They walked toward the treant forest near the gate.
The perfect place for a decoy.
Low-level mobs roamed there.
Goblin scouts.
Moss wolves.
Slimes.
Annoying but manageable.
Treants stood tall and silent. They only turned hostile if someone attacked them.
Their presence alone kept casual divers away.
The place felt natural.
Believable.
Normal.
Phong opened the soil bags.
Real-world dirt poured out. He mixed it lightly with dungeon soil to dull the mana signature.
Then he planted.
Simple crops.
Basic carrots.
Surface potatoes.
Nothing glowing.
Nothing mutated.
Nothing that beeped or exploded.
Just a plain farm patch.
Boring.
Unimpressive.
A perfect cover.
If divers wandered across it, they would see exactly what he wanted them to see.
A level one farmer.
Trying to survive.
Not the real heart of Camp Stymphalian hidden behind chili lines.
Élise watched him work.
"You make it look easy."
"It's not."
"But it looks like it is."
"That's the point."
Camille crouched beside the beans.
"You're protecting something."
"Yes."
"From people."
"Yes."
She nodded.
"Wise."
They returned to the real camp after midday.
And it felt different.
More permanent.
The trolls had finished reinforcing the house.
Stone walls now fit tight and smooth.
The angles carried a hint of lizardman design, with clever vents that pulled air through the building.
Fans hung from wooden beams. The upgraded generator powered them without trouble.
Janet stood in the clearing with her hands on her hips, surveying the work like a proud contractor.
A swing hung from the lime-oak hybrid tree.
Thick rope.
Wide wooden seat.
Alex sat on it lazily, pushing off the ground with one foot.
Monkey bars stood nearby.
Nyx demanded them.
Not requested.
Demanded.
She currently hung upside down from one bar, tail flicking with smug satisfaction.
"I require upper body strength," she declared.
Bruno had claimed a sandbag tied to a branch.
He punched it with surprising discipline.
Dominic's training showed.
Rico had built a full obstacle course.
Logs.
Ropes.
Small walls.
Hoops.
He sprinted through it like a caffeinated ninja.
"Efficiency training!" he shouted while vaulting a wall.
Vanessa sat on a rock nearby, filming occasionally but keeping the footage private.
Selena mapped treant movement patterns on a tablet.
The camp no longer felt like a ruin.
It felt like a settlement.
A strange one.
But alive.
Phong stood quietly for a moment.
He remembered sleeping alone in a tent with nothing but moletatoes for company.
Remembered guilt eating at him like rust.
Now things were different.
Fans hummed overhead.
Friends laughed.
Animals trained.
Foreign divers planned their return.
He walked over to the swing.
Alex looked up.
"Decoy done?"
"Yes."
"Convincing?"
"Very."
She held out a hand.
He took it and sat behind her on the swing.
His arms wrapped around her waist.
She leaned back into him.
"Élise and Camille joining Dominic?" she asked.
"Yes."
She nodded.
"They're solid."
"They trust us."
"That's earned."
Phong watched Bruno land a clean right hook on the sandbag.
Watched Rico clear a rope swing with unnecessary flair.
Watched Nyx drop from the monkey bars with aristocratic grace.
Life here kept improving.
Quality of life.
Structure.
Routine.
Not just survival anymore.
He kissed the spot behind Alex's ear.
"Still feel like diving soon?"
"Yes."
"No hesitation?"
"No."
She turned slightly in his arms.
"You?"
"I'll stay."
She smiled faintly.
"Of course you will."
He was not ashamed of that.
The decoy farm was strategy.
The real farm was foundation.
Dominic and Janet would hit level thirty soon.
Alex would follow.
Élise and Camille would return.
Maybe one day Alexei would step inside the chili perimeter.
The board kept moving.
But today was simple.
There was a swing.
There were monkey bars.
There was a raccoon screaming triumphantly from an obstacle course.
And there was a level one farmer who chose to build instead of chase.
The lime-oak tree swayed gently above them.
No roar.
No pressure.
Just breeze.
Alex rested her head on his shoulder.
"You know," she murmured, "this is dangerously close to being happy."
He tightened his arms slightly.
"Let's not jinx it."
She laughed softly.
"Fair."
Behind them Selena shouted at Rico for trying to eat an Alerting Carrot raw.
Dominic yelled near the grill about steak rotation schedules.
Janet argued about solar panel angles.
And Camp Stymphalian, hidden behind chili lines and ecological treaties, kept growing.
Not louder.
Not flashier.
Just steadier.
Phong realized that kind of power was something no floor boss could replicate.
It started subtly.
A tremor beneath the soil.
A hum in the air.
Then the floor convulsed.
Not a local quake.
Not a normal Shifting tremor.
The entire first floor groaned.
Stone cracked.
The air warped.
The lime-oak tree shuddered violently. Its branches thrashed as if caught in a storm without wind.
"Shifting!" Selena gasped, grabbing the table to steady herself.
The ground tilted.
Not metaphorically.
Literally.
Camp Stymphalian's carefully leveled clearing rippled like disturbed water.
Phong dropped to one knee and pressed his palm to the dirt.
The mana density felt wrong.
Too thick.
Too heavy.
Selena sucked in a sharp breath between tremors.
"The extra mana from Horns of the Earth amplified it!"
The shaking intensified.
In the distance, one of the smaller troll mountains split apart like brittle clay.
Chunks of stone and whole ridges slid downward.
The land swallowed them.
Dragged into a lower floor as if gravity had reversed.
Only the tallest peak remained.
Barely.
The lesser mountains vanished.
And in their place something surged upward.
Green.
Dense.
Sharp.
A bamboo forest.
It burst from the ground like spears stabbing the sky.
Thick stalks.
Towering.
Swaying though no wind blew.
Leaves whispered with a strange hiss.
Camp Stymphalian fell silent.
Then the plants reacted.
Immediately.
Shiitake mushrooms on the logs swelled grotesquely. Their caps widened and stacked together into layered barriers like organic riot shields.
Oyster mushrooms hardened.
Their edges sharpened into pale serrated blades.
The enoki clusters trembled.
Then snapped upright.
Their stems thickened and segmented.
Caps shrank into bullet-sized tips.
A rattling sound began.
Fast.
Relentless.
Tiny white projectiles fired in test bursts.
They punched into distant tree trunks with alarming speed.
Selena stared.
"No freaking way…"
It was her first time seeing Phong's plants mutate under survival pressure.
The enoki were not decorative anymore.
They were weapons.
Automatic ones.
Ginger.
Carrots.
Sunflowers.
Unchanged.
For now.
The mutation was precise.
Focused.
Defensive.
And that made Phong uneasy.
He did not feel safer.
He felt warned.
"What kind of monster," he muttered, staring at the bamboo forest, "forces this reaction just by existing?"
Alex was already moving.
"Perimeter check!"
Dominic grabbed his weapon.
Janet began repositioning garlic mines and chili lines.
Jake, Jack, and Joanne spread out to reinforce blind spots.
Selena's hands trembled slightly but she kept recording.
"This isn't floor boss level," she said quickly. "No system ping. No global alert."
"That doesn't mean safe," Dominic said.
"It means we have a chance," Phong replied.
No one argued.
A floor boss meant preparation did not matter.
??? levels.
??? stats.
Anomalies.
The bamboo forest now stood completely still.
No birds.
No monster movement.
Just a wall of green.
Then something moved in the treant forest.
The towering wooden beings began marching toward the bamboo.
Not toward camp.
Toward the bamboo.
Purposefully.
Branches stiff.
Roots lifting in steady steps.
One treant stopped near Phong.
Its bark cracked softly as it spoke.
"You are not enemies."
Phong swallowed.
"Then who is?"
The treant's leaves trembled once.
"They are."
No explanation.
Just that.
Then it turned and marched on.
Treants preparing for battle was unheard of.
Even during the lizardman war they had stayed neutral.
Now they moved like an army.
The bamboo leaves rustled.
A faint vibration rolled through the air.
Camp Stymphalian tightened formation.
Enoki guns rotated toward the forest.
Oyster blades angled outward.
Shiitake shields thickened.
The lime-oak tree frosted over slightly as Snow Limes formed faster along its branches.
The carrots began a faint activation hum.
Not beeping yet.
Just ready.
Then heavy footsteps approached from the mountain.
Phong turned.
The troll king appeared first.
Massive.
Moss-covered.
Eyes sharp.
His tribe followed behind.
Not in hunting formation.
Not in war formation.
They stayed tight together.
Children in the center.
Warriors outside.
They stopped at the chili perimeter.
The king bowed his horned head slightly.
"Shelter."
One word.
Trolls did not bow.
They did not ask.
They demanded.
This was different.
"What's coming?" Dominic called.
The troll king's jaw tightened.
"Not prey."
Not prey.
That meant predator.
Phong parted the chili line slightly.
Just enough space.
The trolls moved inside.
Even they stayed far from the bamboo side.
Alex stood beside Phong.
"This is bad," she said quietly.
He nodded.
The enoki guns kept adjusting their aim.
Testing.
Correcting.
Like targeting systems locking onto something not yet visible.
Selena's voice shook.
"The mana signature in the bamboo is layered. Not singular. Not uniform."
Janet frowned.
"Meaning?"
"It's not just trees."
The bamboo forest swayed again.
Not from wind.
From within.
Something moved.
Not large enough to break the stalks.
Not loud enough to snap them.
But enough to disturb the forest.
The treants reached the edge.
Roots dug deep.
Branches raised.
Ready.
Camp Stymphalian's defenses locked in.
Shiitake shields interlocked.
Oyster blades gleamed.
Garlic mines armed.
Chilies aimed.
Enoki rattled softly.
The trolls stood shoulder to shoulder near the perimeter.
Even the lizardmen emerged cautiously from the lake with weapons drawn.
No system alert.
No red sky.
No global warning.
Which somehow made it worse.
This was not a catastrophe like the Phoenix.
Not a divine reshaping like Horns of the Earth.
Not the Sky Emperor's command.
This was something that made plants panic.
Made treants mobilize.
Made trolls ask for shelter.
Phong's pulse slowed instead of racing.
Fear would not help.
He watched the bamboo.
Listened.
Felt the mana shifting under his feet.
Camp Stymphalian held its breath.
The first true challenge since the lizardman war had arrived.
And whatever the Shifting had dragged up from below…
It was not here to negotiate.