A single puffshroom drifted quietly in the deep blue water, its entire body submerged beneath the surface with only a teal mushroom cap remaining above the waterline.
The seemingly free-floating cap was connected by a sturdy rope woven from three fungal filament tentacles, linking it to the mycelial carpet on the ceiling. Hidden within the puffshroom's body was a small scythe weapon serving as a hook.
On the shore sat a group of backup puffshrooms and some large black mushrooms that had wandered over to watch the excitement. When Lin Jun wasn't directing them, the large black mushrooms would randomly spawn wherever puffshrooms gathered.
Initially, Little Black had wanted to go into the water too after seeing the puffshroom soaking there, but the other puffshrooms had stopped her. Now she just leaned against the wall by the shore, staring blankly at the puffshroom in the water, lost in thought about who knows what.
Suddenly, the puffshroom in the water dipped down slightly, then bounced back to the surface.
Something was taking the bait!
Lin Jun perked up with complete focus!
Honestly, Lin Jun didn't think he'd come up empty-handed—being able to sense the bait's condition in real time, how could he possibly fail to catch anything!
That thing down in the depths had just torn off half of the puffshroom's foot, probably intending to drag the puffshroom underwater, but hadn't expected the rope to snap the foot instead. It would definitely come back.
Sure enough, the bait puffshroom sensed a current approaching—
A massive catfish burst from the water, its huge mouth swallowing the puffshroom along with half the rope, then dove headfirst back into the depths.
The rope instantly went taut under the strain. The puffshrooms on shore extended their tentacles, planning to pull the catfish back, but before they could hook it, the rope fixed to the ceiling was yanked down along with dirt and rubble, falling into the water and disappearing from sight.
...
That's just how fishing goes—anything can happen, which is what makes it interesting.
Lin Jun maintained a good attitude, having the puffshrooms change positions. With an infusion of magic power, new rope quickly grew out. He tied the hook to the front and carefully threaded the bait puffshroom onto it.
Round two—let the fishing begin!
A giant shrimp's pincers snapped the rope...
An ice giant eel froze the water surface and leisurely devoured the portion beneath the ice...
A bone-armored snapping turtle crunched up the puffshroom, hook, and rope all in one bite...
The fatal blow to Lin Jun came from Little Black, who had been watching the entire time.
Seemingly finally understanding what the puffshrooms wanted, Little Black quietly dove underwater and caught a catfish with her bare hands, pushing it toward the puffshrooms on shore.
...
...
...
Clearly, the inability to catch fish wasn't a problem with Lin Jun's technique—it was purely because the fish on the seventh level weren't ordinary fish.
Magical beasts!
They were all vicious magical beasts!
Ordinary fishing methods naturally wouldn't work.
Dozens of hours later, a batch of new puffshrooms returned in high spirits!
First, they casually tossed some mushrooms into the water to create a feeding ground. After waiting for a while, when Lin Jun felt it was about right, six puffshrooms jumped into the water one by one.
[Infrasonic Attack LV6]
The invisible attack spread through the water, yet not a single ripple could be detected on the surface.
Before long, a pile of dead fish with ruptured internal organs floated to the surface.
However, Lin Jun wasn't very satisfied—there were no big fish.
The large fish with high health had fled in time after being attacked. What he could kill were only genuine small fry in the truest sense.
After cleaning up the floating fish and tossing them onto the mycelial carpet for accelerated decomposition, the results were indeed as expected—almost no harvest.
He still needed the big fish!
Fortunately, Lin Jun had more than one plan this time. A chubby puffshroom stepped forward.
Don't let the chubby puffshroom's fatness fool you—it actually had low density, with its belly hollow in the middle. If it went directly into water, it would float on the surface like a beach ball, so Lin Jun had the fatty stuff some rocks into its stomach beforehand.
Once in the water, the fatty sank straight to the bottom.
Lin Jun had chosen the edge of the waterway, where the bottom was probably less than ten meters deep.
The chubby one lay quietly underwater. Lin Jun didn't mind when some small fish began tentatively nibbling at its body.
Confidence brought by high health!
Until an ice giant eel swam over and coiled its serpentine body around the chubby puffshroom, treating it as prey...
A muffled sound came from underwater, causing ripples to spread across the surface.
Several pack mule puffshrooms equipped with [Underwater Adaptation LV4] jumped into the water. By now, there wasn't a single living fish in the water—anything still alive had long been scared away by the震动.
Soon, the ice giant eel's body, blown into several sections, was hauled up by the puffshrooms, along with a giant shrimp that had crawled over but hadn't managed even one bite of the fatty before exploding, getting its pincers blown clean off.
Lin Jun was merciful and helped fish up its pincers too, reuniting them.
[Sin of Greed Triggered]
[Plundered Skill: Frost Path LV1]
[Plundered Skill: Frost Shield LV1]
[Plundered Skill: Jet Stream LV1]
[Plundered Skill: Spit Arrow LV4→LV5]
[Plundered Skill: Water Current Sensing LV1→LV2]
[Plundered Skill: Giant Pincer Strike LV1→LV2]
...
After the two aquatic creatures were decomposed, Lin Jun finally obtained the skills he wanted, though they were still quite low-level.
After some experimentation with a few temporarily created puffshrooms, Lin Jun figured out these skills.
[Frost Path] and [Frost Shield] were both underwater skills from the giant eel.
The former could briefly freeze the surroundings, while the latter could temporarily form an ice shield, but their practical utility seemed limited when installed on puffshrooms.
The giant shrimp's skills looked much more suitable instead.
[Jet Stream], as the name suggested, achieved acceleration underwater by expelling water stored in the body—quite useful for puffshroom underwater evasion and escape.
He still had to rely on the veteran employee, the chubby puffshroom.
Having confirmed their usefulness, all areas of the seventh level where mycelial carpet had been laid began producing chubby puffshrooms.
With a slight acceleration using magic power, he estimated that in about half a month he could gather all the skills needed for underwater work.
The fissure problem truly couldn't be ignored—now wasn't the time to conserve magic power.
---
A palm-sized fragrant pellet floated on the water's surface, pale red substance slowly diffusing through the water. Four gold-rank adventurers hid not far from the shore, waiting quietly.
A subtle ripple appeared, and everyone became completely alert.
It's coming!
A massive catfish burst from the water, swallowing the fragrant pellet.
"Now!"
The mage's staff blazed with brilliant light.
Fifth-tier magic—Ice Seal!
The waterway, over ten meters wide, instantly froze solid. The catfish crashed heavily onto the ice surface, its tail even frozen in place. Driven by survival instinct, it began struggling violently.
"Don't give it a chance to break the ice!" the captain shouted while leading the charge.
Under the team leader's command, the experienced group quickly dispatched the catfish, which had virtually no ability to resist.
After cutting off the catfish's whiskers, the captain also split open its belly. Besides the whiskers being useful as magical potion ingredients, a piece of meat from this type of catfish's abdomen was also a top-grade ingredient worth some money. Even if they didn't sell it, having the four of them enjoy it as a treat would be nice.
"Hmm? What's this?"
After some fumbling around, the captain pulled out a small scythe from the catfish's stomach with a completely bewildered expression...
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