Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

Chapter 443 - 434: Conflict

"Sirean, Sirean!"

Sirean drooped his eyelids, his gaze dispersedly focused on the cracked patterns of the ground.

Until Vera reached out, gently shaking his shoulder, this beautiful Elf suddenly came back to his senses.

"Sorry, Vera..." Sirean rubbed his ears, "I got a bit distracted."

"It’s my poor arrangement," Vera’s voice carried a note of apology, "You’ve been casting spells all day and should rest properly. I’ll take over the night watch."

Their conversation was kept low, fearing to disturb Fei Ling and Fei Yin sisters sleeping in the rear.

Sirean didn’t insist, walked over to the pile of hay in the corner and lay down.

Vera’s Squad was currently camping in the ruins of a small town north of Golden Valley City.

This small town was reduced to scorched earth in the earlier Demon Race’s sweep, this house they stopped in was considered the best-preserved building in the whole town—missing just half a wall, but still barely providing shelter from wind and rain.

Earlier, they followed the convoy transporting Puki, entering the ravaged west, and first visited Wenbuer Castle.

The Demon Race’s plundering troops heading south finally stopped at this fortress, sparing the towns behind it from disaster.

Vera and the others personally witnessed the tragic condition of that fortress, they saw the broken walls filled with rubble, wood, and mud, saw wounded soldiers limping through the streets, and saw the new mass grave of three thousand outside the city...

Including Vera, those adventurers were deeply shocked by the horror of Wenbuer Castle, it was a completely different fight from adventure, bloodier, and more brutal!

Before reaching Golden Valley City, Vera and the others were mentally prepared to face an even more tragic scene.

After all, Wenbuer Castle was already close to the rear in the south, many Demon Race troops simply wouldn’t penetrate to this position, which was one key reason the fortress was able to hold out.

In terms of the sturdiness of fortifications and the size of the garrison, Wenbuer Castle ranked merely in the top five in the former west.

But precisely because it was relatively rearward, it became the only surviving fortress among the five.

Of course, it’s now the number one fortress in the west.

Opposed to this, Golden Valley City was situated in the core area ravaged by the Demon Race, and as a city, its wall defenses couldn’t possibly compare to Wenbuer Castle.

This city holding out till the end without being breached was already considered a miracle.

One would think this city must have paid a mountain of corpses and rivers of blood as a price for its preservation.

However, upon actual arrival, it wasn’t at all the case!

It’s not that there weren’t traces of war here, the nicks on the city walls and the blackened scorch marks, the rubble and bloodstains beside streets that hadn’t been fully cleared, all indicating that this place indeed endured several fierce battles.

Yet, compared to the appalling scene of Wenbuer Castle, Golden Valley City’s condition was unbelievably better!

Though the city walls were damaged, the main structure remained fairly intact, the ratio of injured soldiers was unusually low, and there was no talk of the kind of ingrained exhaustion, more perplexing was, they didn’t see any large-scale burial sites outside the city.

As if saying they repelled the Demon Race rather effortlessly, hard to comprehend.

There was one more thing equally hard to understand.

Upon arriving at Golden Valley City, the four almost mistook it for Mushroom City.

The streets full of Puki Masters, it was the first time they saw such a high proportion of Puki Masters gathered outside of Mushroom City.

Moreover, Vera’s Squad originally planned to assist in sweeping away the remaining Demon Race nearby, but upon arrival found that the scattered Demon Race had already been cleaned up by both official and unofficial Puki Masters in the city.

Instead, another urgent job was in dire need of manpower—Purification of Plague.

In the surrounding fallen towns and villages, there were large piles of decedents’ remains.

With the temperature rising, these exposed bodies had begun to breed plague, contaminating the land and water sources.

Professionals like Sirean who specialized in purification spells were desperately needed at the moment.

Precisely for this reason, they arrived at this destroyed small town, spending a whole two days to thoroughly purify this area.

After a full day of trekking, the four returned to Golden Valley City, weary and dusty.

After completing their task report at the City Lord’s Mansion, Fei Ling came out with a new commission letter, "The next location is a city to the south, three days’ journey from here. There are already two priests purifying there, but the workload... seems too much, we need to help."

Vera glanced at Sirean, suggesting, "Rest a day before going."

"Just in time, I want to take a bath, the smell there is really bad, it clings to me." Fei Ling tugged at her sleeve, sniffing as she spoke, Fei Yin quickly nodded too.

"But before that, we better settle dinner first," Vera reminded, "If we miss the time, we won’t have anything to eat."

Nowadays in Golden Valley City, there are two servings of mushroom stew available each day, whether resident refugees or adventurers coming to aid, everyone can collect them for free.

It’s not that Vera and the others didn’t want other flavors, but in the city now, apart from mushrooms, there really aren’t many other choice supplies.

Since it’s all mushroom, free is naturally the better choice.

The location for food distribution is set up in the city square.

When Vera and the others arrived, many people were already seated at the edge of the square, drinking the glowing thick soup from their wooden bowls one sip at a time.

Just as Vera stepped forward to collect stew, suddenly a wooden bowl flew spinning, landing with a "clang" at his feet, splashing soup onto his leg armor, leaving a few glowing streaks.

"Ah...sorry sorry." It was two people dressed in City Guard uniforms speaking, one of them still maintaining a leg-lifting posture, evidently he kicked the bowl.

Vera looked down at his leg armor, casually waved his hand, "No problem, it’s dirty anyway."

He naturally wouldn’t argue over such a small matter.

Just as the two were about to leave, Fei Ling called them back, "Hey, you should apologize to her too, right?"

She pointed to a woman in tattered clothes sitting between two groups of people, the woman kept her head down, the kicked bowl originally belonged to her.

"Her? She won’t mind," the guard nudged the woman’s calf with his boot toe, "Won’t you?"

"I... I carelessly didn’t hold it steady..." The woman’s voice was as thin as a mosquito buzz, her head hung even lower.

The guard shrugged, turning to leave.

"Stop!" Fei Ling’s voice now brimmed with anger.

"Tsk!" The soldier impatiently turned back, "She already admitted fault herself, aren’t you overstepping a bit...adventurer?"

The people originally eating around stopped their actions, many dressed as City Guards cast unfriendly gazes toward Vera and the others. (Another Chapter half an hour later)