Mushroom Lord in the Underground City-Chapter 396 - 388: Missed the Right Moment

Norris, with dark circles under his eyes, tiredly scrutinized the two dwarves before him, who had kept him from sleeping well for several days.

Picking up his notepad, he asked:

"Can you design underground architecture?"

"No."

"Do you have experience in large-scale cave excavation?"

"No."

"Then surely you have some experience in mine extraction?"

"None whatsoever..."

Norris finally asked: "Then you must have some kind of specialty, right?"

Tolin scratched his head and answered uncertainly: "Uh... adept at adventuring?"

Norris nodded expressionlessly, writing "None" under the specialty column, followed by "C Level" in the upper right corner.

He muttered to himself: "No mining experience, and yet they call themselves dwarves..."

In Mushroom Garden’s captivity grading system, C Level is the lowest, classified as having neither exceptional skills nor special utility.

As for those below it in D Level... they are exclusive talents personally "attended" by the Boss.

Completing the records, Norris announced the sentence to the dwarves in fluent Universal Language:

"Tolin, Gleam, due to your illicit entry, public bribery, collective jailbreak, violent detention, and attempted abduction of intellectually impaired Dragon Man among other crimes, you are sentenced to labor reform of five thousand Contribution Points. If you have any objections, you may appeal to Mushroom Garden within five days, judged personally by the Boss."

Tolin raised his hand: "May I ask... what exactly does labor reform of five thousand Contribution Points mean?"

"It means working tirelessly every day, enough to accumulate Contribution Points and regain freedom in about one to two years."

Gleam protested: "We are innocent! We didn’t even know this was your territory; it’s all a misunderstanding! I want to ap..."

Before he could finish, a group of Puki dragged a loudly wailing human past them: "Why! Why did the appeal raise the penalty from 8000 Contribution Points to 12000? I don’t want this! I don’t want it!"

After the unfortunate individual was dragged away, Norris turned back and asked: "What was it you wanted? It was too noisy earlier, I didn’t hear clearly."

Tolin and Gleam shook their heads, indicating they had no other questions.

Subsequently, they were handed over to a scantily clothed human covered in mycelium, most notably marked with a "B" shaped symbol on his chest.

The person appeared quite enthusiastic: "Oh? Two dwarves? That’s quite unusual! I’m Jeff, responsible for familiarizing you with the work environment. What are your names?"

"Tolin."

"Gleam. You... were you captured by them as well?"

"Captured?" Jeff looked at them curiously, "No, I was traded."

Without further clarification, Jeff took them to get accustomed to their future tasks.

The fortress city of Far North’s completion level is still below half, naturally never having too much labor, and the two dwarves were thus assigned there.

Being captured by the Demon Race and used as labor was considered, among worse possibilities, relatively less bad.

Regarding regaining freedom, they reserved some skepticism—hoping it was true, yet dare not believe it.

Oddly, the Demon Race here all seemed to have mycelium presence on their bodies, and during work, they cooperated quite well with groups of Puki.

This scene was rather novel to them.

Soon, they discovered there were distinctions among the Demon Race too.

Those within the Demon Race who have a Demon Core on their chest are typically Supervisors or task assigners.

While Half-demons and Lizardmen are mostly laborers like the humans present, making the Lizardman who announced their sentence a peculiar case.

Of course, they didn’t care too much about the internal class distinctions within the Demon Race; their concern was another matter entirely now.

"Jeff, one question... why... do you all dress so thinly here? Aren’t you afraid of the cold?"

With the chill wind blowing, Tolin and Gleam clung tighter to the beast-hide clothes issued to them, sneezing harshly!

Jeff turned around and flipped open Gleam’s clothes, and was immediately enlightened: "You haven’t completed the symbiosis with the mycelium yet!"

Gleam yanked back his clothes, yelling as the cold wind whipped him: "Symbiosis with mycelium? You mean like what’s on you? What does this have to do with being cold?"

Jeff smoothed the mycelium on his chest, saying: "This type of mycelium has a strong cold resistance. Just symbiosis and you won’t feel cold anymore. Not only that, symbiosis also allows you to command Puki, significantly boosting work efficiency."

Only then did the two dwarves realize what the scene of joint labor with Puki they saw earlier was about.

Tolin still couldn’t wrap his head around: "Symbiosis with mycelium makes you not fear the cold? How does that work?"

Jeff shrugged, how would he know!

Suddenly, as if remembering something, he looked at the two dwarves with a hint of sympathy.

"What now...?" Gleam asked uneasily.

Jeff explained: "I know why you weren’t symbiotized. You didn’t arrive at a good time..."

Then, he led the clueless dwarves to the central notice board, where many sheets of parchment were posted.

These parchments were marked with both Demon Language and Universal Language.

Some listed tasks and corresponding Contribution Points, some displayed names and penalties of rule violators, while others were simply announcements.

Jeff pointed to one announcement:

[Due to actions by neighboring tribe members intentionally trespassing for free full symbiosis services, as of now, newly captured individuals will no longer enjoy free symbiosis services. However, considering work needs, new captives can still apply for a "first enjoy, then pay" service, wherein the required one thousand Contribution Points for symbiosis will be directly included in their work accounts.]

"This is..."

"That’s it, you missed the good times. When I arrived, these were freely provided to all laborers; blame those tribal folks always scheming for loopholes and freebies." Saying this, Jeff proudly stroked the mycelium on his arm.

Tolin opened his mouth, yet didn’t know where to begin ranting.

Gleam looked at Jeff as if he were an idiot, feeling this guy and everyone here seemed a bit mentally troubled.

No matter how cold-resistant it is?

Having such foreign objects integrated within one’s flesh, even thinking about it gave them the creeps.

Must’ve gotten their brains frozen!

...

Several days later.

"Why? Three days! I’ve worked hard for three days! Why only 5 points of Contribution Points? Whereas you earn over thirty in a single day?" Gleam shouted in anger.

Fortunately, Jeff across from him didn’t mind the dwarf’s temper, patiently explained: "Contribution Points are calculated based on the amount of work done. I control over forty Pakis, so naturally, I do more work and earn more Contribution Points. You rely solely on yourself; earning 6 points in three days is already impressive."

"6 points? It’s obviously 5 points!"

"That extra point is for heating Pakis services; Mushroom Garden only covers food and accommodation for us captive laborers."

Lastly, Jeff kindly advised: "I think you should complete the symbiosis soon. Although now it costs a thousand Contribution Points, actually being able to control Pakis quickly earns back this amount, and from then on it’s nothing but benefits."

Looking at the earnest "senior" before them, the two dwarves shivering in the cold wind were somewhat swayed.