There were **tunnels** under Viremont.
Not sewers. Not maintenance shafts. Older.
Ancient.
Kazuki stood at the threshold of a forgotten **dungeon**, recently uncovered after a servant fell through the floor of the east greenhouse. What was supposed to be a routine mold inspection had become a full-scale containment operation.
The stench hit like a wall.
**Spores**, wet and humming with mana, drifted through the air like drifting ash. The walls pulsed softly, like a living thing inhaling.
Kazuki tightened his grip on his **Sterilization Broom**, now upgraded with fungus-sensitive bristles and disinfectant enchantments.
"Looks like someone forgot to clean since the Second Plague War," he muttered.
Beside him, a court-appointed mage dry-heaved. "What… *is* this place?"
Kazuki activated \[Pathogen Sense].
It screamed red.
> **Warning: Magical Contamination Detected**
> Threat Level: *Bio-Arcane – Evolving*
> Recommendation: Full sanitation sweep. Disengage if spores begin singing.
---
The further in they walked, the more unnatural the mold became.
It had *structure*—veins of glowing green fungus wrapped around ancient support beams, forming crude eyes that tracked movement. Fungal blooms pulsed with arcane light, and in the corners of the cavern, **something breathed**.
Then came the first attack.
A **Sludge Whelp**, composed entirely of semi-sentient bacteria, lunged from the darkness. Its maw was a swirling, wet spiral of disease.
Kazuki struck it mid-air with \[Purify Touch].
The creature exploded in a shriek of sizzling acid, splattering spores that tried to crawl back together.
"New rule," he said, coating the walls with \[Sanitize Spray]. "No second chances."
---
Deeper in the dungeon, they encountered the **Moldborn** — humanoid creatures, grown from rot and bone, capable of speech in gurgling voices.
"Purifier," one rasped, its throat lined with moss, "you bring extinction. Let the spores live."
"Sure," Kazuki replied, winding up a cleansing cyclone with his broom. "You first."
The battle was chaotic.
Fungus giants oozed from the floor, summoning **Spore Wolves** with breathless howls. A particularly large Moldborn cast spells that infected the mind, whispering rot into the ears of mages.
Kazuki countered with his newest spell:
> **\[Holy Bleachburst] – Emits a shockwave of divine detergent that sears magical infection and leaves a lemony afterglow.**
The chamber *flashed white*. Mold screeched. The wolves dissolved. Even the walls winced.
---
At the dungeon's heart stood a **Fungal Core**: a crystalized spore hive pulsing with ancient life. Bound to it were old bones—once human, now nutrient vessels. Around it grew the **Mold Crown**, a magical bloom that fed on fear and sweat.
> **Boss Identified: MOLDOMICON, THE EVER-DECAYING**
"Really?" Kazuki groaned. "You named yourself?"
Moldomicon roared, launching tendrils of black mildew like spears. Kazuki dodged, leapt, countered with a sweeping strike of \[Broom Spin Technique Lv. 4].
A final blow—\[Pressure Wash Lunge]—drove straight into the core. The explosion rocked the chamber.
When the light cleared, only one figure stood, steam rising from his shoulders.
Kazuki, panting, mop planted in the ground like a banner.
---
> **Dungeon Cleansed.**
> **Contamination Level: 0%**
> **New Title Earned: Fungalbane**
> **Item Acquired: Mold Crown – A cursed bloom. Can be purified and studied... or destroyed.**
---
Back at court, Queen Elanore read the report with narrowed eyes.
"A *dungeon* of magical mold beneath my city," she said.
"Your Majesty," Kazuki replied, dropping the Mold Crown on her desk in a containment box, "your city is sitting on a compost heap of arcane biohazards. This was just one room."
"Will there be more?"
He nodded grimly.
"Lots."
---
That night, deep in the earth, a slumbering root twitched.
Mother Rot had felt the cleansing.
And she was not pleased.