Zen was eating his dinner when the reply from his party members came. He changed into the new clothes Liu Feng prepared for him and had to fold the sleeves a little. The blind assassin told Zen to eat while he went to resolve some matters but refused to divulge details about his errand.
Zen didn’t really mind. He was surprisingly exhausted after the tickle torture session and needed some alone time to plan his itinerary. There was a lot to prepare before he started his journey on the second dungeon floor. According to Sasha, who was the first to reply, the second floor was a fungi forest of doom.
Specifically, there were mushroom monsters on the second dungeon floor equipped with the most annoying abilities.
“So the mushrooms can explode into a puff of spores that will give the player negative effects?&r
Before making dungeon preparations, Zen scrolled through the general contact list and found Damian Gorski. He had a third of the academy’s students on his friend’s list, but Damian Gorski wasn’t one of them. Thankfully, it wasn’t difficult to find what he needed. Yet, the only problem bugging Zen was initiating contact.Liu Feng told him what Sasha had learned about Damian Gorski. The Russian sniper did not sound too happy about getting a door slammed in her face. The Cyborg never left his room apart from receiving deliveries from the invigilators that his family sent. He was often busy working on new inventions at the academy and frequently contacting them. Anyone could tell that Damian did not care about preparing for the events or clearing the dungeons. He was an oddball, but Zen could understand why.He hated to sound too pushy and r
After a while, Zen wondered if there was a better way to go around. Crawling looked ridiculous and was starting to exhaust him, even if this was virtual reality. Thankfully, the VR headset did not register his new fractured ribs as an injury, so he could continue crawling without repercussions.“Would wrapping a bandage over my face help?” Zen wondered.He looked ridiculous, crawling through the fog. If he wrapped a bandage around his face, it wouldn’t damage his rock bottom reputation. Zen tried not to think about the tinkle during the tickle session. If he did, he would probably die of mortification. The most important thing was to survive and be the person who gets that last laugh.Thankful for his basic crafting skills, Zen fashioned a poorly made [Cloth Mask] using the bandages. The item
Oh, wait. Zen saw the sign he missed earlier and finally understood why he strayed from the main and obvious path. The sign wasn’t on a post. It was hanging from a tree. If he recalled accurately, he crawled on the ground and tried to avoid the poison mist earlier. That would explain how he missed such an obvious thing.A blush of humiliation scattered across his virtual cheeks when the Godfather sent him a new tip.[The Godfather thinks you need to use blindness cure eyedrops in your inventory if you missed such an obvious sign. You have been awarded 100 credits.]Ok! That was his fault, but must the Godfather use tipping to communicate with him specifically? It wasn’t important advice or helpful comments. Zen had a feeling the Godfather paid special attention to him for an entirely different reason tha
Ping!Instead of the usual blue notification window notification he saw, Zen blinked in surprise at the purple notification screen.[You are about to unlock a unique quest. By proceeding with this quest, you abide by the rules of Omerta with Godfather Estrada and will not divulge details of the quest to any candidates in Godfather High. Do you wish to proceed?]Zen froze. Omerta with the Godfather?He wanted to decline at once, but there was no such option. Tearfully, he could only accept it and pray that his party members would ask him no questions. It was just a stupid detour from the main path. Why was he involved with another omerta? It was too unfair how he couldn’t even decline the unique quest!Those watching Zen
Zen found himself back at the Mushroom Maiden Shrine, and the viewers on his broadcast channel stared at the chestnut-haired teen. Nobody knew what happened when the channel was censored, but Zen’s confusion made them suspect he failed the Godfather’s Trial.While the world was swimming in speculation, Zen looked at his newly acquired secret skill that would not appear in his character profile card when shared with others, similar to his hidden titles.“Inspect.”===Unique Skill: Mandy’s Morse Code (Passive)Effects: Will give the user three taps on the left shoulder if someone is lying. Constantly activated during events, in dungeons and on school grounds.
In no time, Zen sought out all the mushroom monster variants in the forest. They could be found far from the main path and usually travelled alone. He realised that caps were not the only things these zombie puffballs could spawn with. Two rarer variant forms wore sunglasses and wigs. The wig-wearing mushroom variant dropped hair weaves, and the sunglasses-wearing variant dropped shade fragments.Zen had no idea what they did, but he kept them. Although he wasn’t a hoarder by nature, throwing them away would be a waste, especially when Zen had infinite game inventory to abuse. Who knew if these were crafting ingredients for Hernie’s requests in her chain quest? She was an accessory crafting NPC as well as a potion shop NPC. It was usually rare to find an NPC with two specialisations, but this dungeon made little sense so far. There was no way Hernie would not have a chain quest.
Circling the mountain, Zen found several smaller cave entrances that could be easily missed. In fact, not all those cave entrances led to the same Veiled Vampire Lady colony. These smaller caves were not as deep, and Zen easily found the variant purple mushroom monsters.He had no idea how these variant monsters were the same type of purple mushroom. Even if they had veiled wings, these mushrooms weren’t the ferocious kinds who would bite Zen. It reminded him about mosquitos. Female mosquitoes would suck blood but not the males. Similarly, these shyer variants of Veiled Mushrooms did not attack Zen. They tried to flee when Zen invaded their territory.Shing!The dagger sailed through the darkness and ripped through the silky veil, making the samurai hat variant mushroom fall onto the ground. Without their frag
“Welcome back,” Father Clarence greeted. “There are a lot of dangers lurking in the wilderness. Please be more careful during your adventure. If you require healing items or assistance, visit me at the chapel. May the goddess bless you.”Ah, one of the questions Zen was curious about was answered. Although the death wasn’t intentional, he was glad it happened.The Shady Merchant was just up ahead, but Father Clarence went the opposite direction. Zen watched him disappear through the stage entrance portal and blinked. Was that how he could travel freely between unlocked floors in the dungeon?Curious but unwilling to test the theory yet, Zen silently thanked the healer NPC and sighed. Now that he was back at the stage entrance, perhaps he could follow the main route that everyone else to