In everyone’s eyes, the silver-armored captain sprinted across the waves; his holy sword flashed once, and the ferocious Pigman leader was cleanly split in two.
As for the magic arrow that had crippled the Pigman’s wrist at the crucial moment—few had even noticed it.
The Pigman soldiers, already demoralized by the relentless arrow rain from the sea that they could not fight back against, now completely lost their will to resist when their leader fell.
Though they still held overwhelming numbers, they broke ranks and fled in all directions.
The guards accompanying Sofia showed no mercy to the enemies turning their backs to run. They pursued swiftly; sword flashes rose and fell, and the Pigmen’s death cries echoed across the ruins.
But there were only twenty-some guards in total.
Facing over five hundred Pigmen scattering in different directions, even at full effort they could not completely exterminate them.
And the surviving soldiers from Golden Valley, who should have joined the counterattack, were instead lying twisted on the ground, their mouths hanging open in silly smiles.
The hallucinogenic spores released by the pujis made no distinction between friend and foe; while they had stopped the Pigmen’s charge, they had also rendered most of their own allies unconscious.
At the bow of the ship, Sofia drew her bow once more.
This time she aimed at a Pigman rolling and scrambling to escape—nearly four kilometers away.
The magic arrow streaked through the air but only grazed his heel before sinking into the dirt.
The fleeing Pigman, terrified for his life, didn’t even notice how narrowly he had brushed death.
Seeing this, Sofia sighed helplessly and lowered her bow. Four kilometers was still a bit beyond her current limit.
Besides, her trembling right hand showed that her body was nearing its limit as well.
“About half of them got away,” Sofia said with some regret.
“That was expected,” sighed Priest Samuel.
If not for Sofia’s insistence, they wouldn’t have revealed themselves at all.
Saving one small squad did nothing for the greater war effort—and risked exposing the Hero’s location.
The Hero had only just reached Diamond rank; though her strength far exceeded that of ordinary humans, against the entire Demon race, she was still far too weak. For now, secrecy and patience were their only shields.
In truth, if not for the strange activity of the island mists recently, which made them wary of potential threats, they wouldn’t even have been in these waters at this time.
Sofia was simply too kind-hearted. She understood Samuel’s rule of avoiding uncertain dangers and usually obeyed it—but when disaster struck before her eyes, she couldn’t stand by and do nothing.
Samuel often sighed inwardly; if only Sofia had been summoned earlier, perhaps the catastrophe from three hundred years ago would never have happened.
“Parasitic… connected mycelium network… pujis…” Sofia’s murmuring caught Samuel’s attention.
At that moment, the ship still maintained a distance of about two kilometers from shore.
For Samuel, rescuing survivors was acceptable—but the Hero’s true face must never be exposed to outsiders.
At this range, he could roughly sense what was happening on shore, but as for clear observation, only Sofia could manage that.
Not to mention, she had her mysterious “panel,” which made her reconnaissance ability even greater than Samuel’s, despite his being a hall-tier priest.
“Samuel,” Sofia suddenly said, “those people on the shore—most of them seem to be parasitized by some kind of mycelium. Do you know what’s going on?”
Samuel shook his head. He’d been drifting at sea with the Hero for more than half a year, with only a handful of contacts with the Archbishop. Those few communications exchanged only key intelligence; this sort of ‘parasitic phenomenon’ was never mentioned.
Still, relying on experience, he analyzed calmly:
“Those on the shore appear to be some kind of mutated pujis. If it’s a mycelial parasite, it’s probably a method of connected control.”
“Parasitic? Isn’t that dangerous?” Bella asked from behind.
“I don’t know,” Samuel replied evenly, seemingly unbothered. “But as long as it can be used to fight the Demons and buy us time, a small price is acceptable. Lady Sofia, we should return.”
Sofia looked one last time toward the shore, her gaze falling on the pujis that had sat down in place after losing their masters’ control.
These mushroom creatures had remarkably low stats, yet their skill levels were unusually high—a curious contradiction that fascinated Sofia.
“Bella, I’ll leave the shore to you. Handle everything under the captain’s supervision. I’m afraid he’ll just abandon those unconscious people if left alone.”
“Leave it to me!” Bella replied cheerfully.
She used her ocean staff to cast [Walk on Water] under her feet, then handed the staff to Samuel, leaping off the ship and sprinting toward the coast.
…
Lin Jun’s “camera” was hidden among the idle pujis.
Angela’s injuries had stabilized thanks to the parasitic mycelium.
There was no particular purpose in infecting her specifically—it was simply that, after learning more about these beastmen’s situation, Lin Jun felt he could invest a little more attention in them.
Since this female beastman could be saved so easily, there was no reason to let her die.
The sudden arrival of reinforcements had surprised Lin Jun. That ship looked familiar—he remembered seeing it once from afar while following Dylan.
So, it was a Church vessel after all.
Unfortunately, when Lin Jun tried to identify who on the ship had fired those long-range arrows, the magic array aboard blocked both [Soundwave Detection] and [Mana Perception].
Tch.
Lin Jun hated this kind of sneaky, secretive type—the kind clearly hiding something shady.
Before long, another figure came walking across the sea, but this one wore adventurer’s gear instead of the Church’s robes or knight armor.
He opened the panel.
【Name: Bella Slik】
【Level: LV48】
Stronger than an ordinary warrior, but only around Gold rank.
Hmm…
Slik…
That surname sounded familiar.
And Bella…
He shifted his view to the puji Home.
Dylan was there, smiling warmly as Bianca led the pujis around, busily preparing for the shop’s opening.
【Name: Dylan Slik】
Ah, so that’s it!
This was the daughter Dylan had been searching for all along!
When Bella reached the shore, she noticed a puji standing right beside her feet.
She walked a few steps—so did it. The little thing seemed desperate to follow her.
“What is it? You want to come with me?”
When the puji nearly hugged her leg, Bella crouched down and gently squeezed its soft, white, round body.
“Haha, how funny. But no, I can’t—on the ship, we can’t spare mana potions to feed you… Still, you’re awfully friendly, aren’t you?”
The puji didn’t respond—just pressed closer.
Bella giggled at its enthusiasm, pinching its squishy body while instinctively activating [Truth Vision].
A silver gleam flickered in her eyes as she looked at the puji.
The next moment—
“Ugh—!!!”
Human stomach acid and half-digested food splattered all over the puji’s head.