Inside a tent stitched from various monster hides, Dylan sat upon a wild boar pelt.

This was the Gnoll forest camp. Several Pujis had escorted him here.

The tent held little besides a few crooked racks made of bone and wood. Among them, Dylan even noticed a human skull…

He sat uneasily.

Returning to the Dungeon had been partly a reckless decision, but he had never imagined it would lead to this.

The Pujis were being controlled by some mysterious will!

No wonder they had exterminated Parasitic Trees and Jade-Eyed Frogs far beyond the needs of survival.

And now, that mysterious will had found him.

What worried him even more was—

The flap of the tent lifted. A Gnoll covered in gray-white mushrooms staggered inside.

It set down a roasted pig’s trotter beside him, then shuffled back out.

The tent brushed against its shoulder on the way out, knocking loose a mushroom…

Dylan’s throat tightened. Was this the fate of the parasitized?

Would he eventually become like that too?

He didn’t know. But he was beginning to regret his casual choice to return here.

“Eat. Don’t be shy.”

The voice returned. Dylan could only pick up the charred trotter and bite down.

So burnt… so foul…

On the other end, Lin Jun hadn’t intended to frighten him.

It was just that Dylan, being human, couldn’t live in the Poison Mist Lake or the swamp.

But the Gnoll forest already had ready-made tents. Why waste them, when the Gnolls wouldn’t be needing them anymore?

As for the trotter—watching Dylan wolf it down, Lin Jun actually thought to himself that maybe he wasn’t such a bad cook.

After all, wasn’t good food just roasting with a little salt?

When Dylan finished, he hesitated, then pulled a vial of mana potion from his coat.

For the past two weeks, he had realized ordinary food could no longer fully sustain him. Each day he needed a sip of mana potion to ease his hunger. He guessed the mycelium in his body demanded it.

“In truth, you don’t need to waste potion.”

Dylan paused with the cork halfway pulled. “Then what should I do?”

The tent flap opened again—the mushroom Gnoll beckoned him. Dylan corked the vial, tucked it away, and followed.

They walked to the edge of the forest, where dozens of mushroom Gnolls were felling trees.

At the clearing’s edge lay many hollowed-out trunks, looking disturbingly like coffins.

Inside, dense mycelium spread, making Dylan’s scalp prickle.

“Lie down. Try it.”

“Ah… this is… forget it, I’ll lie.”

It was grotesque enough to make him nervous, but then again, his life wasn’t in his own hands anyway.

With the air of a condemned man, Dylan lay down resolutely.

Instantly, tendrils of mycelium stretched toward him, linking with the ones already in his body.

“This is—oh…”

Though it was only a hollow log, Dylan felt as if he were sinking into a velvet bed.

Even more precious was the sense of fullness, of peace!

The taut string of anxiety that had plagued him for months suddenly slackened.

“Rest easy. Let’s just chat a bit while you’re here.”

The voice drifted as if from far away. Dylan felt no trace of wariness.

“Alright… let’s talk…”

“Dylan, tell me your story. I’m curious. Why did you return here? Was it for more Parasitic Tree seeds?”

“It wasn’t for… seeds. I came for…”

Dylan mumbled as if confiding to an old friend, spilling everything—his past, his thoughts, without reserve.

Lin Jun couldn’t help but sigh. Mixing a few hallucinogenic spores into the nutrient flow was truly effective…

He already had the advantage with [Fusion Parasitism], and through the Spore Network he could sense the emotions behind a parasitized host’s words.

He had proven this earlier in experiments with the Gnolls.

That method allowed him to tell if someone was lying.

But one-by-one interrogation was slow and unfriendly.

A gentler approach was better.

———

“How long was I asleep?”

Dylan didn’t know when he had drifted off. The Gnolls who had been chopping trees were now lying quietly in hollow trunks of their own.

He remembered little of what had happened before sleep, but he could guess.

Logically, he should feel wary now.

But instead he felt light, refreshed—like waking at home after a long rest. The only flaw was the rough wooden “bed,” his hand chafed against its surface.

“Dylan, I know your story now.”

Lin Jun’s voice returned at the right moment.

“I don’t mind giving you a place to stay here.

But just like in the human world, where you must work to earn coin, I also have small tasks that need doing.

Don’t worry—they’ll be much easier than adventuring.

This is a fair business. Food and lodging included. Do well, and there’ll even be bonuses.”

Though Dylan didn’t know what “business” meant, he understood the point. He asked the question weighing most heavily on him:

“Will I… become like those Gnolls?”

To him, they were no different from corpses. In fact, they were corpses.

“Gnolls?” Lin Jun’s voice sharpened. “Of course not. Your will is your own.”

As long as you don’t go courting death.

Dylan nodded and dropped to one knee.

“Dylan is willing to serve you. May I know your name?”

“No need for all that. Just call me Boss.”

“Yes, Boss.” Dylan had been ready to say “Master.”

He didn’t ask who—or what—Lin Jun was.

If Lin Jun had not shown himself, it meant he did not wish Dylan to know. Asking would only sour things.

“Oh, by the way. While you slept, I straightened out the tangled mycelium in your body and added a skill. Consider it advance pay.”

“Added… a skill?”

Dylan looked baffled.

———

At the Rotten Willow Tavern, the familiar din surrounded Dylan as he gulped down watered-down swill—for the first time in ages, he could sit in a tavern.

Now, his face was bare, no trace of fungus at all. He looked just like any other man.

[Disguise LV2]

Just as he could grant skills to Pujis, Lin Jun could also implant skills into parasitized humans.

But it cost countless times more mana.

That one skill alone had drained as much mana as forty combat Pujis.

But it was worth it.

He had acquired this skill long ago in the deeper floors, though it had seemed useless—it could only alter skin tone and texture for rough camouflage.

Now, it finally had its purpose.

Dylan knew returning to the Amethyst Dungeon had been the right choice.

Of course, he had no thought of leaving and trying to live a normal life again.

Disguise was only disguise. At his core, he was half-mushroom. Someday, someone would see through it.

Besides, he still needed fungal nourishment. Otherwise, he would have to live on mana potions, draining coin endlessly.

And now, he sat here because of Lin Jun’s first assignment.

Downing another cup, Dylan looked up as several adventurers sat across from him.

“You’re Dylan, right? I heard you’ve got the latest strategy for the fifth floor?”

Wiping foam from his lips, Dylan grinned.

“I do! But it cost me my life to get it—it won’t come cheap…”