Inside the mountain cavity.
The slime sat peacefully above the fissure, completely ignoring the chittering army of puffshrooms all around it, filtering the magical power and curses from the water source day after day, year after year, as it had for millennia.
Even when puffshrooms right beside it used their skills to construct rocky frameworks, and it could easily absorb them into its body with just a gentle flex, it showed no interest whatsoever.
How should he put it... it had a really good temperament?
This was truly the first time Lin Jun had encountered such a zen-like slime.
Of course, that was only as long as you didn't try to move it away from the water source. Move it away, and its resistance became incredibly fierce.
Lin Jun had already studied this fissure thoroughly.
He wasn't sure what lay on the other side, but it definitely wasn't the Dragon Cliff underground dungeon from that magical tide incident. When the fifth floor had opened those two massive fissures last time, there hadn't been a trace of curse energy—clearly not the same style at all.
Speaking of curses reminded Lin Jun of those black-robed figures' abyssal magic. However, compared to the black-robed ones' limited-range, limited-duration abyssal magic, the curse level from the other side of this fissure was obviously much higher.
Lin Jun had tried commanding puffshrooms to extend mycelial tendrils to the other side of the fissure. The moment the tendrils crossed over, the curse's effects exploded in intensity. Half the tendril instantly turned to ash, and even the puffshroom itself was affected, collapsing to the ground and corroding away within moments.
This was even with increased health and equipped with [Corrosion Resistance LV5]—a professional-grade puffshroom, yet it was still killed by the curse in a single encounter.
The only information he'd gained was that the fissure seemed to open into the middle section of a waterway on the other side, with some swaying shadows along both sides of the channel. In the magic-infused water, perception was too blurred to make out what they actually were.
In any case, the idea of reverse-threading mycelia through it was temporarily unfeasible—he'd need to train up his corrosion resistance first.
Next, Lin Jun had tested whether he could seal it up.
No matter how you looked at it, this thing was far too dangerous. Left unmanaged, it would conservatively affect half the sixth floor, with unknown future developments. While it could bring magical power benefits, compared to the risks, the returns were hardly worth considering. If it could be sealed, that would be best.
Blocking it with mycelia was obviously impossible—they'd corrode away upon contact with the curse.
Lin Jun first tried a wall-plastering approach, using puffshroom-generated rock to seal the fissure completely airtight, not letting even a drop of water through.
The result was that the curse still pervaded the entire mountain cavity, and as time passed, it continued to deepen and spread outward.
Contrary to Lin Jun's initial assessment, the curse wasn't hidden in the water. He revised his theory—the transmission method was radiation.
He had no choice but to chisel open the sealed stone wall again and put the slime back in its original position.
Unable to block it, Lin Jun settled for the next best thing, wondering if he could get an ordinary slime to plug the gap. After all, he still wanted to sample the rare skills on this two-colored slime.
After the two-colored slime split off another red slime, Lin Jun positioned this red slime at the opening.
The red slime wasn't very cooperative, struggling constantly at first, only beginning to filter water obediently after being restrained by puffshrooms using stone slabs.
However, as magical power accumulated in its body, the red slime's size grew larger and larger, its struggling force increasing proportionally. Just as it was about to break free and Lin Jun was already prepared to order its elimination—
*Pop!*
It exploded on its own!
The expelled bodily fluid sent surrounding puffshrooms tumbling in all directions. Even the two puffshrooms controlling the two-colored slime were covered in slime juice and couldn't climb out for quite a while.
The moment the two-colored slime broke free from its restraints, it immediately bounced and hopped back to its position.
This was actually the first time Lin Jun learned that slimes could be burst from overinflation...
The two-colored slime had no risk of bursting because it split at regular intervals, but ordinary slimes couldn't handle it.
In the end, after all that fiddling around, everything had to remain as it was.
The two-colored slime suppressed the fissure, and the surrounding puffshrooms not only couldn't harm it, but had to serve it well.
However, Lin Jun couldn't just do nothing.
The puffshrooms were now using their rock-wall creation skills to build a cage around the slime—or more accurately, a hanging cage.
The sturdy cage bottom had a small opening that fit snugly against the fissure and two drainage ports. The cage's top had an openable exit for the slimes produced by division to emerge and enjoy a one-stop slaughter and dismantling service.
At the very top of the cage, tendrils made of mycelia reinforced with [Toughness] served as hooks. When needed, they could directly lift the two-colored slime, exposing the fissure.
Throughout the mountain cavity, Lin Jun had deployed a full forty puffshrooms on permanent standby. These puffshrooms had all been enhanced with increased health and possessed [Corrosion Resistance]. They were essentially a batch of elite troops.
Besides being responsible for slaughtering the divided slimes, they also had to respond to potential emergency situations here. For instance, if the two-colored slime suddenly died, the puffshrooms would have to use their bodies to plug the fissure.
With their health and resistance, each puffshroom could buy about half a minute, giving Lin Jun a chance to react.
Beyond this, they had another mission: training [Corrosion Resistance]. At regular intervals, they would lift the hanging cage to release a bit of corrosive curse, applying it immediately then stopping, repeating this process to slowly grind this skill.
All of this was Lin Jun's preparation for the unknown.
This fissure was too strange—whether it would disappear or expand in the future was uncertain. If it expanded, turning the entire sixth floor into a corrosive curseland, then Lin Jun would truly be limited to the first five floors for his development, and that was assuming the stairs could block the curse.
But if he could raise his corrosion resistance high enough to fear no curse, then he might even be able to develop in reverse, expanding his territory!
With everything arranged, the puffshrooms outside also began their earth-filling work.
This was a new batch of puffshroom engineering corps—the previous batch had been almost entirely sacrificed in the slime flood. They were refilling crushed stone and dirt, burying the breach in this mountain cavity. Afterward, only a single underground passage reinforced with mycelia would remain.
This would prevent curious adventurers from accidentally stumbling into the fissure area.
...
[Level Up: LV52→LV53]
[Seven Sins: Greed Triggered]
[Skill Plundered: Scale Armor LV5→LV6]
[Skill Plundered: Corrosion Resistance LV5→LV6]
[Skill Plundered: Saliva Arrow LV3→LV4]
Oh!
Speak of the devil—Corrosion Resistance had upgraded!
The batch of dragon-beast Mirages he'd harvested earlier had been mostly dismantled by now. Not counting Saliva Arrow, which was purely for entertainment, Lin Jun had originally raised Mirages mainly for Scale Armor, but now it seemed Corrosion Resistance was equally important. Perhaps he should consider expanding the breeding operation?
Though he wanted to do this, he temporarily lacked new breeding locations. After all, new breeding sites also needed environments like the Venom Lake where Mirages could hide and protect themselves. Otherwise, with passing monsters and adventurers casually plucking some, that wouldn't be called breeding—that would be called charity.
Additionally, this time not only had his skills upgraded, but his level, which had been stuck for so long, had actually increased by one!
He had to say, leveling up was so slow once you got to higher levels. His level had barely budged since the magical tide. Gone were the days of rapid, satisfying level gains in the deep zones.
But thinking about it, this was normal. Here he was, a level-fifty-something guy, spending all his time on a floor with a level cap of LV25, gaining experience through natural gathering and corpse dismantling. It would be strange if leveling up was fast.
If he really wanted to level up quickly, he'd probably have to go back down and clash fiercely with those high-level monsters!
Speaking of going down, the sixth floor had another very interesting place—the rift valley that led directly to the deep zones. That is, the place where Inanna had originally fallen.
After occupying the dome and unlocking the full map, Lin Jun had confirmed the location. Now that the slime crisis was resolved, he naturally had time to investigate.
There was just one problem: with so many rift valleys, which one led to his original territory?
Comments