“Friends, look what I found!”
Lumina enthusiastically held a pile of mushrooms, showing her teammates the good things she had gathered.
While studying in the Labyrinth, their meals consisted only of the dry rations they carried, which were anything but delicious.
However, her kind attempt to improve the team’s meals did not earn her any praise. The three people by the campfire only gave a cold glance before looking away.
“Mushrooms? Can those things be eaten? Won’t they be poisonous?”
“Idiot, she’s an elf. How could she not distinguish between what’s poisonous or not?”
“Aren’t elves usually blond or light-golden with emerald eyes? Since when do they have white hair and purple eyes?”
“A half-breed, obviously. What else could she be?”
“So she’s a mutt.”
Lumina’s gentle smile faltered and froze on her face. For a moment, she was at a loss, standing awkwardly by the fire.
Elves had excellent hearing, so even their whispers fell clearly into her ears.
“Leave it to me.”
Raymond, a Knight and the captain of this temporary squad, took the mushrooms from the elf’s hands to relieve her embarrassment.
His excellent social skills and strong abilities allowed him to command respect. Everyone believed he would achieve the best results in this squad, as his performance was obvious to all.
“This is a huge help, Lumina. Drinking plain water and chewing dry rations all day will definitely drive someone crazy. For us, being able to drink a bowl of delicious mushroom soup in the Labyrinth is even more effective than a Great Heal.”
Raymond comforted the lonely elf while preparing the mushrooms.
He knew how to deal with her — he just needed to say a few nice words and acknowledge her contribution to the team.
She was very easy to fool.
“Really? Thank you.”
Lumina’s eyes brightened slightly.
But immediately after, a voice she detested came from the side.
“Yo, Raymond, playing with the fool again?”
The Knight Captain’s expression hardened. He glanced at the guy who had jumped in while he was building favorability and said seriously, “Don’t go too far, Sigil. This is an internship, and the mentor is watching. You wouldn’t want to lose points because of this, would you?”
The team’s troublemaker let out a dry laugh. He stole a glance at the distant mentor and gave up on his intentions to continue causing mischief.
Lumina found a spot far away from them and sat down alone.
She knew she wasn’t liked.
Since they knew the characteristics of elves, they naturally knew her hearing was excellent. Therefore, that conversation had not been hidden from her at all.
Despite her anger, she only thought of asking them to stop. Unfortunately, she didn’t even have the courage to say that much.
Her anger flared for a moment and then flickered out.
Lumina’s thoughts drifted, somehow landing on that mushroom growing in the narrow crack.
Perhaps because their situations were similar, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of sympathy, even if it was just a mushroom.
But sympathy was all she could offer.
She had the desire to save and change things, but after working for a while, it had all been in vain. She couldn’t even help a mushroom, let alone change her own circumstances.
‘I wish there was someone who could pull me out of this narrow crack and into an unfettered world.’
The elven girl stared blankly, hugging her knees and looking straight ahead with empty eyes.
In those magnificent eyes, which looked like a large cluster of violets, a terrifying figure was reflected.
Eh?
Nearly 5 meters long with pitch-black fur and a streamlined body, the Shadow Wolf King didn’t look massive in the large cavern, which was over 10 meters high. However, to a human, it was a lingering nightmare.
The sharp claws of the beast pierced the chest of the mentor leading the group. The magic runes constructed around him shattered instantly, turning into stardust.
‘This is the Second Floor, how could there be…’ He couldn’t understand, and he didn’t have time to think. He turned his head and roared at the stunned students, “Run! Scatter and run!”
The faint glow of magic gathered once more. As a teacher, he fulfilled his duty until the very last moment of his life.
Lumina didn’t know how she started running. Her body was tired and her legs were weak, but she couldn’t stop. Although her life wasn’t very pleasant, she didn’t want to die yet.
Her feet stumbled, and she was tripped by something, falling to the ground. It was painful, but the fear in her heart outweighed the injury. She managed to stand up and reached out her hand, wanting to call for help from her teammates ahead.
Unfortunately, it was too late. The unique stench of a monster mixed with a metallic, bloody scent filled her nose. In the next moment, she felt a sharp pain in her waist, and then her consciousness fell into a silent darkness.
She didn’t want to die. She couldn’t die yet.
“I’ll take care of your wife and children, so you can go in peace.”
In her final moments, a strange sentence entered her mind. Even though she was about to die, Lumina couldn’t help but feel confused.
‘Where would I get a wife from?’
—
This was going to be a slaughter.
When the ultra-long health bars appeared over the heads of these adventurers without them noticing, Ning Lan had already predicted the outcome.
Even though there was a Level 68 powerhouse among the humans.
He thought that with a level difference of more than ten, the other party should have been able to handle it with ease. Who would have thought that a single sneak attack would render him unable to rise again, dying so cleanly?
Ning Lan secretly reminded himself that the world wasn’t a simple game. Data and levels were just a System Panel provided for reference — accurate, but not absolute. He couldn’t rely too much on this cheat.
Of course, he guessed that the wolf king had recently become a floor boss, and the adventurers were unaware of it, which was why they were so defenseless.
Perhaps things would have been different under other circumstances, but there were no “perhaps” in this world. No matter how high the level or how strong the power, there was no chance to use it now.
When disaster strikes, everyone fends for themselves. Ning Lan saw them scattering. The elf was intentionally tripped by someone to slow down the wolf king’s pace.
The beast quickly caught up, opening its jaws, and blood gushed out.
After a bout of tearing and biting, she was like a broken rag doll, discarded carelessly by the roadside while the wolf king continued to track the scent of the escaping adventurers.
The main characters of this drama had all left, leaving him with a mess.
As luck would have it, the elven Priest who was flung away landed right next to his main body.
Ning Lan’s feelings toward the girl who had almost eaten him were quite complicated.
As a mushroom, anyone who wanted to eat him was an enemy. After all, what they ate was a mushroom, but what they took was his life.
But the enemy who had almost eaten him was now lying before him.
To say he felt the joy of revenge or felt like cheering would be a lie.
Watching the violet-like eyes of the elf slowly dim and glaze over while the bright red liquid from her abdomen formed a pool of blood, he felt only a hint of the sorrow one feels for a fallen peer.
And a bit of annoyance at how troublesome the cleanup would be.
Why did she have to die right in front of him?
Such a large corpse was much more conspicuous than a patch of mushrooms. It would be dangerous if it attracted creatures that could crawl into the rocky crevices.
Although it had never been safe here, it was better to keep things as they were until he found a way to leave.
Right now, the surrounding area was bare. The Purple Mushrooms had either been picked or stepped on. It would take a few days for the original ecosystem to recover.
Fortunately, he still had skills.
Even though the effect was minor, it performed well for quickly creating cannon fodder.
In a way, feeding the enemy before they could eat him was also a safety measure.
Ning Lan used the skill **[Spread Spores]**. The mushroom cap shook slightly, and light gray dust drifted out, landing on the elf who was gradually losing her life.
His MP was only 1 point, which was just enough to cast the skill once. However, the recovery speed of 1 point per second made this flaw negligible.
At least it didn’t give him a skill that cost more than his maximum MP. That would have been like looking at a plum to quench thirst — purely tantalizing.
After using **[Spread Spores]** a few more times, he had done all he could.
He had experimented before; these spores would quickly grow into mushrooms. He figured they would be able to decompose the elf’s body completely and restore the area to its original state.
**[Individual Level increased: Level 1 > Level 3]**
**[Spread Spores: Level 1 > Level 2]**
**[Obtained Title: {Man-Eater}]**
**[Basic attributes have increased]**
Ning Lan’s consciousness wavered.
‘I leveled up? Why?’