A bit of powder ground from low-grade magic crystals;
A small cup of slime liquid that had been processed to retain only its adhesive properties;
Bark from second-layer gray wood trees;
Plus some precious materials from the eighth layer—glowgrass.
A puffshroom crushed and mixed these materials together, finally forming a purple coating liquid.
On the ground lay another dead puffshroom. The puffshroom's body had been cut open, revealing the hollow interior where Lin Jun had shaped the rudimentary magic formation.
He evenly applied the coating liquid inside, waited for it to solidify, then closed up the cut opening.
Under the effect of [Mycelial Reconstruction LV4], the dead puffshroom on the ground soon came back to life.
Controlling the puffshroom to channel magic power into the formation within its body.
After a brief flicker, the puffshroom successfully emitted an orange-yellow glow.
A Illumination Spell puffshroom was complete!
The biggest reason Lin Jun's initial experiments failed was the lack of these auxiliary materials. Relying purely on mycelium to conduct and bind magic power was far too demanding.
After reading that basic magic formation book and following the steps outlined within, plus adding small modifications suitable for puffshrooms, a puffshroom capable of rapidly casting fixed spells was born.
To be honest, it was quite troublesome.
This was just the lowest-level illumination spell—not only was its structure simple, but it also required very few materials.
As for advanced formations, Lin Jun didn't have the relevant books, but he could imagine some things just by thinking about it.
Complex formation structures would probably require fat otaku puffshrooms to contain them, and the required materials would become various high-grade items.
In summary, the cost was a bit high.
Lin Jun's original idea was to casually shape formation structures and cast spells, but in the end, it was just like ordinary formations—requiring various auxiliary materials.
The only advantage was that Lin Jun's formations could move together with the puffshrooms.
Comparatively speaking, using skills directly was still more cost-effective.
Like a puffshroom inscribed with fireball magic—its output would most likely be inferior to two [Mushroom Cannon LV8] artillery puffshrooms in terms of being cheap and useful.
Of course, this didn't mean magic and formations had no value. Some special spells couldn't be replaced by skills.
The most typical example was teleportation magic involving space.
At least until now, Lin Jun had never heard of any skill that could achieve teleportation effects.
So formations and magic still needed to be studied, positioned as supplements to fill certain gaps in his skill system.
But magic was fine—a few consumable magic puffshrooms, a few magic crystals, some negligible magic power consumption.
Plus those dozen or so magic books of various schools, Lin Jun could slowly familiarize himself with various spells and train his spellcasting abilities.
But what about formations?
The required materials were a big problem. The materials needed for illumination spells could be gathered in the Purple Crystal Dungeon, but others might not be so certain.
Not to mention, Lin Jun only had one book about formations.
From this, one could see that formations among humans were either a niche choice, or those who studied formations wouldn't become adventurers.
Lin Jun thought about it and felt he still needed to approach this from two angles.
For materials that already existed in the Purple Crystal Dungeon, he should start collecting them appropriately.
Easy-to-store types like ores, teeth, tree bark and such—he should stockpile some of these.
Hard-to-store ones, like certain plant materials that died quickly after harvesting, he should see if he could transplant some to hidden places for convenient access when needed.
Not too much—after all, this was just for his own formation practice, and he couldn't possibly exhaust all the dungeon's materials.
The difficult part was materials not found in the Purple Crystal Dungeon, as well as more advanced knowledge books.
It seemed he could only disguise himself and trade with humans to obtain them. Money wasn't lacking, but Dylan wasn't by his side right now...
Forget about Norris. Not to mention he hadn't equipped him with [Mimicry] yet, even if he had, he wouldn't feel comfortable letting him handle this.
This unlucky fellow's past life experience was just being bullied, mining, and paying debts. Having him handle this kind of thing would probably result in being taken as a sucker at best.
Lin Jun felt that him causing real trouble was a high probability event.
Actually, there was another method—having the Yellow Book charm someone to go handle everything and bring it back to the dungeon.
This method also had obvious drawbacks—after all, it would waste a person.
Charm wouldn't erase memories, so naturally that person would spread word about being controlled by a book after the charm was lifted, bringing trouble.
In other words, to avoid subsequent troubles, Lin Jun would have to dispose of someone after each use.
What kind of cult plotline...
After thinking about it, Lin Jun decided against it. He'd make do with the Purple Crystal Dungeon's existing materials for now.
---
In the cavern, Norris walked into a secluded tunnel.
"Hmm... it should be... here?"
Following the mycelial network's guidance, Norris groped his way to a stone wall and quietly spoke the password:
"Puffshroom, open up!"
The stone wall slowly opened a gap.
This stone wall was actually puffshrooms using rock armor plus mimicry to disguise themselves. Looking carefully, one could still see the puffshroom tentacles serving as rotating door mechanisms.
Behind the mimicry door was a long passage sloping upward, leading to a certain happy little house.
Norris was here to retrieve the Yellow Book.
The rough, unpolished uphill path—after finally climbing up, Norris couldn't help but breathe heavily.
Then he sensed the presence of numerous puffshrooms around him, but looking around, there was clearly only an altar and a few stone pillars...
[Junior! You finally came to get me!]
[I thought I'd be locked up here for another few months]
[I've prepared several stories, let's get out of here quickly]
Seeing Norris, the Sacred Text was like seeing family, eager to leave this place.
These puffshrooms that normally stood motionless guarding it were driving it crazy.
Norris nodded and cradled the Yellow Book in his arms. He had gotten permission from the boss before coming this time.
Clang clang clang—
After leaving the hidden passage, Norris heard the sound of mining coming from the return path.
Norris found this a bit strange. The boss had only agreed to let him retrieve the Yellow Book because there were no adventurers mining in the caverns right now. Why would there be mining sounds now?
Looking back at the hidden door that had completely closed without leaving a trace, Norris felt relieved.
As long as no one directly saw the hidden passage, there shouldn't be any problems.
Walking out, Norris saw a tall woman holding a pickaxe, and she also noticed Norris.
Norris remembered that the boss seemed to have mentioned a vampire prisoner on vacation mining here.
Although he didn't know how vacation and mining combined, was this person in front of him the vampire?
Instinctively, Norris took a step back.
Where had he ever seen a real vampire? Every vampire story he'd heard was bloody and terrifying!
Plus this vampire woman was nearly two meters tall, a full head taller than him.
Norris truly felt the pressure.
[Go go go, don't bother with this guy]
Seeing Norris standing still, the Yellow Book impatiently urged him on.
The Yellow Book didn't like this demon race member who had nearly gotten it implicated at all.
It had clearly sensed that time—the mushroom's collective consciousness had genuinely planned to eliminate it.
If it hadn't remained calm under pressure and used its silver tongue to prove its value, it might not have a single page left now.
Under the Yellow Book's urging, Norris took the book and circled to the other side of the tunnel, carefully walking past.
Seeing that the vampire seemed to have no further reaction, he ran out quickly.
Meanwhile, Louisa kept staring at the Sacred Text until long after Norris disappeared from view.
Lin Jun received a private message from Louisa through the mycelial network.
"Lord of Puffshrooms, I am willing to pledge my loyalty to you!
I am willing to exchange important intelligence for my freedom!"
In the mine, Louisa knelt on one knee before the rock wall with sparse mycelium, proposing a trade.
What the hell, "Lord of Puffshrooms"!
Although he felt that using interrogation or charm methods could also obtain this so-called intelligence, Lin Jun still gave her a chance.
"Let's hear it."
"The Sacred Text is very dangerous!"
Good grief, is this some kind of Werewolf game!
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