The United Kingdom, centered around the capital Oath City, connects four other major cities and eight fortresses from the northeast to the southwest, forming a defense system called the "New Defense Line."

Now, with the national effort coupled with the support of the Elves, the main part of the New Defense Line is completed, with only the ends requiring expedited construction.

Inside the southwestern corner of the New Defense Line, away from the city, lies a small patch of mushroom houses in a gently sloping woodland.

High mushroom houses are connected by bridges woven from mycelium, housing nearly a hundred refugees in this small settlement.

There are several such mushroom forests scattered in nearby wilderness, all created by the Big Mushroom Charity Association or the Mushroom Worship Sect’s Lord Mushroom Envoy for the refugees who have nowhere else to go.

Will is one of the residents here.

During the Demon Race’s attack, he unfortunately encountered demons while fleeing, lost his familiar right arm, and became a disabled person.

This made him unable to find work in the city; in past years of war chaos, people like him, who lost an arm and were displaced from their hometown without anyone to support them, mostly couldn’t survive a winter.

But this time was different.

The Fungal Mats appeared throughout the Kingdom, and the abundance of mushrooms made it easy for him to fill his stomach despite having only one arm.

Therefore, he always scoffed at those who claimed that Fungal Mats had hidden dangers.

Without Fungal Mats, he’d starve to death in a week; who cares about risks that might not even appear?

Later, Julia from the Mushroom Worship Sect found him.

She said they wanted to build mushroom houses to shelter refugees like him, who could only forage for mushrooms in the wild, and asked if he was willing to move in.

Julia didn’t attach any conditions to this gift, but Will, who was already grateful to the Fungal Mats and Puki, naturally joined the sect.

The following month brought him experiences he’d never had before.

He joined the sect members in surveying the terrain, chopping wood to clear obstacles, and leveling the land.

Though he didn’t have a right arm, he used his left to carry stones and his shoulder to lift baskets.

No one urged or pitied him.

When the Mushroom Envoy performed the ceremonial dance to nurture the mushroom houses, he watched in awe as the gray-white fungal pillars slowly rose from the soil, eventually growing into giant mushroom houses.

Such collaboration without expecting anything in return was something he’d never experienced before.

A month has passed, and Will has already become a devoted worshiper of mushrooms.

Today is an important day.

Those who joined the sect alongside Will will participate in the official initiation ceremony today.

The group that joined the sect with Will will formally attend the Mushroom Worship Sect’s initiation ceremony.

He was already informed that it was just a symbolic ceremony without any magical elements.

But it meant recognition from the Mushroom Worship Sect, and Will was quite excited nonetheless.

Not everyone who wants to join the sect can reach this point.

Those who tried to profit or enjoy privileges were gradually filtered out over the past month.

Those who remain are true believers in something.

Inside the mushroom house where the ceremony is held, over ten newcomers like Will either whisper to each other or somewhat awkwardly communicate via Fungal Network, all curious about what kind of ceremony it would be, wondering if they would see the Mushroom Envoy again.

Then they saw Julia and others bring a pot inside and start adding mushrooms and various ingredients into it, with a stable-fire Puki beneath it heating the pot.

"Drinking mushroom soup together? Feels... a bit ordinary?"

"Indeed, everyone often had mushroom porridge together before, not much different."

Listening to the surrounding chatter, Will didn’t speak, but inwardly he felt it was somewhat ordinary. He had thought it might be similar to the Bright Church’s noon prayers or choir ceremonies.

However, Will was curious about the ladder placed by the pot, unsure of its purpose.

A bit of a small disappointment.

However, this small disappointment quickly turned into shock.

Because twelve "Puki Puki" came in, went up the ladder beside the pot, and under the slightly shocked gaze of everyone, with a "plop," jumped into the pot.

"Boiling the Mushroom Envoy alive?"

Will instinctively stood up, wanting to rush forward to pull the Envoy out, but Julia stopped him.

"Don’t panic, the Envoy is fine."

Only then did Will notice that the Envoy was not struggling at all in the boiling pot; it was as if it were a hot spring rather than boiling water.

Will felt somewhat embarrassed; the Envoy is the Mushroom Lord’s emissary and naturally isn’t as fragile as other Puki.

Fortunately, Julia didn’t blame him and simply let him return to his seat.

After a short boiling, twelve soaked themselves out of the pot, and a sect member immediately went up to wipe them clean, exiting the room.

Julia then distributed the Mushroom Envoy’s soup from the pot.

"Drink it; it represents the Envoy among us!" After speaking, Julia took the lead and drank from her bowl.

The others followed suit, and then...

"Oh oh oh oh oh!" xN

[Delicious]

[Juicy]

Trembling, Will felt the taste of happiness.

...

The initiation ceremony ended, and Will became a full member of the Mushroom Worship Sect.

This also meant Julia and the others would leave here to establish the next mushroom house shelter.

Official members can choose to stay to maintain the existing mushroom forest or follow Julia to help other refugees.

Considering that he only has one arm and doesn’t want to be a burden to others, Will made the unwilling decision to stay.

There was nothing he could do about it, but he still wanted to do something for those leaving, so he voluntarily took on the task of procurement before their departure, entering the nearest city once more.

Two other sect members came along with him, and they decided to split up to complete the procurement before the city gate closed at sunset.

Once the work was done, Will frowned at his list.

Other items were easy to handle; only the Firefly Grass was unavailable at several material shops he visited.

It’s not because it’s a scarce resource; it simply just about went extinct in the United Kingdom.

It’s long been discovered that the Fungal Mats and it are incompatible; where there’s a Fungal Mat, the Firefly Grass gets consumed by it, which is also one of the common examples cited by supporters of the "Fungal Mat Threat Theory."

Firefly Grass can only be obtained through trade with the Mountains region, and this is infrequent. Plus, it’s not a strategic material, so shortages are common for merchants.

Just as Will was grappling with whether to just head back or keep searching, someone tapped his shoulder from behind.

"Friend, you seem to be looking for Firefly Grass? If you urgently need it, I know a place that still has some stock, although the price is slightly higher."

After learning that the price was fifty percent higher than the already inflated rate, Will ultimately agreed and followed him towards the lower city.