"I figured as much." Iris stared at Anser's face meaningfully.
With Anser's reputation and charisma, as long as he spoke, those adventurers would never dare go against him.
After growing six wings, Anser's charm seemed even more astonishing. No matter where he appeared, he immediately became the center of attention.
"Let's go. Sergei's waiting for us." Anser flew downward, reaching the edge of the pit in just a few seconds and stirring up a violent gust of wind.
Iris blinked, startled by his acceleration speed. It was completely different from the usual medium or large winged creatures.
On the other side, Sergei was even more shocked than she was. For some reason, after going in and coming back out, Anser felt like a completely different person to him.
He was extremely curious, but it wasn't appropriate to ask too much. After silently observing the gorgeous dragon wings for a few moments, he began explaining the distribution of personnel and spoils to Anser.
The loot was pitiful. Those undead truly had nothing valuable on them, and even if there had been anything worthwhile, it should have been on that senior priest of Myrkul. The corpse was still in Black Tower Prison, and Anser hadn't had the chance to inspect it yet.
He casually stored several weapons, pieces of armor, and money pouches into the Avaricious Dragonhide Pouch. "I'm planning to head down and take a look. Coming with me?"
"Of course." Sergei waved toward the back, and two adventurers who had been watching this side the entire time quickly ran over, one burly and one tall and thin.
The burly man had a rough beard covering his face and wore chain mail. He carried an arm shield on his left arm and a longsword in his right hand, with several javelins slung diagonally across his back and three throwing axes hanging at his waist.
The other man was tall and lean, pale-faced and clean-shaven, looking relatively young. He wore neat dark-red leather armor, with all sorts of tool pouches hanging from his body.
"They're my companions. This is Gada, an elite Fighter…" Sergei introduced them while secretly observing Anser's reaction.
Anser remained expressionless, merely observing the two in silence.
Gada was a level 10 Fighter of the Champion subclass. He himself belonged to a minority ethnicity, bald and covered in tattoos, looking fierce at first glance, but whenever he looked at Anser, he unconsciously let out a couple of goofy chuckles. Probably the rough-and-dumb type.
The other man was named Adam, a level 8 Rogue of the Thief subclass. He had a youthful appearance, but judging from his eyes, he was clearly experienced.
Naturally, Anser understood Sergei's intentions. After Sergei finished introducing them, he deliberately paused for a few seconds before speaking.
"Welcome aboard. But I hope there's only one voice in the team."
"President, we'll all follow your lead. You can distribute the loot however you want. We just want to broaden our horizons a little, hehe…" Before Sergei could speak, Adam hurriedly cut in.
As he looked at Anser, his face was already blooming with smiles.
Sergei silently rolled his eyes, glared at him once, then added, "That's right."
Anser was a little surprised, but he knew those words were only worth hearing, not believing. It was nothing more than a tactical retreat, banking on the fact that a Paladin like him couldn't possibly be too stingy.
He pulled out three bottles of holy water from his pouch and tossed one to each of them. "This is holy water. There may be undead down there, so better safe than sorry."
"You're too generous, warm as the morning sun itself…" Adam held the holy water reverently while showering him with nonstop flattery.
"Enough." Anser raised a hand to interrupt him. "Anything else we need to prepare?"
"Uh, shouldn't we discuss the details of the operation first?" Sergei asked cautiously.
"That's exactly what I was about to say." Anser had already considered this. While more helpers were useful, coordination was also a major problem.
Since the situation below was completely unknown and they would mainly have to improvise, there wasn't any detailed plan, but there were still some things that needed to be agreed on beforehand.
For example, how they would descend, how to prevent poisoning, combat signals, retreat commands, how to return safely, and so on.
He quickly went through everything, with the primary methods revolving around spells.
"There's actually no need to make things so complicated. Just follow my instructions. You can offer suggestions at any time during the operation, and we'll discuss them together. After all, your adventuring experience is richer than mine."
He conveyed those words through Telepathy, partly to let them get used to it beforehand so they wouldn't be startled when voices suddenly rang out in their heads.
"Ah, right…" The three exchanged glances, curiosity flickering in their eyes.
They had never cooperated with a high-level spellcaster before. It felt like they had prepared for this, yet also not prepared at all.
With a Paladin in the team, there was no need to worry about poison, nor any fear of running out of healing potions.
And this new captain specialized in teleportation spells, capable of advancing or retreating freely, so there was no need to worry about escape routes either.
Anser took out the buckets and towels he had prepared in advance, handing one to each person. After soaking them with water, they tied them over their mouths and noses.
The method was simple, but practical.
Once he saw everyone was ready, he raised a hand and cast Feather Fall on the three of them. Then he spread his wings and flew into the pit, with Iris following close behind.
Sergei and the others jumped into the pit one after another. After slowly descending more than a hundred meters, they landed within the mushroom forest.
"So huge…" Adam adjusted the towel covering his mouth and nose, only letting out a gasp of amazement after confirming it hadn't loosened.
The view from above and the experience of actually entering the mushroom forest were completely different. Standing inside it, beneath the dim lighting, they found themselves surrounded by glowing mushrooms taller than a person, dazzling in every color like something out of a fairy tale dream.
And precisely because of that, the three became even more vigilant. Their long years of adventuring had taught them that the more beautiful something was, the more dangerous it tended to be.
Anser landed on the ground and used an adamantine shortsword to poke open the black soil. At a glance, he discovered countless nearly transparent fungal threads densely woven throughout the dirt, layered atop one another and intertwined with the earth itself.
"A whole carpet of mycelium. No wonder the soil's so fertile," he sighed softly.
"Stay sharp, all of you. Unless you want to become fertilizer," Sergei warned.
Adam's sharp eyes clearly spotted bone fragments wrapped within the fungal threads, making his scalp tingle.
Anser flew above the mushroom forest, and his field of vision immediately widened.
Sweeping his gaze around, he saw the mushroom forest stretching endlessly into the distance while the terrain gradually sloped downward. Cutting through it was a conspicuous "path," where mushrooms had been crushed and flattened crookedly to either side, obviously forced open by some enormous creature.
'It should be that black dragon turned into undead!'
"Follow the trail." He flew twenty to thirty meters above the mushroom forest at a steady pace.
Thankfully, he now possessed Transcendent Form. His original dragon wings couldn't hover in place and weren't suited for cramped underground environments.
Iris flew even higher, mainly keeping watch for threats from above.
Meanwhile, Sergei led the team forward below in combat formation, allowing them to inspect more of the hidden details beneath the mushroom caps.
After advancing several hundred meters, Sergei and the others discovered even more traces of artificial destruction. Beneath one mushroom cap, they also found an adventurer behaving like a drunkard.
The man clung to the mushroom cap and devoured it in huge bites as though eating some supreme delicacy, his face overflowing with bliss. His stomach was grotesquely swollen, yet he seemed completely unaware of it.
Sergei called out to him several times without response, so he simply knocked the man unconscious, tied up his hands and feet with rope, and left him in an open area.
Then the group continued onward.
Anser had the ability to cure his poisoning. Lay on Hands could handle it easily. But what then? If they left him behind after waking him, he would just get poisoned again. Bringing him along would only hinder their movements. Either option was troublesome.
Since his life wasn't in danger for the moment, it was better to deal with him after they returned.
After traveling several kilometers, the terrain dipped lower and lower while the surroundings grew increasingly dim. Only the faint fluorescent glow emitted by the mushrooms allowed them to barely make out the uneven ground.
Anser possessed Darkvision, so it didn't affect him.
He warned Iris to stay away from the cave ceiling. In his memory, there were always underground monsters lurking in the dark cavern roofs, waiting for opportunities to hunt other creatures.
Suddenly, he heard a series of wet squishing sounds nearby, like something stepping across a damp fungal carpet, mixed with the faint bubbling noise of bursting water blisters.
He followed the sound, gliding dozens of meters with his dragon wings, and quickly discovered several strange creatures hastily hiding beneath mushroom caps.
They looked like mushrooms that had grown arms and legs.
'Myconids?'
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