They Wanted a Hero. They Made a Monster: Born at the Bottom
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 48: Into the Dungeon
At the foot of the stairway leading to the Sixth Stratum, several oversized pack Puffcaps worked busily with their mycelial tendrils, bundling the last monster remains.
Once they finished this trip, every trophy the Puffcaps collected during the Monster Tide would have been returned to the Mycelial Garden.
The enormous supply of fertilizer and abundant mana produced astonishing results. In just over a week, mushroom patches of every size had begun taking shape across the stratum.
After another week, the garden might become even more prosperous than before the Monster Tide.
Even Evan had to admire the growth rate of mushroom species.
Venom Lake was the exception.
Its contamination had grown worse.
At first, only the ground immediately surrounding the lake had become dead land. Now the affected area extended five hundred yards.
Evan regretted not studying the Three-Headed Serpent’s skills more carefully.
What kind of poison could be this vicious?
Fortunately, the contamination had finally stopped spreading over the past two days. Evan had no idea how long the natural ecosystem would take to recover.
As for the Mirages in the lake...
A six-foot oversized pack Puffcap trudged toward the water, its hollow body filled with harvested mushrooms.
It left a footprint with every step because the venom corroded a layer from each foot whenever it touched the ground.
Only the Puffcap’s enormous size allowed any part of its feet to remain when it reached the shore.
It rolled down the slope and into the lake, carrying its bellyful of mushrooms with it.
The waiting Mirages swarmed forward and began their feast, one meal every two days.
Evan had ultimately decided to raise them. The lake was useless for anything else in its present condition.
The creatures were not very aggressive. At worst, they spat a little venom, and they remained within the lake instead of wandering elsewhere.
Living in Venom Lake also protected them from adventurers. Even if someone passed nearby later, few would dare target them.
Naturally, Evan raised them for what he could harvest.
The average Mirage was only around LV10 and possessed a small body, so the mana and XP it provided were negligible.
Only Underwater Adaptation and Scale Armor held value, especially Scale Armor.
After decomposing large numbers of Dragonbeasts with that skill, Evan had acquired it himself as a matter of course.
He discovered that it was far more convenient than the shell he currently used!
Scale Armor offered respectable defense while remaining lighter and more flexible than an external shell.
The Mirages now provided a stable source of the skill.
In the future, only digging Puffcaps would probably continue using shells to break stone.
As the Mycelial Garden flourished again, Evan began considering the other strata.
He did not know why human adventurers still had not resumed their activities so long after the Monster Tide.
For Evan, that was not necessarily a bad thing.
He used the quiet period to send many Puffcaps outward.
Their task was simple. In hidden corners of the first four strata, or places local monsters could not easily reach, they scattered spores and produced several mushrooms to serve as remote observation points.
When too few hyphae grew in one location, they could not transmit images, only mana fluctuations.
Even so, these small outposts could serve as relays linking larger external mycelial mats back to the Fifth Stratum.
Why did Evan need large mycelial mats outside his territory?
Because he could not bear to see monster carcasses from the other strata go to waste!
Evan could decompose the bodies for mana and skills, then grow mushrooms to replenish the local food supply and restore the ecosystem.
Everyone would enjoy a brighter future.
Unfortunately, the Mycelial Garden still required extensive rebuilding, and Evan did not possess enough Puffcaps.
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