Mushroom Lord in the Underground City-Chapter 359 - 351: Land Grabbing

Since Fa’er, the highest administrative officer, also serves as the president of the Adventurer’s Guild, the new city hall was conveniently located diagonally opposite the Adventurer’s Guild, separated by only a wide street.

The short distance suggests that in the future, there may be minor issues arising from matters like expansion.

However, for Fa’er personally, this layout undoubtedly brought great convenience, and he used it quite adeptly.

In a simply furnished yet respectable reception room, Fa’er had just concluded a brief meeting with two officials from Fish Sail Port and Novid.

After the routine and courteous exchange, Fa’er delegated the subsequent detailed negotiations to his deputy, Mira Belle.

The purpose of these two officials’ visit was to "learn from experience," hoping to replicate Mushroom City’s successful system of managing Puki Masters and efficiently cultivating mushroom fields in their own cities, while tactfully avoiding any discussions about possible costs or rewards during the entire meeting.

Fa’er was well aware of the little schemes of these City Lords trying to "freeload," yet he remained unconcerned.

With Mushroom City’s thriving development, such trifling benefits were beneath his notice now.

He clearly laid out a core requirement: whether it be Fish Sail Port or Novid, all rules and regulations of the "Puki Master Professional Association" they establish must remain highly consistent with those of Mushroom City’s headquarters.

Once the consensus was reached, Mira Belle took on the task of negotiating the remaining details and handling documents.

With the Fungal Mat network expanding irresistibly to surrounding cities, the monopoly advantage of mushroom fields was evidently unsustainable in the long run.

Judging by the response efficiency of the surrounding cities and the spreading speed of the Fungal Mat, Mushroom City could maintain its rapid growth phase, brought by the mushroom dividend, for about another half year.

To continue maintaining an edge, it couldn’t solely rely on mushroom fields.

In Fa’er’s view, the next key opportunity lay with the "Puki Master" itself.

By leveraging Mushroom City’s geographical advantage of being closest to the Puki Underground City, he aimed to further perfect the system of trading, appraising, and even selectively cultivating Puki, transforming Mushroom City into the indisputable "Puki Master Center" of the entire region and even the entire Kingdom to maintain an advantage in the next development phase.

The crucial link was the standard-setting authority and industry discourse power held by the "Puki Master Professional Association."

Evidently, those two City Lords next door had yet to realize the importance of this point.

Currently, everything was progressing smoothly, except for two matters that caught Fa’er’s special attention...

After half a day passed and Mira Belle returned to the office after handling the negotiation affairs, Fa’er looked up and tapped a report on the table with his fingers, asking, "Mira Belle, why is there no mention at all of the emerging gangs within Mushroom City in this recent comprehensive summary?"

Gang issues are an almost inevitable product for every city. In the past, when Mushroom was just a small town, it was too small to provide the soil for gangs to survive.

But now, Mushroom City is a burgeoning city with tens of thousands of people and frequent movement, making the emergence of gangs almost inevitable.

According to traditional city governance experience, distinguishing and thoroughly eradicating these gangs requires enormous human and material resources, often with limited effectiveness.

Even if a batch is taken down, new ones quickly surface.

In fact, even if left unchecked, most so-called "gangs" would dissolve naturally for various reasons.

However, this doesn’t mean Fa’er should turn a blind eye to it.

Having a few personnel monitor and understand the trends and scale of these gangs, and taking timely action to curtail them when a gang shows potential to grow into a massive force, is undoubtedly a necessary preventive measure.

Therefore, not seeing the expected summary of gang situations in the routine report left Fa’er somewhat dissatisfied, suspecting that Mira Belle might have been negligent or failed to fully appreciate the importance of this issue.

Facing the City Lord’s questioning, Mira Belle quickly explained, "My Lord, it’s not that I intentionally neglected or was unwilling to include it in the report, it’s just that... there’s nothing worth writing about in the current situation!"

"What do you mean?" Fa’er questioned further.

"Currently within Mushroom City, there haven’t been any gang organizations that have gained significant momentum. What exists are just self-proclaimed ’gangs,’ which are actually small groups of merely three or five members, with no reporting value." Mira Belle’s tone carried a hint of helplessness, "We have indeed received some intelligence about gang existence, but often when we go to verify after some time, we find that they have already disbanded and vanished on their own, with none able to persist and develop substantially."

"That’s peculiar?"

Mira Belle nodded affirmatively.

Fa’er initially wanted Mira Belle to remain vigilant and wary of any deeply hidden gangs operating in the dark, but on second thought, gangs differed from assassination organizations or spy networks, as it was nearly impossible to completely conceal themselves. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Perhaps the gang development on this side of Mushroom City was slower than anticipated?

Ultimately, he shifted the topic to another matter that concerned him.

"Then, what about the newly discovered Stone Forest to the east? I didn’t see any follow-up investigation results in the report either."

The Stone Forest Fa’er mentioned was a region recently reported by adventurers, located deep within an uninhabited forest to the east of Mushroom City.

According to adventurer descriptions, the trees there, and even parts of the terrain, were petrified by some force.

"The detailed report on the Stone Forest has just arrived and hasn’t been organized into the summary in your hands." Mira Belle quickly found the Stone Forest report from another stack of documents.

"The cause of petrification has been preliminarily identified; it’s due to a unique special Puki native to that region. This Puki emits a faint but continually effective Petrification Beam that altered the environment."

"However, since the petrification also affects the Fungal Mat and other Puki, causing endless internal consumption, the petrified area was limited to that region and did not expand. A Puki Master in the Guild has already successfully captured a sample for research."

"A petrifying Puki..." Fa’er pondered, nodding, as indeed, more and more peculiar changes on this land eventually always seemed linked to Puki, "It’s best to send someone to investigate thoroughly and determine the specific environmental causes fostering this special Puki. Also, arrange for personnel to monitor the Stone Forest area regularly, and report immediately if there’s any sign of expansion."

...

Meanwhile, a group of packaged evil Mages also departed from the Empire’s lands.

The purpose of this journey was to penetrate deep behind enemy lines to perform a dark ritual in a specially designated "relatively safe" area.

The risks involved were self-evident; once discovered by humans, in the enemy’s heartland, they would have almost no chance of survival.

For this reason, many evil Mages initially attracted by lucrative rewards turned pale and backed out upon learning the details and location of the mission.

Yet, under rich rewards, there are always brave souls.

Ultimately, nearly half of the individuals couldn’t resist the rewards promised by Duke Sigmund and chose to join this group.

Valen, naturally, was among them!