Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

Chapter 663: Chapter 652: Magic Power Rampage

Novid City, a residence near the edge of the city wall.

The house wasn’t new, but it was quiet and spacious, and there was even a patch of stone pavement in the yard that had been warmed by the sun.

For the semi-retired Silver Thorn Squad, this already felt more like a home than any inn they’d stayed in over the past decades.

On the stone pavement, Gall was doing deep squats with two bundles of cast-iron weights on his shoulders.

Sweat slid down the scales at his neck; the Half-dragon’s thick tail dragged behind him, thumping the ground in time with his movements, making a dull "thump, thump" sound.

In the corner, a mass of shadow writhed silently.

The next second, Night Owl stepped out of that shadow, the Elf carrying several breakfasts wrapped in oiled paper in his hand.

With a casual flick, he sent one of them flying toward Gall.

Gall put down the weights and reached out to catch it. The mushroom filling burst in his mouth at once, rich umami flooding his tongue and making him narrow his eyes in satisfaction.

Chewing the bun, he let his gaze fall on Night Owl. The latter was leaning against a porch pillar, head lowered over a steaming cup of mushroom drink, the slurping sounds unusually clear in the quiet courtyard.

Gall swallowed what was in his mouth and suddenly spoke: "Night Owl, you... did you get fatter?"

Night Owl’s pointed ears twitched, and his whole movement froze for a moment.

Then he took a huge gulp of mushroom juice, his throat working as he swallowed with a loud "glug": "Wha... what are you talking about..."

Footsteps came from inside the house. Nova walked out in an outer robe, reached over, and took two portions of breakfast from Night Owl’s arms.

"You’ve been eating more than Gall lately. Take it easy, the war’s not completely over yet."

With that, he turned and headed back inside, leaving Night Owl standing there alone, holding the remaining breakfast, his expression frozen.

Nova walked to a door at the end of the corridor and knocked lightly twice.

From inside came that sticky sound of shoes stepping on Mycelium, and when the door opened, he handed the breakfast over to Orcas.

Orcas took it with a slight nod, then the door slowly closed again.

From beginning to end, not a single word was exchanged.

Nova was already used to this.

Orcas didn’t like to talk, and his method of treating Ivan by wrapping him in Mycelium was downright eerie, but his skill was the real deal.

Ivan, who had been sentenced to death by other doctors and given only two months to live, had been kept alive for half a year with the help of Orcas and that mysterious Mushroom Race.

Nova didn’t know when Ivan would wake up, or even if he could wake up, but as long as he was still alive, as long as the old Mage was still breathing, Nova had no choice but to believe in Orcas.

What he didn’t know was that the Orcas he regarded as silent and reliable inside that room was at this moment even less sure than he was.

Orcas set the breakfast on the table without so much as a glance.

He leaned back against the door, his gaze falling on the human shape wrapped in Mycelium on the bed, his lips moving slightly as he muttered soundlessly.

"God of Light above... Death God above... Boss above..."

Whichever one worked, he’d worship that one.

His little life was hanging on the hope that a miracle would happen to Ivan.

Suddenly, a mushroom cap bulged up from the Fungal Mat.

Orcas knew what this was. He immediately fell to his knees, motionless, to welcome the Boss’s arrival.

Pop—

A brand-new Puki bounced out from the Fungal Mat, its round mushroom cap giving off a faint Fluorescence in the dim room.

Lin Jun ignored the trembling D Level personnel and went straight to Ivan, who was encased in the Mycelium sac.

[Spiritual Guidance]

Lin Jun’s consciousness followed that invisible link and slipped into Ivan’s Spirit space.

The space was still that gigantic spiral library, bookshelves like pillars reaching into the sky, densely packed tomes coiling upward, each volume exuding a mysterious aura.

As soon as he entered, Lin Jun saw the owner of this Spirit space, Ivan.

He looked even worse than in reality; the old Mage’s body was tightly bound by countless tentacles—bindings formed from No. 10’s Spiritual Power.

Those tentacles were Entangling his limbs, torso, and neck, even covering his mouth and nose, sealing off his five senses.

He hung there in midair, unable to move, unable to see, hear, or perceive anything.

This was necessary, to keep him from continuing to draw on the knowledge stored in this Super Magic library.

After all, if they didn’t restrain him, his fragile Soul Power could never contain so much knowledge; it would have burst long ago.

Lin Jun extended his perception upward toward where No. 10 was, but he couldn’t reach its current position. It had already climbed too high, and the amount of Spiritual Power Lin Jun had brought in this time wasn’t enough to explore that far.

In order to help No. 10 absorb things faster, Lin Jun specifically used the Sunstone to adjust nearly one tenth of her Soul Power to assist No. 10’s studies.

Every time she thought of how diligent and eager to learn No. 10 was, Lin Jun would straighten her mushroom cap and feel proud of herself.

After all, it was a fragment of her own soul, which meant deep inside she herself possessed this kind of excellent self-discipline.

As for those more embarrassing mushrooms...

That was all because, after splitting off from the great self, they’d been corrupted by the vulgar world and gone bad.

Thinking this, Lin Jun’s Spiritual Power kept extending upward—more, and a little more.

Finally, the tentacle touched No. 10.

"Myc... Lord?" No. 10’s thought was dazed, like a student who’d pulled an all-nighter and was mentally fried, finally hearing someone call their name.

"How is it?" Lin Jun asked.

"I... I finished reading it." No. 10’s thought was broken and intermittent. "But I don’t know why, I feel I’m still just a bit short... just a bit more... and I’ll understand everything!"

"The essence of Magic... of Magic Power... I’m just a bit short!"

It kept muttering, as if trapped in some mental dead end, its thoughts growing more and more irritable, as though it was about to go berserk.

Pa—

Lin Jun flicked out a tentacle and smacked No. 10 so it bounced between the bookshelves seven or eight times, then wrapped it up again.

"Feeling better?"

No. 10 nodded its mushroom cap.

Lin Jun had been thinking that No. 10’s Spiritual Power had stopped being used for a long while now, stuck there doing who-knows-what—so it turned out it had gotten hung up on a stupid detail.

Lin Jun didn’t know what exactly No. 10 was still missing, but since it had finished reading, there was naturally no need to keep staying here.

Just as she was about to bring No. 10 back, Lin Jun suddenly remembered something.

Pointing at Ivan, who was currently playing bondage down below: "Is this guy still salvageable?"

Lin Jun was only asking casually; if he wasn’t, no big deal—then it would just be bad luck for Orcus.

But No. 10 actually seemed to have a way: "I can give it a try."

In the Super Magic Library, No. 10 gathered the Power of Soul that had been scattered everywhere, becoming incomparably huge.

After that, countless tentacles stretched out, climbing up one bookshelf after another.

Those books containing the profound secrets of Magic shattered and dissipated at the touch of the tentacles, and the entire library was being dismantled bit by bit.

The spiral library was collapsing.

Bit by bit, from the top down, Ivan’s Spiritual Body seemed to sense something. Wrapped in that bundle of tentacles, he began trembling violently, two lines of tears "oo-oo" streaming down his face.

Who knew whether it was for his imminent awakening, or for the vanishing truths of Magic.

The collapse of the library blurred like the reflection of starlight on water—beautiful and quiet.

But outside, it was a completely different scene.

The Magic Power near the manor suddenly became abnormally active and instantly triggered all sorts of Casting phenomena.

Hard stone rose up in ridges in the courtyard, the wooden manor was suddenly set ablaze by a great fire, and even the previously clear sky was rolling with dark clouds, thunder and lightning followed by a torrential downpour.

The protective Array in Novid City flickered crazily, yet never had enough Magic Power to fully activate.

All the Magic Power was currently being drawn away by some irresistible force, converging on that inconspicuous manor in the city’s northwest corner.

Every Mage in the city sensed that terrifying gathering of Magic Power.

Magic Power so massive it couldn’t be measured was spiraling and compressing at that point, ready to break free of its restraints at any moment.

Some people turned and ran, some fell to their knees and prayed, and more simply stared blankly in that direction, with only one thought in their minds:

If that thing goes off, nearly half of Novid City is going to get wrecked.

Even the Lord, who’d originally been about to spend a wonderful day with his mistress, was so frightened he thought it was a surprise attack by the Demon Race, and hurriedly rushed toward the safe room.

And the most terrified, of course, were the few people standing at the very center of the Magic Power storm.

Night Owl was pressed tight against a pillar of the corridor, her Elf figure looking especially frail in the raging wind.

She stared wide-eyed at Ivan, who was floating in midair.

"What the hell, what the hell is this?" Night Owl’s voice went off-key in the wind and rain. "He’s not going to lose control again, is he? I... I..."

She suddenly snapped her head around, her gaze flicking back and forth between Gall and Nova.

"How about you two... play rock-paper-scissors? To see who I take into the shadows to hide?"