The magic crystal above Inanna's head lit up as she frantically cast Swamp Technique, looking somewhat panicked.
The solid ground beneath the earth worm instantly transformed into a quagmire, the excavated rubble turning into muddy water.
However, the swampy ground had limited depth. In the deeper layers underground, at the end of the giant worm's body, the earth remained solid.
Relying on that small section in the depths, the earth worm continued slowly retreating underground.
Lin Jun certainly wasn't going to just watch it escape.
"Inanna, keep using Swamp Technique! Don't stop!"
"Understood."
At the same time, the Puffballs that had been taking damage all around finally began their counterattack, the "pop pop" sounds of mushroom cannons firing continuously filling the air.
Lin Jun concentrated the firepower on the cracked portions of the earth worm's rock armor.
The earth worm's HP on the status panel kept dropping. At its current drilling speed, it couldn't escape!
Success was within reach!
His hope of breaking out of the dungeon!
Afterward, he just needed to temporarily move over and devour the earth worm to obtain its skills, then he could dig his way up and see daylight again!
It had been so long since he'd felt the sun.
But... why was the ground shaking again?
The tremors were coming from the direction of...
...
"Inanna, run back!"
"Eh?"
Still focused on maintaining the Swamp Technique, Inanna didn't react at all, only instinctively taking two steps back.
The next second, another giant worm burst through the stone right in front of her!
The protruding rock armor swept past, sending Inanna flying into the passage like she'd been hit by an uppercut.
"Inanna? Inanna!"
No response. Lin Jun quickly pulled up the status panel—she'd lost 400 HP.
Fortunately, with her three thousand plus HP, she was still far from death, though she'd clearly been knocked unconscious.
Four nearby Puffballs respectively picked up the unconscious Inanna and the A-rank magic crystal that had fallen to the ground, retreating deeper into the tunnel.
Inanna was temporarily safe, but the battlefield situation had taken a turn for the worse.
The suddenly intruding second earth worm was rampaging around the cavern, crushing large numbers of Puffballs.
Without Inanna maintaining it, the swamp trapping the injured earth worm was gradually hardening, and its drilling speed was clearly accelerating.
Why was there a second earth worm?
Had he used too many magic crystals, making the attraction too strong?
Or did these worms also have companion consciousness and help each other?
No time to think deeply. The second earth worm definitely couldn't be dealt with. Lin Jun could only concentrate firepower on continuing to attack the injured one.
Ignoring the continuously dying Puffballs, Lin Jun unleashed firepower with everything he had.
As long as he could reduce its HP to 0 before it escaped...
————
"What? You're saying I was sent flying by another earth worm?"
23 Puffballs, and 1 Inanna who had awakened but was still confused and even somewhat excited.
This was all the remaining force that had retreated back to the mushroom garden.
The critically injured earth worm had ultimately escaped with just a sliver of HP remaining. Under harassment from the other earth worm, the remaining Puffballs had suffered heavy casualties.
Worse still, many areas had collapsed, preventing numerous Puffballs from returning to the tunnel they'd come from. In the end, they could only be reluctantly abandoned.
The only consolation was probably that the magical power fluctuations from this battle had scared away all the small magical creatures in the surrounding area.
They hadn't encountered any attacks on the way back.
Otherwise, probably none would have made it back.
Lin Jun now felt like a stock investor who had thrown everything into the A-share market only to come out naked.
All his savings were gone.
Fortunately, there was no mortgage lending in the dungeon, so he still had his mushroom garden left...
Mushrooms do not share the same joys and sorrows.
While Lin Jun was still privately grieving over his losses, Inanna was in quite good spirits.
She didn't know that Lin Jun's hunt for the earth worm was to escape the dungeon, nor did she know how much had been wagered on this hunt.
In her view, they could just organize another hunt later. Surely they wouldn't encounter two earth worms every time, right?
She only knew that Lin Jun had kept his promise, and this A-rank magic crystal re-tied to her mushroom cap was finally officially hers.
Inanna decided she'd call Lin Jun "Boss" from now on!
As for nearly getting bitten by an earth worm?
She had no real sense of it at all.
She'd suddenly fainted, and relying on her LV4 Life Recovery, her HP was full when she woke up.
She had no impression of being injured at all. It felt like she'd earned the magic crystal just by lying there...
She was even thinking that maybe the next hunt could yield a new A-rank magic crystal?
In a corner of the mushroom garden, beneath a large mushroom, at the end of a 10-meter-long passage made of mycelium extending downward, there was a 3x3 underground space.
Lin Jun's main body—an unremarkable blue mushroom—was located here.
Also in the same room was a special Puffball emanating a powerful aura.
Unlike those other cannon fodder Puffballs, this one had been cultivating since the mushroom garden's establishment, with all skills and levels raised to Lin Jun's limits—his strongest Puffball.
It was the exclusive mount Lin Jun had prepared for himself.
The problem now facing Lin Jun was:
Should he honestly spend a large amount of time accumulating power again to re-hunt the earth worm?
Or should he return to his original plan and risk using the Super Puffball to carry his main body in a dangerous smuggling attempt to the surface next time the Flame Demon went out?
————
At the same time, at the passage between the deep layer and the 10th floor, at the Flame Demon's lair.
"So hot! Is this the deep layer area of the Purple Crystal Dungeon? Don't tell me it's all lava zones? Are you sure that young lady would be in a place like this?"
Night Owl uncomfortably tugged at her tight clothing's collar.
She had zero heat resistance and could only barely stand here after drinking a flame protection potion.
Even so, she was quite miserable and just wanted to leave quickly.
A cooling spell fell upon the group, and Night Owl's expression finally became more comfortable.
"That really saved my life."
The light on his staff dimmed as Ivan nodded with a smile.
The halfling Grand Mage was quite reliable when not suffering from magic addiction.
Team leader Nova gripped the positioning crystal in his hand and sensed the direction.
"That's right. The guidance direction is nearly horizontal now. She should be in the upper half of the deep layer area."
"But this is the deep layer! I might not even survive a whole month here."
Unlike the first ten floors with their clear stratification.
Each of the previous floors had their own characteristics, monster level ranges, exploitable rules, and so forth.
Night Owl figured that with proper guides, she could easily survive alone.
But the deep layer was different. It was characterized by chaos, with monsters of any level potentially present.
More crucially, the monsters here would migrate, so adventurers might encounter completely different situations each time they came down.
Like the three-year-old information they had, which said there would be a LV59 Flame Demon at this passage.
Instead, there was nothing but a lava field with no monsters in sight.
Of course, this was a good thing.
It just meant the deep layer had undergone changes again, and that information was outdated and had lost its reference value.
"Well, once we find her, we'll know how she's managed to survive."
Half-dragon Gal's tone no longer carried the dejection from before departure.
The two worst possibilities—parasitic trees and tentacle nests—had been ruled out.
In his view, the possibility of the Duke's daughter surviving with her sanity intact was much higher than previously expected.
Well, probably increased from 2% to 20%.
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