At the base of the stairway between the fourth and fifth floors.

A campfire crackled softly, its flickering light casting jagged shadows along the ring-shaped stone steps.

Inigo and his leopardkin companion, Miro, rested against the wall.

The trip that was supposed to take half a day had ended up dragging into a day and a half.

The reason was simple—they’d gotten lost.

Inigo had assumed his memory from two years ago would be enough, so he hadn’t bothered buying a guide map.

Only once inside did he realize his recollections were fuzzier than he thought.

After wandering in circles, exhaustion had forced them to stop.

They didn’t bother keeping watch.

First, because the stairway’s interior was a safe zone where monsters couldn’t enter.

Second, because their beastkin instincts meant even in sleep they’d snap awake at the faintest disturbance.

Like now. At the barely audible “puff-puff” sound, Inigo’s ears twitched upright.

He didn’t move right away, only cracked his tiger-like eyes the slightest slit.

At the stairway entrance stood a mutated Puji—somewhere monsters weren’t supposed to reach.

It froze at the sight of them.

After a long pause, it carefully began backing away. Its stubby legs stretched as far as they could, each step painfully slow, so slow it didn’t even make a sound this time.

Just as it was about to retreat back into the fifth floor, Miro moved before Inigo.

Like a streak of black lightning, in the blink of an eye he returned with two halves of the Puji dangling from his claws.

He tossed the corpse onto the ground, his face not smug but grim.

“No wonder the guild issued this directly. This job won’t be simple…”

Inigo nodded. Gazing at the Puji’s bisected body, he muttered:

“It ignored the Dungeon’s rules. Showed obvious intelligence. And its structure—heavily mutated.”

“Should we head back and prepare properly?”

Miro’s real suggestion was to recruit another one or two gold-ranked adventurers.

Ever since their healer-support died in the island mists, their team had been just two damage dealers—an unhealthy setup.

They’d only just returned to Yafeng Town, without even time to ask around, when this task caught their eye.

An A-rank mission for the relatively simple fifth floor? It had seemed like easy profit.

Two gold-ranked adventurers should have handled it fine, even without support.

But now, with monsters breaking into safe zones, common sense no longer applied.

Miro was already losing confidence.

Inigo brooded by the fire a moment, then ground his boot into the Puji, crushing it to paste.

“We’re here already. Keep going. It’s just a weird mushroom—not much of a threat.”

If they turned back now, the others who knew him would never let him live it down. Still, he added, just in case:

“If we really hit danger, we’ll pull out. If we can’t win, we can at least run.”

His confidence wasn’t baseless. As feline beastkin, both he and Miro possessed speed-related skills.

If even they couldn’t escape, something was truly wrong.

This was only the fifth floor, after all.

Miro accepted with a nod.

Rest done, they doused the fire and stepped into the fifth floor.

“Say… was it always this dark here?”

Their vision caught only the faint glow of scattered mushrooms—no firefly grass anywhere.

“Doesn’t seem like it…”

Fortunately, both had night vision. The darkness didn’t hinder them much.

The mission required a full survey of the floor, especially the swamp zone.

Inigo decided to check the other three areas first, to judge the overall danger before tackling the swamp.

But after half a day, their expressions had grown strange.

They’d passed both the caverns and the poison bog. And hadn’t seen a single Puji.

If not for spotting one stray slime along the way, Inigo might’ve thought the entire level had been wiped clean.

———

What the hell were these beastkin doing?

First, they caught one of his Pujis sneaking up to the fourth floor. Now they were wandering around aimlessly.

As usual, Lin Jun had ordered his Pujis to avoid direct encounters with such high-level adventurers.

But at this rate… were they here for him specifically?

Under his surveillance, he watched them bypass the forest and march straight toward the swamp.

Tch. Troublesome.

That was his bottom line. He had no choice but to block them.

———

A mushroom cannon blast erupted in front of the two beastkin, splashing swamp muck all over them.

Ten Pujis materialized, but after firing the first volley, they held back.

A warning shot.

Was this… intimidation?

Were these mushrooms really this intelligent?

Inigo glanced at Miro, who returned the look—waiting on his lead.

The mushroom artillery hit hard. A direct hit would wound even them.

But if it missed? Meaningless.

Just ten walking mushrooms…

Inigo signaled with his eyes. The leopardkin nodded.

The next instant, they both burst forward, activating their acceleration skills, flanking from left and right.

The Pujis reacted instantly, firing again the moment the beastkin moved.

But their low stances and nimble dodges let them slip past the blasts.

In seconds, they were within the Puji ranks.

Miro, a devotee of raw primal power, tore through several with his claws.

Inigo drew a blood-red blade, cleaving not only Pujis but even slicing incoming magic projectiles in half.

In short order, the ten Pujis lay destroyed.

Miro instinctively raised his paw to lick it clean—then remembered. These weren’t beasts. No blood, only swamp muck. He lowered his tongue in disgust.

“No wonder it’s an A-class. These mushrooms are organized—they even coordinate.”

“They’re still only mushrooms.”

Inigo sheathed his blade, stepping forward—then froze.

“Miro… doesn’t it seem brighter?”

“Now that you say it… yeah…”

They turned.

At the edge of their vision, faint lights flickered. Dots of glow, linking together, spreading, closing in.

The two beastkin’s faces sank into grim lines.

Pujis. Glowing Pujis, countless in number, tightening the circle around them.

Miro swallowed hard. “H-how many is that?”

“Three hundred? Five hundred? More?” Inigo drew the blood-red blade once again. He took a deep breath.

“Doesn’t matter. Prepare to break out…”