Chapter 399: Chapter 391: Holiday

Squeak—

The sound intruded into the room, and Norris suddenly opened his eyes.

He swiftly flipped off the bed with a carp jump, rolled away from his original position, and assumed a combat stance.

At the same time, he began to reach out to Jida in his mind, but received no response.

Leaning against the corner of the guest room wall, Norris cautiously scanned the empty room.

After a moment, he suddenly realized this was not the Far North’s Mushroom Garden, but Puki’s House on the surface in Mushroom City.

Neither Karen nor Jida was here, and the noise earlier was just the footsteps of other guests passing through the corridor.

He awkwardly relaxed his stance, grateful that no one witnessed his embarrassing state.

Morning light had already splayed into the room through the curtains, and although he had been startled awake, this was still the best sleep he’d had in a while.

Walking onto the balcony, the warm sunlight was starkly different from the pale light of the Far North, as if the fatigue of the past days were slowly dissipating under the sun’s rays.

In fact, Norris had also pondered whether it might be better to give up resistance.

The boss only liked prey that struggled continuously, just like now, as long as one disagreed with a leave application, a few more days and he’d likely concede defeat.

Yet, the boss would agree to take a break at such a time.

The boss enjoyed the process, not the result, which was the conclusion Norris had drawn over time.

Therefore, as long as he acted like a salted fish, accepting everything passively, the boss’s attention would quickly move away from him.

Ultimately, even if he gave up resisting, it wouldn’t cost him a piece of flesh.

However, Norris felt that if that happened, some part of himself would disappear.

But Norris did not resent the boss for it; he realized that he could be troubled by these things now because he no longer had other worries.

No hunger, no debts, no threats to his life.

If it had been during his miner days, where just this small sacrifice could offset his debts, he would only fear others competing for this precious opportunity.

He patted his cheeks to chase away the chaotic thoughts.

These few days were a holiday; it was not the time to think about such troubles.

Heading downstairs, he greeted the elder Dylan and the fleeting young clerk, and then Norris left Puki’s House.

Although his main goal was to have a good sleep, it was improbable for him to wallow in bed throughout these few days of vacation.

In the pouch at his waist were ten gold coins exchanged with the boss for Contribution Points, which he saw as more than enough to exhaust extravagant spending within a few days.

Norris first headed to the Rotten Willow Tavern.

Originally Dumb Wind Town had been upgraded to the current Mushroom City, and the Rotten Willow Tavern had accordingly transformed from a wooden building to one of stone bricks.

Yet the atmosphere hadn’t changed much; at the most, some mushroom farmers had become one of its primary consumers.

Here, Norris ordered a portion of honey-glazed roasted snake meat he hadn’t eaten before.

Merely after the first bite, disappointment was written all over Norris’s face.

It’s not that the dish was unappetizing, but for Norris, who could now enjoy advanced delicacies with mushrooms every day, this “high-end dish” once indulged only once every few months now tasted just barely palatable.

Norris sighed, understanding this was to be expected. After all, it was ordinary ingredients, incapable of being compared to “deliciousness.”

His memory had simply beautified it too much, and his expectations had far exceeded its actual taste.

Although no longer enamored, Norris still devoured the food item by item, as if completing a task from his wishlist.

After filling his belly, he suddenly found himself at a loss as to what to do.

Gazing at the clinking gold coins in his pouch, he realized he had no idea how to enjoy a holiday.

On reflection, those entertainment places adventurers often visited were completely incompatible with him.

The food was undisputed; nowhere was as good as Mushroom Garden’s meals.

He wasn’t accustomed to drinking, and regarding the romantic locales, he was still struggling desperately to maintain his purity!

And gambling…he despised it the most!

His years of suffering previously were all thanks to his gambling-addicted father.

With this rundown, Norris suddenly realized he couldn’t find any way to pass the time.

He wandered aimlessly down the street, staring at those Puki Masters with their Puki companions among the crowd, abruptly feeling that Mushroom City was just a larger version of Mushroom Garden, with the difference being people here yet hadn’t realized it.

“Hey mister, care to join me for a drink?”

“Mister?”

Returning to his senses, Norris stared at the female adventurer before him, startled for quite a while before confirming she was indeed speaking to him.

After tactfully declining, he was still a bit confused.

Before now, no one had ever invited him in such a manner.

Passing by a shop, he glanced at his fuzzy reflection in the glass and realized his current mimicry appearance was rather pleasing.

Nonetheless, that thought was fleeting.

After all, it was merely mimicry, while his true self was a lizardman with sharp claws and scales covering his body yet lacking a tail.

He had gradually accepted this configuration.

And it wasn’t entirely bad; at least the hard scales could block a werewolf’s sharp claws, and his sharp talons allowed him to protect himself even without Jida.

After some wandering, although Mushroom City presented plenty of new things, Norris was uninterested in them all.

Just as he was about to return to Puki’s House, a familiar figure caught his eye.

“Master Edin!”

“Norris?! What are you doing here?”

The two were old acquaintances; they first met when Norris was mining and Edin was investigating Big Black Mushrooms.

Their statuses were vastly different, and even a single gold coin Edin casually offered greatly benefited Norris.

After both joining Mushroom Garden, having become colleagues, they’ve interacted a few times, maintaining a fairly good relationship.

Upon learning that Edin was heading out to complete some task assigned by the boss, Norris decisively expressed the desire to join him.

After a slight pause for thought, Edin agreed.

The task wasn’t complicated. A mushroom farm outside the city had recently been occupied by a suspicious group.

Lin Jun noted their frequent kidnappings recently but couldn’t discern their true motive.

The farmhouse’s basement was sealed with a barrier, preventing Lin Jun from understanding the internal situation.

He suspected evil mages were conducting an Abyss Magic Ceremony, yet strangely, the members active outside bore no traces of [Abyss Magic] on their panels, thus dispatching Edin to investigate.

Edin’s plan was to use an illusion in conjunction with an invisibility technique, coupled with custom tools to conceal magic traces, to infiltrate for investigation, and now with Norris’s assistance, arranged for him to coordinate at the farmhouse’s perimeter just in case.

Norris wasn’t placed in danger because, ultimately, safety was the top priority.

Yet just as they were about to take action, a squad arrived at the farm beforehand.

Hidden within the woods, Norris squinted his eyes, spotting Vera and three others’ backs from afar, causing him to frown deeply.

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