Arcane Journey

Chapter 62 The Garden of Fear
This highland in the depths of the dull woodland is higher than the terraced fields everywhere, surrounded by a circle of towering Zeke mushroom stalks, forming a natural fence.

In the quiet atmosphere, there are only vague whispers coming from the high ground from time to time.

Brian and Sisaiah walked cautiously towards the high ground.

When they were about to reach the entrance of the highland fence, a strange breeze blew by, and a horrible stench hit their faces.

Hesaiah frowned tightly and covered her mouth and nose. Even Brian tried to hold his breath so as not to suffocate himself.

He could clearly sense the disgusting strong mushroom scent mixed with the stench, which was exactly the smell of rotting fungi.

"Is there a problem?" Brian cast a concerned look at the sword mage beside him.

To be honest, he was really worried that this girl couldn't bear this atmosphere, so she didn't even have the courage to go in.

Because the high ground ahead is the newly established association of Fungiman - the Master Association.

The members of the association are all mushroom men who were enlightened by the fungus queen Zugmoy.

Through the spores of Zugmoi, these mushroommen greedily share the joyful image of the mushroom man Wang Feiluo.

And the corpses of various races and monsters were hunted around in the Underdark for experiments with activated spores, so that their territory looked like a filthy fungus garden.

With her strong willpower, Sisaiah managed not to spit out the contents of her stomach. She turned to Brian with a pale face but full of determination, "It's okay, I can still hold on, let's go"

at this time.

A terrible, slimy roar came from the heights to which it was headed, together with the stench of dead fungus.

Then, something rushed towards the two of them at an alarming speed.

Brian held his breath and concentrated on observing the oncoming monster, his right hand was always ready for deadly magic.

Hesaiah's rune sword suddenly shone with bright rune light, and her silver-gray eyes stared at the two chubby weird creatures, her body hidden in front of Brian.

These two howling monsters had three rotting thighs, and their eyes and nose were arranged on a vine-like fleshy stalk, which snaked across the top of its bloated and festering body.

The monsters' viscous, dark-green liquid seeps continuously from the many fungal pustules on their bodies.

As they run and roar with phlegm, bits and pieces of sap fall on the glistening flora of the ground.

These were two fungal creatures similar to scavengers, and Brian recognized the monsters in front of him.

Any creature Large or smaller can be resurrected by a myconid's animated spores as a spore minion.

The biggest difference between them and undead creatures is that the whole body is covered with small mold-like mushrooms. Whether it is the smell or appearance, they are more frightening and disgusting than undead creatures.

——"Frozen Ray!"

Brian stretched out his finger from a distance, and an ice-blue ray hit the scavenger spore servant rushing towards him.

The body of the hit spore froze, and was instantly covered with a thin layer of frost at a speed visible to the naked eye, standing motionless in the flora like frozen carrion.

Seeing the 100 experience points he had gained, he was about to deal with another monster, but found that Hesaiah had already rushed up, and with a precise and quick swing of the rune sword, he easily killed it.

"Get out of the way!"

Seeing this, Brian realized the danger and quickly reminded the sword mage.

"Ok?"

Hearing Brian's call, Hisaiah was taken aback, and instinctively prepared to stay away from the corpse of the spore servant.

Unfortunately it was too late.

She was horrified to find that the monster she had slain burst open like the skin of a grape overflowing with juice, releasing a cloud of fragrant spores that engulfed her.

Immediately afterwards, the deflated body of the monster quickly dissolved into the gleaming flora on the ground.

Smelling the fragrant breath, Hesaiah suddenly felt that his vision became a little blurred, followed by dizziness, numbness of limbs and weakness of legs.

She shook her head suddenly, and quickly evacuated from the range of the spore cloud. This feeling gradually receded, and she slowly regained consciousness.

"Drink this down."

Brian walked up to Sisaiah and handed her a small gourd-shaped mushroom, "This is the potion prepared by the Mycicle King. After drinking it, it can exempt most of the spores of the Mycicle. Of course, it can also block the fungus The effect of the stench."

Hesaiah put away the rune sword and drank the potion without any doubt.

The sweet, sweet, mushroom-flavored liquid entered her throat, and she immediately felt that the stench in the air was really weakened, and her whole body returned to a full state of mind.

"There is such a potion, why didn't you take it out earlier." She looked at Brian, frowned, and complained in a slightly dissatisfied tone.

She found that the guy was always self-centered.

No matter what he did, he would never discuss it with her in advance, and he would always wait until he took the initiative to ask questions before he would explain it, so that she didn't even know when the Fungus King gave him the potion.

"If you don't let you experience the characteristics of the spore servant in advance, I'm afraid you won't be able to adapt after entering. After all, we are facing the demon lord of the bottomless abyss. If you are not careful, you will lose your life."

Brian smiled and explained to her, then patted the dimension bag, took out a pair of gauntlets, and threw them to her:
"Remember, when dealing with the mushroom man and spore servants here, try not to come into close contact with them. Put this on, maybe it can help you in the next operation."

Hesaiah, who was still sulking secretly, became a little angrier when she heard his playful explanation, but when she saw an item handed to her by the other party, her eyes lit up and she immediately accepted it past.

The moment she got it, just as she guessed when she first saw it, the gauntlet that Brian gave her was made of an unknown magic silk, and the surface was covered with a layer of flexible magic metal.

She couldn't name her, so she could only call her that temporarily.

She caressed the surface of the glove, and faintly felt a thin layer of static electricity seeping out of the magic runes, jumping out strands of tiny arcs thinner than hair.

This made her immediately realize the extraordinaryness of this magic equipment, and even judged the quality of this magic equipment through the magic aura, even if it was compared with the most legendary equipment, it was not far behind.

Born in a famous noble family, Hesaiah has seen many kinds of magic equipment in the mage tower in Araby City.

But when she saw this piece of magic equipment, she clearly felt that the quality of this piece of equipment was definitely not lower than any excellent equipment she had ever seen.

"Is this for me?" Hesaiah looked at Brian and subconsciously expressed her true thoughts.

After speaking, she immediately regretted it.

It would be a bit embarrassing if the other party just borrowed this magical equipment for her own use, so that she unconsciously became guilty when she looked at Brian.

After all, in her eyes, although Brian always gave her the feeling of being so mysterious that it seemed that he was shrouded in a mist that was difficult to penetrate with the eyes from the beginning to the end, but after getting along with her for the past few days, she clearly found that the other party seemed to be a little bit greedy for money.

Because when hunting monsters with him, every time the battle ended, Brian would plunder every part of the monster's body, as long as it could be used.

What surprised her even more.

The two killed three purple worms back and forth together.

Brian not only peeled and cramped the huge body of the purple worm, broke down its carapace into small pieces and collected them, even the undigested things in the purple worm's stomach were not spared.

What made her even more horrified was that Brian would not let go of the slimy ooze.

If he hadn't found many gems in these disgusting ooze monsters, she would even think that the other party had some special hobbies.

What depressed Hesaiah the most was that she followed Brian to explore the lost mire temple of the ooze monster, and also entered the mansion of the missionary mage in another dimension.

All the loot the other party had looted had no intention of sharing some with him.

Well, although she doesn't care about these things, it always gives her the illusion that she is the other party's free thug.

Now, seeing Brian suddenly and generously handing herself such an extraordinary piece of magic equipment made her a little unbelievable, so that she blurted out such embarrassing words.

"If you think so, then so be it." Brian saw through the girl's little thought, he nodded indifferently, then changed the subject and said a little seriously:

"If you like it, don't stand here in a daze. Put it on quickly. I'll teach you how to use it. Our time is running out."

The reason why he gave this magical equipment to the other party was firstly because he didn't need it, and secondly because they were going to face the fungus queen Zugmoi next.

In this kind of battle that concerns his own safety, Brian naturally wants to strengthen himself or his teammates as much as possible.

As a sword mage who has reached the hero level, Hesaiah can definitely improve his strength greatly if he has the blessing of this magic equipment.

Of course, he still has a deeply hidden thought.

He took a fancy to Hesaiah's purple dragon seal ring and her special identity.

Befriending the sword mage in front of me, in addition to providing him with great help when returning to the surface world, during the journey in the Underdark, this noble lady is also an obedient and hard-working free guard and part-time experience. thugs.

All in all, it's very easy to use.

It is naturally impossible for Hisaiah at this time to know what Brian is thinking.

Hearing that the other party actually gave it to her, she was overjoyed, secretly relieved, and quickly nodded to him with a smile, and put it on her hand with joy, waiting for Brian to teach her how to use it.

There is no special activation password for this magic equipment.

Brian only explained to her the attributes and usage methods of the equipment, so that she can maximize the role of the equipment.

"Let's go."

After the explanation, he turned to look at the fungus garden heading to the highlands, and greeted Hesaiah.

Hisaiah nodded, quickly followed his footsteps, and looked at him with a strange look in his eyes.

During Brian's explanation, when she learned the true function of this piece of equipment, she immediately realized how suitable and important it was to herself as a sword mage.

It can be seen from this that the other party is quite careful in giving things.

And she can clearly feel that if this piece of equipment is brought back to the mage tower in Araby City for further strengthening, it definitely has the potential to be upgraded to legendary quality equipment.

Thinking that Brian, who has always been so stingy, would suddenly give him such a precious item, Hesaiah thought about it, walked quickly to his side, and said, "Brian, do you still remember my purple dragon seal ring?"

Hearing that the noble lady suddenly took the initiative to mention the purple dragon seal ring to him, Brian's expression changed, he slowed down, and said casually: "Of course I remember."

Can he not remember?

After all, the Purple Dragon Seal Ring was something he dreamed of getting in the game world.

Of course, in the current world, he still wanted it very much.

Because he has the seal ring of the purple dragon, he can carve out a territory for himself with the help of the purple dragon knights and the battle mage army.

"Actually, the reason why I own this ring is mainly for Mokou Town, an important border town between the Kingdom of Cormyr and the Ennook Desert."

Sisaiah put the ring back on the glove-covered finger, "If we return to the surface, I can make an exception and let you join the Battlemage Legion, after all."

"Stop it!"

Hearing this, Brian immediately interrupted Hisaiah's words, "I never thought about joining the Battle Mage Legion, so I don't need your extraordinary promotion."

Hesaiah's words made him want to laugh a little.

Because just now he was still thinking about making the other party his personal bodyguard, but she turned out to have the same idea as him.

She actually wanted to win him over with the excuse of taking back Mokou Town and become her subordinate.

She should be said to be naive, or overconfident.

Although he deeply regretted the demise of the Kingdom of Cormyr in his previous life, and wanted to prevent the continuation of the disaster after his rebirth, this did not mean that he would swear allegiance to the kingdom again.

After all, his goal is the star universe, how could his freedom be restricted by a small kingdom.

Between the two, at most it is a cooperative relationship, perhaps a vassal relationship, and it is naturally impossible for him to lower his status.

"Why do you say that?"

Hesaiah looked at Brian, who was obviously not joking, in surprise, "Have you forgotten your original intention and the Red Dragon Rebellion ten years ago?"

She thought that Brian, who was born in Mokou Town, would join her because of his determination to conquer the town, and help her fulfill this wish together.

In this case, she believed that with Brian's strength and potential, coupled with her own network, his status in the Kingdom of Cormyr would definitely be able to continue to rise.

Who would have thought that the other party would be completely indifferent to this matter, as if they had already forgotten about it.

While this confused her, it was also difficult to understand what Brian really thought.

Seeing the puzzled face of the girl in front of him, Brian knew that if he didn't make this matter clear today, this somewhat stubborn noble lady might be affected in the next battle.

He looked around vigilantly, and found that there were no spore servants for the time being, so he stopped in peace, stared at Sisaiah seriously, and admired her appearance.

The aristocratic lady wore knee-high boots, her slender legs were wrapped in tight old leather breeches, and a wide belt tied her coat around her slender waist. The hem of the shirt spread freely on her thighs, like a flowing skirt.

Although her pretty face looked haggard and morbidly pale due to her unfortunate encounters and past travels in the dark region, but under her curved eyebrows, a pair of silver-gray eyes were shining strangely. It conveys strong strength and sharp wisdom.

For Brian, what caught more attention was Hesaiah's long reddish-brown hair, which hung like silk on her fair face and hung down on her chest.

This made him have to admit that such an extraordinary beauty is indeed very exciting.

"I've never forgotten my original intention." Brian withdrew his gaze and said in a slightly dignified tone, "I've been working hard in that direction."

"Then why are you?" Hisaiah looked at him even more confused.

"Let me tell you a story about my original intention." Brian weighed his words and told her:

"When I was a girl, I used to like a girl, but she didn't like me because she liked rich people more, so when I was 25 years old and became the rich person in her mind, she Started to like me, but I'm not interested in her anymore."

"Does this have something to do with my original intention?" Hesaiah was stunned, and asked curiously: "Since you like her, why didn't you have any interest in her in the end?"

"Of course it does." Brian said with a smile:
"The reason why we didn't come together is because our original aspirations have not changed. You see, this 25-year-old girl still likes rich people, and the 25-year-old me still likes the girl, there is nothing wrong with it." ?”

After finishing speaking, he suppressed his smile, left the other party standing alone in a daze, turned around and continued walking forward.

"."

Hisaiah frowned and pondered for a moment. After she really couldn't figure it out, she looked at Brian's back helplessly, "What kind of weird logic is this?"

"Did he mean..." Thinking about it, Hesaiah suddenly realized the true meaning of Brian's words.

For a moment.

She suddenly felt that the gloves she was wearing were as heavy as lead.

It wasn't until this moment that she realized that from the moment she was rescued by Brian, the kindness she owed gradually accumulated, and it was difficult to repay it.

"Maybe there are other ways"

Hesaiah sighed softly, recalling her recent series of encounters, she readjusted her mood, hurriedly quickened her pace, and chased after her.

Obviously, the most important thing right now is to return to the surface first, instead of thinking about these messy things.

Speechless all the way.

When Brian led Sisaiah to the rotting fungus garden, he clearly felt the whispering became louder until it became a reverberation of whimpers, cries, and sighs.
The only light here was some glowing mushrooms growing on the edge of the terrace, but even in such darkness, he could not mistake the source of the sound.

He saw the heads of a dozen humanoids of various races from the Underdark peering from the ground, covered with creepy mold and fungus.

at this time.

While struggling, a female drow called out to the two of them in the Common Tongue, pleading, "Please... in the name of your benevolent gods of light... kill me quickly!"

Her moldy body kept struggling and shaking, finally revealing a bloated mass of flesh that used to be her arm, and a spider-shaped arm ornament half embedded in it.

Half of her face has been rotted by fungal cysts, which have become a breeding ground for various microscopic mushrooms.

She looked at the two of Brian with a look of fear, her bloated lips covered with tiny fungi, and tremblingly said, "The Great Sower...the trap...here she comes...Madam Rotten...Zugmoy..."

(End of this chapter)