[Species: Red Reef Fruit Tree]
[Skills: Delicious LV2, Paralysis Toxin LV2, Photosynthesis LV1]
Lin Jun pondered for a moment, then used his tendrils to knock down a fruit.
"Dylan, try this."
The fruit with its spiral-patterned red shell was curled over to Dylan.
"As expected of boss, finding food so quickly!"
Dylan caught the bowling ball-sized fruit, which Lin Jun had already helped him cut open.
Looking at the gelatinous flesh inside, Dylan first took a small sip.
"Mm!? Delicious!"
Dylan immediately began devouring it through the opening, and by the end was even trying to scoop out the flesh stuck to the inner walls of the shell with his hands, not intending to leave a single bit.
But before he could scoop much more, he suddenly lost control of his body and collapsed to the ground.
Scout Puffshrooms helped flip him over to prevent him from suffocating face-down.
Judging by his reaction, the [Delicious LV2] effect was indeed quite potent, though unfortunately Lin Jun couldn't taste it himself.
*No worldly desires.jpg*
The reason Lin Jun cared about this skill was mainly because he had seen it among the talent upgrades.
Taking it would essentially exclude it from the next skill selection, giving him a better chance of drawing more practical skills.
However, to obtain this skill, he'd need to bring this fruit back to the dungeon.
And this deserted island clearly wouldn't see a passing ship for who knows how long.
After some thought, Lin Jun controlled Scout Puffshrooms to scatter some spores around randomly.
This wasn't expansion—the newly grown creep wouldn't be under Lin Jun's mycelial network control.
Lin Jun was spreading spores here simply to create more fungal threads for future use...
---
Covenant City, Adventurer's Guild Headquarters.
This four-story building occupying over 30,000 square meters was more than just the typical guild hall where various quests were accepted. It contained numerous functional areas not found in other branches.
The warrior training grounds in the east wing, the magic target range on the north side, the adventurer trading area on the second floor, the perpetually high-temperature forge in the basement, and the alchemy section with its steaming vapors of different hues...
Combined with the massive stone walls surrounding the guild's perimeter, calling it a functionally specialized city within the city wouldn't be an overstatement.
In fact, it truly was one.
If one delved into its history, the land occupied by the Adventurer's Guild was the original Covenant City.
The people forced to migrate south under demonic assault had established their first foothold here.
The massive stone walls around the perimeter, more solid than even Covenant City's current walls, were the handiwork of a tenth-tier mage who had personally cut and reinforced each stone block.
Countless magical conduits extended from the wall's foundation—part of the defensive array system that came with the stone walls. It still functioned to this day, though it was rarely activated due to the expense.
Everyone knew that the Adventurer's Guild headquarters was the most fortified building in Covenant City, second only to the Council Hall.
However, few knew that the guild headquarters also contained a residential area on the smallest fourth floor.
A select few important guild personnel lived there, and the fourth floor was fully equipped as a living space.
The dull sound of a knife tapping against fruit shell echoed through the kitchen.
The Red Reef fruit's shell cracked in a cross pattern. The maid pressed her knuckles against the crack's edge and pried, causing the translucent gelatinous flesh to tumble into a silver plate.
She then sprinkled crushed orchid-scent leaves and mixed in a small amount of mellow elven ice wine, completing this dish full of exotic flavors.
But there was one final step.
Magical power gathered in the maid's hands, and the light of purification magic scattered over the silver plate, completely cleansing the paralysis toxin from the Red Reef fruit.
She prepared a small bowl of rich clam broth and placed everything together on a tray.
A few minutes later, the maid knocked on one of the fourth floor's room doors.
"Young Master Fal, breakfast is ready."
The white-haired youth lying spread-eagle on the balcony, sunbathing, lifted his head at her words.
"Ah, Lillian. Just put breakfast on the table."
Maid Lillian set down the plates but didn't leave, instead standing to the side watching the white-haired youth.
"Why are you keeping watch over me?"
"The moment I leave, Young Master definitely won't eat breakfast again. Plus, I have documents to give you."
Only then did Fal notice that Lillian was holding a stack of papers.
"Such a hassle..."
Though complaining, Fal still sat at the table and ate about half the flesh in the silver plate spoonful by spoonful, then sipped a little of the rich broth, considering breakfast sufficiently dealt with.
Even food with the [Delicious] attribute seemed to hold no special appeal for Fal.
Once Fal pushed the plate away, Lillian spread the documents from her arms one by one before him.
"Most of these are materials the Guild Master prepared for your branch assignment, including personnel information for Mute Wind Town, surrounding regional powers, and precautions regarding the Amethyst Dungeon."
The Guild Master Lillian mentioned was naturally the current head of the Adventurer's Guild, and also Fal's father.
However, Fal wasn't particularly appreciative, frowning as he casually flipped through the materials, complaining: "Meddling in my affairs. Does he think I can't even handle this level of information gathering?"
"The Master is just—" Lillian seemed about to defend the Guild Master but was suddenly interrupted.
Fal held up an unopened document with silver edging, asking puzzledly: "Why is there also a document sent from the Church? Don't tell me they want to conduct heresy trials in the dungeon?"
"Young Master, you shouldn't use that tone to mock the Church of Light. If word gets out, it'll cause trouble," Lillian reminded him.
Fal glanced at her. "Who else is here besides you? Or do you think I'm stupid enough to say such things outside?"
Lillian's lips curved slightly upward, and she said nothing more.
Before long, having finished reading the documents, Fal suddenly exclaimed: "They really do want to conduct heresy trials in the dungeon!"
"Aren't dungeons all monsters?"
"Exactly, monsters," Fal explained, his voice noticeably louder than before, seemingly quite interested in this matter. "A gifted squad captain from the Judgment Wing submitted a report saying the dungeon might have been occupied by a collective consciousness."
"Occupying a dungeon? How is that possible?" Though Lillian wasn't guild personnel, her long exposure had given her more knowledge about dungeons than most people. "Staying in a dungeon continuously leads to assimilation and binding, doesn't it? Even a collective consciousness could control at most one floor, right?"
"Generally speaking, yes. But if someone has exploited the dungeon core, that's another matter entirely. The possibility mentioned in this report actually aligns with intelligence from the guild's side."
"Controlling the dungeon core... could anyone really accomplish such a thing?"
Setting aside the difficulty of reaching the core's location, even if found, the core wasn't some simple switch that you could press to make the dungeon change according to your wishes. It was the entire operational logic of the dungeon.
Comparing it to Covenant City's defensive core, daily maintenance alone required over forty specialized personnel, and full activation required up to three hundred people operating simultaneously.
And dungeon cores were far more valuable than Covenant City's—their origins remained a mystery to this day.
Both human and demon leadership knew dungeons had so-called cores, yet they paid them no attention. Was it because they didn't want to control the dungeons?
They simply couldn't.
Even if new technology existed to control them, it shouldn't be something one person or even a few people could accomplish.
As for large amounts of personnel and supplies entering the Amethyst Dungeon under Mute Wind Town's nose?
No matter how negligent those people were, they shouldn't reach such extremes.
So Lillian couldn't believe her young master's speculation.
"Lillian, you've misunderstood. I said 'exploit,' not 'control.' Dungeons aren't perfect—they've had vulnerabilities before."
"Had?" Lillian precisely caught the key point in Fal's wording.
"Exactly, had. For instance, over a century ago, someone discovered that treasure chest respawning worked by teleporting and swapping two chests.
So someone stuffed themselves into an opened treasure chest and, after the respawn, arrived at a space he called the treasure vault.
He successfully obtained large quantities of top-tier equipment and items from inside, then used the same method to teleport back out.
Some of that equipment has even survived to this day."
"What happened after?" Lillian knew things couldn't be that simple.
Fal didn't keep her in suspense and revealed the aftermath:
"The sequel was that he never returned from his second attempt. Not just him—all the opportunists who imitated him also disappeared into the dungeon. Clearly, the dungeon didn't appreciate thievery either."
"Then if this current situation is also a vulnerability, why hasn't the dungeon patched it?"
"That's why I suspect it might involve the core. Monster stratification is the most fundamental rule of the Amethyst Dungeon. When such basic rules are broken, it means there's a problem with the core logic.
Of course, it's all just speculation. The Church's intelligence might be wrong, or it could be some other coincidence causing this situation.
But regardless, this time definitely won't be boring!"
Comments