This highland deep in the lightless forest is higher than the terraces everywhere, and is surrounded by a circle of towering Zeke wood mushroom stalks, forming a natural fence.

In the quiet atmosphere, there were only vague murmurs coming from the high ground from time to time.

Brian and Hesiah moved toward the high ground with cautious steps.

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

Hesiah frowned and covered his mouth and nose. Even Brian had to work hard to steady his breathing to prevent himself from suffocating.

He clearly felt that the stench was mixed with a disgusting strong mushroom aroma, which was the smell of rotting fungi.

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

To be honest, he was really worried that this girl wouldn't be able to stand this kind of atmosphere, so she wouldn't even have the courage to go in.

Because the high ground ahead is the newly established association of the myconids - the Masters Association.

The members of the association are all myconids inspired by the fungus queen Zugmoy.

These myconids greedily share the pleasant images of Philo, the myconid king, through the spores of Zugmoy.

And they searched the Underdark for the corpses of various races and monsters to conduct experiments on activated spores, so that their territory looked like a fungus garden full of filth.

With her strong willpower, Hesiah resisted vomiting out everything in her stomach. She turned to Brian, her face pale but full of determination, "It's okay, I can still hold on, let's go..."

."

Just then.

A terrifying, mucus-like roar, together with the stench of dead fungi, came from the high ground toward which they were heading.

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

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

Hesiah's rune sword suddenly shone with bright rune light, and her silver-gray eyes stared at the two strange, round creatures, their bodies looming in front of Brian.

These two roaring monsters have three rotten thighs, and their eyes and noses are arranged on a vine-like fleshy handle, twisting and swinging from the top of their bloated and ulcerated bodies.

The monster's thick dark green liquid is constantly oozing from the many fungal pustules on their bodies.

As they ran and roared with phlegm, little drops of juice fell on the sparkling bacteria on the ground.

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

Any creature of Large or smaller size can be resurrected by the Myconoid's animated spores and become a spore slave.

The biggest difference between them and undead creatures is that their whole bodies are covered with small mushrooms similar to mold. Both their smell and appearance are more terrifying and disgusting than undead creatures.

——"Freeze ray!"

Brian stretched out his finger from a distance, and an icy blue ray hit the scavenger spore slave rushing toward him.

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

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

"Get out of the way!"

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

"Um?"

Hearing Brian's cry, Hesiah looked stunned and instinctively prepared to stay away from the body of the spore slave.

Unfortunately it's too late.

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

Immediately afterwards, the monster's deflated body quickly dissolved into the sparkling bacteria on the ground.

Smelling the fragrant scent, Hesiah suddenly felt that his vision became a little blurry, followed by dizziness, numbness of the limbs and weakness of the legs.

She shook her head suddenly and quickly retreated from the spore cloud. Only then did the feeling gradually subside and she slowly regained consciousness.

"Drink this."

Brian walked up to Hesiah and handed her a small gourd-shaped mushroom. "This is a magic potion prepared by the Myconid King. After drinking it, you can be immune to most myconid spores. Of course, it can also block fungi."

The effect of stench.”

Hesiah put away the rune sword and drank the potion in one gulp without any doubt.

The sweet, mushroom-flavored liquid entered her throat. She immediately felt that the stench in the air had really weakened a lot, and her whole body returned to a full mental state.

"If you have this potion, why didn't you take it out earlier?" She looked at Brian, frowned, and complained in a slightly dissatisfied tone.

She found that this guy was always self-centered in everything he did.

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

"If I don't let you experience the characteristics of the spore servants 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 explained to her with a smile, then patted the dimensional bag, took out a pair of gauntlets, and threw them to her:

"Remember, when dealing with the myconids and spore slaves here, try not to get close to them. Wear this. Maybe it can help you in the next action."

Hesaya, who was still secretly sulking, became a little more angry 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 had guessed when she first saw it, the gauntlet Brian gave her was made of an unknown magic silk, with a layer of flexible... magic on the surface.

Metal.

I can't call her by a specific name, so I can only call her that for the time being.

She gently touched the surface of the gloves, and faintly felt a thin layer of static electricity seeping out from the magic runes, and wisps of tiny electric arcs that were thinner than hair.

This made her immediately realize how extraordinary this magical equipment was, and she even judged the quality of this magical equipment through the magic aura. Even compared with the most inferior legendary equipment, it was not much different.

Born into a noble family, Hesiah had seen many kinds of magic equipment in the mage tower in Arabey City.

But when she saw this magical equipment, she clearly felt that the quality of this equipment was definitely not inferior to any outstanding equipment she had ever seen.

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

After saying that, she immediately regretted it.

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

After all, in her eyes, although Brian always gave her a mysterious feeling, as if there was a layer of mist that was difficult to penetrate with eyes from beginning to end, but after getting along with her in the past few days, she clearly found that there seemed to be something a little bit more about him.

...greed of money.

Because when hunting monsters with him, at the end of every battle, Brian would plunder all parts of the monster's body, as long as they could use anything.

What surprised her even more was...

The two of them killed three purple insects together.

Brian not only peeled off the purple worm's huge body, but also broke its carapace into small pieces and collected them. He even didn't let go of the undigested things in the purple worm's stomach.

What shocked her even more was that Brian didn't even let go of the slimy ooze monsters.

If he hadn't found many gems in these disgusting ooze monsters, she would have even thought that they had some special hobbies.

What depresses Hesaya the most is that she followed Brian to explore the lost mire temple of the ooze monster, and also entered the preacher's mansion in another dimension.

All the trophies the other party collected had no intention of sharing any of them with him.

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

Now, seeing Brian suddenly so generously handing her such an extraordinary quality magical equipment, it really made her a little unbelievable, so much so that she blurted out such embarrassing words.

"If you think so, then let it be." Brian saw through the girl's little thoughts. He nodded indifferently, then changed the subject and said slightly seriously:

"If you like it, don't stand here in a daze. Put it on quickly and I'll teach you how to use it. We don't have much time."

The reason why he gave this magical equipment to the other party was firstly because he had no use for it, and secondly because they were facing the fungus queen Zugmoy 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, Xisaya's strength will definitely be greatly improved if he has the blessing of this magical equipment.

Of course, he also has a very hidden little thought.

He took a fancy to Hesayah's Purple Dragon Seal Ring and her special identity.

Befriending the sword mage in front of you will not only provide him with great help when he returns to the surface world, but also during the journey to the Underdark, this noble lady is also an obedient, hard-working and free guard who works part-time to gain experience.

thug.

All in all, it is very easy to use.

It was naturally impossible for Hesiah to know Brian's thoughts at this time.

When she heard that the other party actually gave it to her, she looked happy and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She quickly nodded to him with a smile and put it on her hand with a face full of joy, waiting for Brian to teach her how to use it.

There is no special activation password for this magical equipment.

Brian only explained to her the properties and usage of the equipment, so that she could maximize the effectiveness of the equipment.

"Let's go."
To be continued...