“Although… seeing Our Lord so cheerfully accepting the reality of being turned into a girl, I’m afraid… all that talk of ‘not wanting it’ was just for show. At home, you probably have mountains of women’s clothing, wearing a new outfit every single day without a single repeat…”
Before the Time Devourer could finish, Weilin unceremoniously brought her fist down hard on the little loli’s head.
“Tch! Can you please stop foreseeing such boring things in the future?!”
“……”
There was no Head-Holding Squat Defense, nor any cry of pain. She merely ducked her little head slightly, then sank into a self-reproachful lament born from the deep regret that her million years of wisdom had still led her to anger her Master. “Foolish… (I) am utterly foolish…”
“Alright, I wasn’t really blaming you…”
Weilin reached out and stroked her soft, gray hair, letting out a gentle sigh. “…Now that the 29 Little Masters can no longer manage and protect the mines with me, it’s even more important for the rest of us to be united and caring.”
(Time Devourer) Shi Luo nodded firmly. “As long as I am here, every living being in the Eternal Mineshaft will zealously prostrate themselves before the Master…”
“No… that’s not what I meant!” Weilin said, helpless. “It seems you still don’t understand.”
“No, the Master’s intention is clear to me.”
Shi Luo’s crystalline eyes refracted a terrifying divine might as she spoke in an unquestionably solemn tone. “However, the lowly should be as dust, and only the noble enjoy privileges. Even within the Eternal Mineshaft, the law of the jungle prevails… And as the absolute, sole, supreme ruler of the Eternal Mineshaft, the Master can decide life or death with a single thought… Therefore, I implore you, in your conduct and speech towards your subordinates henceforth, to always maintain the dignity and reserve befitting a Supreme Overlord…”
“—Of course, I will also constantly supervise and correct the Master.”
Shi Luo’s childish face was filled with a serious intensity. It seemed she truly intended to guide the easy-going Lega Weilin into becoming a proper Supreme Overlord.
Back when the other 29 companions were still around, each contributing a little effort had kept the mines in perfect order. But now, bearing this heavy responsibility alone, Weilin had to manage several Lv. 100 Guardians all by herself, in a strange world where true “death” was a reality…
Precisely because Little Shi’s words made so much sense and were impossible to refute, Weilin could only bite her lower lip in frustration…
A long moment passed.
Finally, it dissolved into a soft sigh, seemingly one of compromise and acceptance.
“These are things… I’ll slowly learn in the days to come…”
“Mm.”
As long as the Master accepted it. Shi Luo’s eyes showed a hint of relief as she nodded gently.
In the dark, profound void behind them, where no swirling wind currents flowed, a mass of pale blue mist drifted over eerily.
To the eye, the blue mist seemed to move extremely slowly, yet it crossed a thousand meters in the blink of an eye. In less than two breaths, the mist suddenly enveloped the area where Weilin and Shi Luo stood.
“Eh, what’s that smell… so fragrant…”
A look of surprise flashed across the girl’s face. Her delicate nose twitched slightly as a rich, deep fragrance shot straight into her nostrils, spreading through her heart and soul, instantly making every bone in her body go soft…
“I FING!!!!!!!!!”
As if a bolt of cold lightning shot through her entire body, a split second later, the girl couldn’t help but let out a curse. She pinched her nose tightly and shouted, utterly infuriated, “…Damn it! Mushroom! Get the hell out here!! Take your spores back right now!!”
“No~t possib~le, you know~~~”
Within the blue mist, all manner of colorful fungal creatures—Poria, Big Head Mushrooms, Enoki Mushrooms—began to burst forth from the dark soil, growing at a visible speed like Jack’s magic beans. They broke through the ground and expanded rapidly, forming vast colonies of fungi.
Amidst this dreamlike, multi-colored radiance, a young girl with long, pink hair trailing to the ground, her hair and dress teeming with various fungi, bloomed like the purest, most dazzling white lotus in the dim underground world…
【Mushroom Empress, Lv. 100】
Residing in the ‘Dreaming Wetland’ on the first floor, the Mushroom Empress, one of the Guardians, was an almost immortal Demonic Beast fungus. Her direct combat ability was pitifully weak, but her hallucinogenic, toxic, and parasitic abilities were such that not even a Saint Realm expert could hope to escape unscathed…
Even the three mighty Underground Demonic Beasts, if parasitized by the Mushroom Empress’s spores and not cleansed in time, were basically as good as dead.
Mushroom’s large, glistening eyes rippled with dreamy waves as her milky voice chirped with irrepressible glee: “Master-chin, this isn’t a ‘Parasitic Spore’, it’s a ‘Birthing Spore’, you know~~”
“It’s completely harmless to the Master! It combines with your universally supreme Mana genes and breeds an existence even greater than the sum of its parts… an existence even more powerful than Master-chin herself! Guh hee hee… Gahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!”
That soft, sweet, coquettish voice transformed without any warning into a Yandere’s mad cackle, akin to Yuno Gasai’s—chaotic, depraved, and spine-chilling.
Because Mushroom had 36,000 genders, and nearly all fungi in the world were essentially her avatars… Therefore, this was an “evil corruption” originating from the very soul of the Mushroom Empress, a chaotic blend of over 36,000 genders!
This young girl, who looked even more harmless than the Time Devourer loli, was undoubtedly the Guardian within the entire mine most inclined towards ‘Chaotic Evil’…
“I don’t care whether it’s a Parasitic Spore or a Birthing Spore! No means no!” Weilin turned away, huffing angrily. She called out, “Little Shi!”
Shi Luo nodded calmly. She raised a slender finger and pointed it gently at Weilin.
“Don’t…!” Mushroom cried out in shock.
It was too late. At the very space where Shi Luo’s young finger pointed, a colorless clock suddenly materialized. Its second, minute, and hour hands spun at a frantic speed, generating powerful spatial ripples. A nearly transparent energy shot out from within, merging directly into Weilin’s body.
‘Time Reversal’ and ‘Time Acceleration’.
Her physical condition was reverted to what it was twenty-four hours prior.
And the attached spores were instantaneously aged by ten thousand hours, withering and dying.
“……Aaaaaaaaaah, again with this! Again! Time Devourer-sama, you are just so hateful!!” Mushroom turned her face away, fuming with rage. “Does Devourer-sama not want the Master’s and my spores to combine and breed the mightiest Demonic Beast in history?! That way, the Eternal Mineshaft would dominate the continent in wealth and military power alike!”
“I certainly do.”
Shi Luo blurted out almost without thinking. But then, turning her gaze with the oppressive might of a Grand Steward, she coldly added, “…But in all matters, the Master’s will comes first. If you do this again, I will lock you in a ‘Time Confinement’ for three thousand years!”
At the mention of ‘Time Confinement’, even the wicked, insane resentment of the Mushroom Empress was obediently reined in.
“Apologize to the Master.”
Shi Luo commanded sternly.
The fungal young girl, not even a meter tall, pouted her lips and respectfully lowered her body. Her voice reverted to that pitiable, childish sweetness. “Master-chin, so sorry about that…”
“—In that case, I’ll just have to wait until the day I kill Time Devourer-sama, and then I can come back and cover Master-chin in my spores… Hee hee hee…”
