[Seven Sins: Greed Triggered]
[Plundered Skill: Blood Manipulation LV2]
[Plundered Skill: Demon Common Language LV1]
[Plundered Skill: Nightmare Incarnation LV1]
[Plundered Skill: Bite LV6→LV7]
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On the fungal ground lay a stone-skinned wild boar, its grayish-brown belly marked with several gashes on the side—clearly Norris's handiwork. If Little Black had done it, there would have been nothing left but a pile of mangled flesh.
After lying down for two days, that kid had thrown himself back into combat with magical beasts.
This time, Lin Jun had conveniently asked him for a prey specimen, and now Norris was watching from the side.
The boar's hide clung tight to its skeletal frame, revealing a gaunt outline where every rib's depression was clearly visible, even its eye sockets had collapsed into two deep pits.
A puffshroom stood before the wild boar, a crimson orb floating above its head, seeping with a faint bloody scent.
Lin Jun controlled the puffshroom to manipulate the blood orb, trying to make it transform like when the half-vampire had used it, but after several attempts, it wouldn't work.
In the end, he could only hurl the entire blood orb like a bomb. When it exploded on the ground, its power was about equivalent to a mushroom cannon shot.
Lin Jun's assessment: "Level too low, only has entertainment value for now."
Still, it looked quite intimidating.
"Do you want this skill?" Lin Jun asked Norris, who was staring dumbfounded at the mushroom playing with blood.
Norris quickly shook his head. There was quite a difference between being treated as a monster versus being treated as a vampire!
Lin Jun didn't insist. He hadn't decided on the second round of enhancements yet, so taking the person's opinion into consideration to some degree was acceptable.
"Oh right, this is for you."
A pack-mule puffshroom pulled something from its belly and tossed it over.
Norris caught it and looked at the small iron piece in his hand. "What is this?"
Lin Jun explained, "It's for filing nails. After filing, your nails won't grow back for several days. Since you're not used to your claws being too long, this is perfect for you!"
Norris received it like a precious treasure!
Honestly, this thing could only be used by Norris anyway—Little Black would never consider dulling her own weapons.
After testing [Blood Manipulation], next came [Nightmare Incarnation].
The skill name sounded impressive, but it was essentially turning into a bat. Still, it was quite exciting—Lin Jun lacked flight capability.
Under the skill's effect, the puffshroom transformed into... a bat puffshroom—a puffshroom with bat wings.
Wait... this art style doesn't seem right?
Lin Jun recalled how the half-vampire had transformed into a bat, surrounded by swirling blood before changing form and condensing into a real bat.
How did it become this pathetic when it came to the puffshroom?
What was the difference between this and the gliding wings he'd crafted himself?
Soon enough, Lin Jun discovered there really was a damn difference!
Without Lin Jun's control, this puffshroom actually managed to fly using the bat wings!
It could even use those two round feet to grab stones and hang upside down!?
This was the power of skills!
His painstakingly crafted "wings" were nothing but a crude imitation of skills, not even one ten-thousandth as good as the real thing!
The only downside was—whether due to the skill's low level or the puffshroom being too large relative to the bat wings—it flew very slowly and laboriously.
The small wings had to flap desperately just to slowly rise, and if it stopped for a moment, it would immediately free-fall. Natural energy consumption was also extremely rapid.
Lin Jun tried equipping it with a mushroom cannon, but sure enough, it couldn't handle the recoil. Not only did it lose accuracy, but after one shot it would spin around wildly and crash into things.
This flight capability seemed unsuitable for close combat types, but fortunately, there was still the almighty self-destruct!
Seeing his boss getting absorbed in the "game" of making puffshrooms self-destruct, Norris very wisely retreated.
He was genuinely afraid his boss might get excited and give him the self-destruct treatment too...
Returning to the mushroom forest, he took out the newly acquired iron piece and carefully tried filing down his claws—ten centimeters was indeed too inconvenient.
He couldn't make a proper fist, couldn't hold things properly, and there were various other inconveniences.
Although they were quite useful in combat, he still decided to at least restore one hand to normal.
The claws were long, and after he finally finished concentrating on filing one claw and looked up, he discovered a large black mushroom had been squatting beside him for who knows how long...
"Sen... Senior?"
After staying here for so many days, he knew this large black mushroom was actually a dragon person.
He'd also seen the power of her fists and didn't dare show any disrespect. However, having barely interacted with her before, Norris didn't know how to get along with this senior.
Little Black didn't react to Norris's words—more precisely, she didn't know what "senior" meant.
She just quietly stared at Norris... at the shiny silver scales on his body.
Little Black was very envious of Norris. His shiny scales were so beautiful, but her own scales were black and ugly.
Unconsciously, Little Black moved even closer, her chubby puffshroom hands even touching Norris's body.
This touching made Norris feel rather embarrassed. Regardless of this senior's gender, he couldn't handle being groped like this!
"Senior, what are you doing?"
Norris scooted backward, but Little Black moved closer again, looking persistent.
The puffshroom hands touched Norris faster and faster, more and more roughly!
"Senior, senior! What are you trying to... AHHHHH!"
With a scream, a silver scale still attached to some skin appeared between Little Black's hands, while Norris curled up on the ground clutching his shoulder and groaning in pain.
Seeming to finally realize she'd done something wrong, Little Black frantically gathered some fungal matter and slapped it onto Norris's wound before fleeing...
Norris: ???
Norris's scream even alarmed Lin Jun, who was still experiencing flight.
After quickly understanding the situation, a puffshroom brought a bottle of basic healing potion and poured it on Norris's shoulder, also helping clean the dirt and fungal matter from the wound.
The injury wasn't very serious to begin with, and the potion quickly took effect to heal the wound. It would just take some time for the scale to grow back.
He deeply sympathized with Norris's ordeal and thoughtfully added [Mimicry] for color changing and [Regeneration] for healing injuries to the next enhancement list.
Lin Jun decided to go lecture Little Black. If you want something shiny, how can you just snatch it like that?
Taking a step back, robbing outsiders might be one thing, but Norris was basically family—there still had to be some rules.
Not long after, while still checking his wound, Norris saw the large black mushroom holding a pile of things, reluctantly walking over slowly.
This scared him so much he immediately stood up to run—he was truly afraid. That feeling of being overpowered and helpless brought back many unpleasant memories.
"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. Little Black is here to apologize to you." The boss's words stopped Norris in his tracks.
Apologize?
Looking at the approaching large black mushroom, Norris forced himself not to turn and run.
The large black mushroom extended both hands and stuffed a pile of glass shards into Norris's arms, then, too heartbroken to look at these treasures she was giving away, turned and ran back to the mushroom house.
Lin Jun also came out at the right time to explain: "There, there. Little Black has given you her third... fourth favorite things. Just forgive her this time."
Norris looked at the glass shards in his arms that had torn his clothes.
Huh?
Lin Jun finally offered some well-meaning advice: "Oh right, next time you go hunting, if any scales get knocked off your body, you can collect them. Little Black will be grateful!"
Norris nodded somewhat dazedly.
Maybe he really should collect some fallen scales.
At least next time when this senior wanted to skin him, he could trade them for his life...
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