Next morning, at the gates of Deya City, just as the Adventurers were waking up from their slumber and preparing to start their day-to-day adventures, a sudden change disrupted their plans.
When they stepped out of the expensive hotels near the Mist’s entrance, they were completely stunned.
“Huh? Am I still dreaming? Why am I still inside the Mist?”
In front of the Adventurers, the nearby Deya City and the distant Northern Frontier Mountains had completely vanished.
The surrounding shops were gone as well, replaced by an endless expanse of Mist.
Truth had used the Energy she accumulated over the past few days to expand the coverage of the Mist.
However, this expansion did not push further into the back of the Mist, but instead moved toward the main entrance near Deya City.
This resulted in the vendors, inns, and hotels at the main entrance being engulfed by the Mist. For a moment, panic set in.
Those small vendors with no combat ability dared not take a single step out of their tents, fearing they would be ambushed by monsters the moment they stepped into the Mist.
1 hour later, the Mist made the headlines of the Deya City News once again:
[The Mist Is Expanding! A Large Number of Civilians Are Trapped; the Adventurers’ Association Is Launching an Emergency Rescue!]
“Quickly, form groups of four! No one is allowed to fight alone!”
Association President Edwin commanded on-site.
The vendors at the original entrance were old partners he had worked with for years; if they all died, the losses would be catastrophic.
However, after the Adventurers had carefully escorted several groups of vendors out of the Mist, they suddenly noticed something: there seemed to be no monsters in the newly expanded area.
It was incredibly strange that no monsters jumped out from the Mist to ambush them.
Consequently, the Adventurers formed an investigation team to explore this newly expanded section of the Mist.
After circling the area several times, they finally discovered a common Mist Wolf and a type of mushroom they had never seen before — one that emitted a deep blue fluorescent glow.
“A mushroom?”
The investigation team immediately noticed the unique property of this mushroom.
Within a 2-meter radius of the mushroom, a “vacuum” area appeared where the Mist could not approach…
‘Oh? These people found the Mist-Dispelling Mushrooms so quickly? Not bad, they’re quite efficient.’
Meanwhile, Truth observed the Adventurers’ every move from God’s Perspective.
Last night, she had spent the entire night extensively modifying various mechanisms of the Dungeon and the Mist.
Now, she was adjusting this new area specifically designated for the Adventurers to conduct trade.
It wasn’t that this area wouldn’t spawn monsters; Truth just hadn’t set up the spawn mechanics for the small mobs yet.
Eventually, this area would be just like the others. Truth called this the Entrance Zone.
Originally, Truth wanted to designate a commercial area directly in Slime Square, but doing so would require creating a very long safe route for vendors to travel and restock.
A safe route cutting through half the Mist… Truth didn’t even want to imagine how many bugs would arise.
Moreover, it would severely diminish the prestige and sense of the unknown surrounding the Mist, potentially even drastically reducing the difficulty of exploration.
Think about it: if a Player, at a life-or-death moment while fighting a monster, could just jump into a safe zone and move back and forth to manipulate the monster’s aggro, wouldn’t it be only a matter of time before they cleared the Mist entirely?
Truth could never let that happen. Therefore, the safe zones in the Mist still had to rely primarily on sparse bonfires.
As for the vendors’ travel routes… she would just pave a path using Mist-Dispelling Mushrooms.
The Mist-Dispelling Mushroom was a new plant available after Second Rank.
If planted in large quantities, it could create a “vacuum” zone where the Mist could not reach.
As long as there was no Mist coverage, small mobs would not spawn, as they could only operate within the Mist.
Because the mushroom’s mechanic was so unique, Truth added a restriction: as soon as the mushroom was pulled from the ground, it would quickly wither.
This prevented Adventurers from arbitrarily moving the mushrooms to exploit bugs.
Otherwise, if the Mist-Dispelling Mushrooms were planted everywhere, the Mist would be full of holes.
Soon, Truth used Build Mode to pave a 4-meter-wide dirt road and a main entrance for the Adventurers to enter and exit the Mist.
She then planted Mist-Dispelling Mushrooms on both sides of the road.
At the same time, a large number of mushrooms began to grow near the original Mist entrance…
“Mushrooms?”
Inside the Mist, vendors who had not yet been rescued discovered small, deep blue mushrooms growing at their feet. They grew incredibly fast.
Gradually, the vendors realized that the surrounding Mist was slowly dissipating, and the dazzling sunlight began to shine through.
The massive clusters of Mist-Dispelling Mushrooms created a large “vacuum” zone in the center of the Entrance Zone that the Mist could not cover…
……
Meanwhile, at the Deya City gates.
At Truth’s request, Tia had already arranged for dozens of construction workers and Enforcers to wait there.
The construction workers brought a full set of land surveying tools, while the Enforcers were responsible for their safety.
“Wait until the blue entrance opens, then take your people inside to seize the land. It’s about 30 to 40 acres; make sure to claim it all!” Truth had told Tia.
Even though the latter still didn’t quite understand, she followed the instructions.
“High Priest, the blue entrance you mentioned is open!”
Not long after, an Enforcer quickly pointed toward the Edge of Mist and alerted Tia.
At the Edge of Mist, small fluorescent deep blue mushrooms grew rapidly in clusters one after another.
Soon, an eye-catching and wide “blue entrance” was formed.
“Now is the time! Advance! Remember to stay on the mushroom path to ensure your safety!” Tia waved her hand, leading a massive group of people inside to stake their claims.
According to the laws of the Sylvia Kingdom, land was generally first come, first served. Therefore, the land around Deya City and the Mist had already been claimed long ago.
However, land covered by the Mist of Calamity was different.
Legally, ownership of the Mist belonged to the Church because they had once promised the first generation of the Sylvia Royal Family that they would be responsible for any trouble the Mist might cause in the future.
Originally, Sylvia had wanted to refuse.
Although the Mist seemed useless, it was still a Disaster.
Controlling it would be quite prestigious; she could tell people she was someone who mastered a Calamity.
However, Sylvia’s sister, Olivia, had very seriously demanded that she stay far away from the Mist, or something terrible might happen!
‘If it’s my sister’s request, then fine…’
Although Sylvia was somewhat disappointed, she did as told.
She knew her sister was the Great Prophet who could peer into the future.
She likely owed 80% of the credit for becoming the ruler of the country to her sister; she had to listen.
As a result, only those from the Church could claim and develop the land within the Mist.
However, since the Mist had no developmental value, Church members prior to Truth becoming the Saintess hadn’t even given it a second glance.
The last person who had ideas for the Mist only wanted to chop down the century-old trees inside to sell for money.