body quickly dissolved into the sparkling bacteria on the ground.

Smelling the fragrant scent, Hesiah suddenly felt that his vision became a little blurry, followed by dizziness, numbness of the limbs and weakness of the legs.

She shook her head suddenly and quickly retreated from the spore cloud. Only then did the feeling gradually subside and she slowly regained consciousness.

"Drink this."

Brian walked up to Hesiah and handed her a small gourd-shaped mushroom. "This is a magic potion prepared by the Myconid King. After drinking it, you can be immune to most myconid spores. Of course, it can also block fungi."

The effect of stench.”

Hesiah put away the rune sword and drank the potion in one gulp without any doubt.

The sweet, mushroom-flavored liquid entered her throat. She immediately felt that the stench in the air had really weakened a lot, and her whole body returned to a full mental state.

"If you have this potion, why didn't you take it out earlier?" She looked at Brian, frowned, and complained in a slightly dissatisfied tone.

She found that this guy was always self-centered in everything he did.

No matter what he did, he would never discuss it with her in advance. He would always wait until she took the initiative to ask a question before he would explain it, so that she didn't even know when the Mycoid King gave him the potion.

"If I don't let you experience the characteristics of the spore servants in advance, I'm afraid you won't be able to adapt after entering. After all, we are facing the demon lord of the bottomless abyss. If you are not careful, you will lose your life."

Brian explained to her with a smile, then patted the dimensional bag, took out a pair of gauntlets, and threw them to her:

"Remember, when dealing with the myconids and spore slaves here, try not to get close to them. Wear this. Maybe it can help you in the next action."

Hesaya, who was still secretly sulking, became a little more angry when she heard his playful explanation. But when she saw an item handed to her by the other party, her eyes lit up and she immediately accepted it.

past.

The moment she got it, just as she had guessed when she first saw it, the gauntlet Brian gave her was made of an unknown magic silk, with a layer of flexible... magic on the surface.

Metal.

I can't call her by a specific name, so I can only call her that for the time being.

She gently touched the surface of the gloves, and faintly felt a thin layer of static electricity seeping out from the magic runes, and wisps of tiny electric arcs that were thinner than hair.

This made her immediately realize how extraordinary this magical equipment was, and she even judged the quality of this magical equipment through the magic aura. Even compared with the most inferior legendary equipment, it was not much different.

Born into a noble family, Hesiah had seen many kinds of magic equipment in the mage tower in Arabey City.

But when she saw this magical equipment, she clearly felt that the quality of this equipment was definitely not inferior to any outstanding equipment she had ever seen.

"Is this for me?..." Hesiah looked at Brian and subconsciously expressed her true thoughts.

After saying that, she immediately regretted it.

It would be a bit embarrassing if the other party just lent her this magical equipment for her own use, so much so that she unconsciously felt guilty when she looked at Brian.

After all, in her eyes, although Brian always gave her a mysterious feeling, as if there was a layer of mist that was difficult to penetrate with eyes from beginning to end, but after getting along with her in the past few days, she clearly found that there seemed to be something a little bit more about him.

...greed of money.

Because when hunting monsters with him, at the end of every battle, Brian would plunder all parts of the monster's body, as long as they could use anything.

What surprised her even more was...

The two of them killed three purple insects together.

Brian not only peeled off the purple worm's huge body, but also broke its carapace into small pieces and collected them. He even didn't let go of the undigested things in the purple worm's stomach.

What shocked her even more was that Brian didn't even let go of the slimy ooze monsters.

If he hadn't found many gems in these disgusting ooze monsters, she would have even thought that they had some special hobbies.

What depresses Hesaya the most is that she followed Brian to explore the lost mire temple of the ooze monster, and also entered the preacher's mansion in another dimension.

All the trophies the other party collected had no intention of sharing any of them with him.

Well, although she doesn't care about these things, it always gives her the illusion that she is a free thug for the other party.

Now, seeing Brian suddenly so generously handing her such an extraordinary quality magical equipment, it really made her a little unbelievable, so much so that she blurted out such embarrassing words.

"If you think so, then let it be." Brian saw through the girl's little thoughts. He nodded indifferently, then changed the subject and said slightly seriously:

"If you like it, don't stand here in a daze. Put it on quickly and I'll teach you how to use it. We don't have much time."

The reason why he gave this magical equipment to the other party was firstly because he had no use for it, and secondly because they were facing the fungus queen Zugmoy next.

In this kind of battle that concerns his own safety, Brian naturally wants to strengthen himself or his teammates as much as possible.

As a sword mage who has reached the hero level, Xisaya's strength will definitely be greatly improved if he has the blessing of this magical equipment.

Of course, he also has a very hidden little thought.

He took a fancy to Hesayah's Purple Dragon Seal Ring and her special identity.

Befriending the sword mage in front of you will not only provide him with great help when he returns to the surface world, but also during the journey to the Underdark, this noble lady is also an obedient, hard-working and free guard who works part-time to gain experience.

thug.

All in all, it is very easy to use.

It was naturally impossible for Hesiah to know Brian's thoughts at this time.

When she heard that the other party actually gave it to her, she looked happy and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She quickly nodded to him with a smile and put it on her hand with a face full of joy, waiting for Brian to teach her how to use it.

There is no special activation password for this magical equipment.

Brian only explained to her the properties and usage of the equipment, so that she could maximize the effectiveness of the equipment.

"Let's go."

After explaining, he turned around to look at the fungus garden on the high ground and said hello to Hesiah.

Hesiah nodded and quickly followed his footsteps, looking at him with a strange look in his eyes.

During Brian's explanation, when she learned the true function of this piece of equipment, she immediately realized how fitting and important it was to herself as a sword mage.

It can be seen from this that the other party is quite considerate in sending the things.

And she can clearly feel that if this piece of equipment is brought back to the mage tower in Arabe City for further strengthening, it definitely has the potential to be upgraded to legendary quality equipment.

Thinking that Brian, who had always been so stingy, would suddenly give him such a precious item, Hesiah thought about it, walked to him quickly, and said, "Brian, do you still remember my Purple Dragon Seal Ring?"

Hearing that the noble lady suddenly mentioned the Purple Dragon Seal Ring to him, Brian's expression changed, he slowed down and said casually: "Of course I remember."

Can he not remember?

After all, the Purple Dragon Seal Ring was an item he could only dream of obtaining in the game world.

Of course, in today's world, he still wants it very much.

Because he has the Purple Dragon Seal Ring, he can carve out a territory for himself with the help of the Purple Dragon Knights and the War Mage Legion.

"Actually, the reason why I own this ring is mainly for Mokou Town, an important border town between the Kingdom of Cormyr and the Eno Oak Desert."

Hesiah put the ring he had just taken off back on the finger covered by the glove, "If we return to the surface, I can make an exception and let you join the War Mage Legion. After all..."

"Stop it!"

When Brian heard this, he immediately interrupted Hesiah's words, "I have never thought of joining the War Mage Legion, so I don't need your special promotion."

Hesiah's words made him want to laugh a little.

Because just now he was still thinking about asking the other party to become his personal guard, but it turned out that she had the same idea as him.

She actually wanted to win him over and become her subordinate on the pretext of taking back Mokou Town.

He also said that she was naive or overconfident.

Although he deeply regretted the demise of the Kingdom of Cormyr in his previous life and wanted to prevent the disaster from happening again after his rebirth, this did not mean that he would swear allegiance to this kingdom again.

After all, his goal is the universe of stars, how could his freedom be restricted by a small kingdom.

The relationship between the two is at best a cooperative relationship, perhaps a vassal relationship, and it is naturally impossible for him to lower his status.

"Why do you say that?"

Hesiah looked at Brian in surprise, who clearly didn't seem to be joking, "Have you forgotten your original intention and the Red Dragon Rebellion ten years ago?"

She originally thought that Brian, who was born in Mokou Town, would join her and help her fulfill her wish because of her determination to conquer the town.

In this case, she believed that with Brian's strength and potential, coupled with her own network of connections, his status would continue to rise in the Kingdom of Cormyr.

Who would have thought that the other party would be completely indifferent to this matter, as if he had already forgotten it.

While this confused her, it was also difficult for her to understand what Brian's true thoughts were.

Seeing the confused look on the girl's face in front of him, Brian knew that if he didn't explain the matter clearly today, this slightly stubborn noble lady would probably be affected in the next battle.

He looked around vigilantly and found that no spore servants appeared for the time being. Then he stopped with relief and looked at Hesiah seriously, admiring her appearance.

This aristocratic lady wore knee-high boots, her slender legs were wrapped in tight old leather breeches, a wide belt tied her coat around her slender waist, and the hem of her dress spread freely around her thighs, like a flowing skirt.

Although her beautiful face looked a little haggard and sickly pale due to her unfortunate encounters and past travels in the Underdark, the pair of shining silver-gray eyes under her curved eyebrows were strangely...

It conveys strong strength and sharp wisdom.

For Brian, what is more eye-catching is Hesiah's long reddish-brown hair, which sticks to her white face like silk and hangs down to her chest.

This forced him to admit that such otherworldly beauty was indeed very exciting.

"I have never forgotten my original intention." Brian retracted his gaze and said in a slightly solemn tone, "I have been working hard in that direction."

"Then why did you..." Hesiah looked at him even more confused.

"Let me tell you a story about my original intention." Brian weighed his words and told her:

"When I was eighteen years old, I once liked an eighteen-year-old girl, but she didn't like me because she preferred the rich. So when I was twenty-five, I became her favorite

When I became a rich man, she started to like me again, but I no longer had any interest in her."

"Does this have anything to do with my original intention?" Hesaya was stunned and asked curiously: "Since you like her, why did you lose interest in her in the end?"

"Of course it does matter." Brian said with a smile:

"The reason why we didn't get together is because our original intentions have not changed. You see, this 25-year-old girl still likes rich people, and the 25-year-old me still likes the 18-year-old

Girl, is there nothing wrong with you?"

After saying that, he suppressed his laughter, left the other party standing there in a daze, turned around and continued walking forward.

"..."

Hesiah frowned and thought for a moment. After she really couldn't figure it out, she looked at Brian's back helplessly and said, "What kind of weird logic is this?"

"Does he mean..." After thinking about it, Hesiah suddenly realized the true meaning of Brian's words.

There was a moment.

She suddenly felt that the gloves she was wearing were as heavy as lead.

Only then did she realize that it was difficult to repay the debt she had accumulated from the moment she was rescued by Brian.

"Perhaps, there are other ways..."

Hesiah sighed softly, recalling her recent series of encounters, she readjusted her mood, quickly quickened her pace, and caught up.

Obviously, the most important thing right now is to return to the surface first, rather than thinking about these messy things.

The whole journey was silent.

When Brian led Hesiah to the rotting fungus garden, he clearly felt that the whispers became louder and louder, until they turned into a reverberation of sobs, cries and sighs...

The only light here was some glowing mushrooms growing on the edge of the mesa, but even in such darkness, he could not mistake the source of the sound.

He saw a dozen heads of humanoid creatures from various races in the Underdark looking over from the ground, and they were covered with creepy molds and fungi.

Just then.

While struggling, a female drow shouted loudly to the two of them in Underground Common, pleading: "Please...in the name of your benevolent gods of light...kill me quickly!"

Her mold-covered body kept struggling and shaking, finally revealing a bloated piece of flesh that was once her arm, and a spider-shaped arm ornament half embedded in it.

Half of her face has been cysted by fungal decay and has become a breeding ground for various micro-mushrooms.
Chapter completed!