Whoa! Such a massive thing, and it's actually a cocoon rather than a nest?
This was Lin Jun's first time encountering a monster capable of cocooning in this world.
What would the Thousand-Pivot Mayfly become after completing its cocooning? Would it grow larger, or transform into an entirely different form?
Lin Jun didn't know.
What he did know was that the several hundred puffshrooms below were likely doomed, because the [Paralyzed] status effect on that giant mayfly had just disappeared.
The mayfly detached itself from its perched stone peak and flew toward the bat puffshrooms hanging beneath the fungal platforms like a swimming dragon.
*Popo—*
Though he felt it was futile, Lin Jun still ordered the puffshrooms to open fire.
The mushroom cannons struck the giant insect's carapace, and it wasn't entirely without effect. They could chip away tiny bits of the outer shell, but compared to the thickness of that armor, it was utterly insignificant.
If these several hundred puffshrooms could simultaneously hit the same spot, they should be able to inflict meaningful damage. However, such precision was difficult to achieve even against stationary targets, let alone moving ones.
Little Black's acidic breath was effective, but the quantity was too small to cause substantial harm to the colossal creature before them.
The Level 65 Thousand-Pivot Mayfly didn't even need to use any attack skills—it simply circled back and forth twice. Wherever it passed, fungal platforms snapped apart, and any puffshrooms it touched died instantly as if struck by a mud truck.
Clearly, it was quite angry about having its cocooning process disturbed.
After killing most of the puffshrooms, it continued upward, destroying the remaining fungal platforms. The batch of puffshrooms guarding the branching paths was unsurprisingly eliminated as well.
This destructive rampage continued for half a day. By the time it returned to coil around its original position, Lin Jun's battle line had been pushed back to where it was four days ago.
The remaining puffshrooms below were being slaughtered by smaller Thousand-Pivot Mayflies, and the fungal carpet that the giant insect had ignored was being gradually cleared away by them.
Simply put, one night had returned everything to square one...
After sorting through the situation, Lin Jun finally understood this creature's behavioral patterns.
What Lin Jun had initially thought were passages without giant insects were actually areas where the giant insect had cocooned itself. Then, whether through reproduction or simple summoning, it had gathered a batch of lower-level mayflies to bring it food.
The areas with only giant insects were those that hadn't begun cocooning yet.
This meant that, in all likelihood, every area had a giant insect...
Moreover, the cocooned giant insect couldn't be ignored, because if you killed all its minions and it had no subordinates to feed it, it surely wouldn't just stupidly starve itself to death in the cocoon.
The previous giant insect had only taken a few minutes to exit its [Cocooned, Paralyzed] state.
Clearly, this was quite different from the metamorphosis of caterpillars into butterflies in his previous life, where they dissolved themselves for complete reconstruction.
If that was the case, didn't this mean he'd have to fight a Level 60+ Thousand-Pivot Mayfly to proceed downward?
Lin Jun hated fighting giant insects the most...
And what if killing one brought another? This Thousand-Pivot Mayfly population was clearly substantial.
Tsk! If only this were aerial combat—the terrain restrictions were too limiting.
Little Black should have no problem against Thousand-Pivot Mayflies. [Powerful Acid Breath] had a restraining effect, and in terms of speed and agility, it held an unbeatable advantage.
Should he really risk letting Little Black come down?
...
Must everything require Little Black's intervention? Surely puffshrooms weren't such inconvenient creatures!
In the end, Lin Jun chose not to send Little Black down, instead silently increasing the production of bat puffshrooms.
A week later, when the puffshrooms made their comeback, their numbers had multiplied several-fold!
A single layer of fungal platforms couldn't accommodate them all, nor did Lin Jun intend to cluster them together. Instead, he divided them into batches, forming five defensive lines.
The vanguard remained the cannon mushrooms, pushing downward to clear the low-level mayflies that had gradually recovered in numbers over the past week.
Although some mayflies had regathered, their numbers were far from the original count.
After sacrificing fewer than eighty puffshrooms, the advance forces had fought their way back to the position where they'd previously met defeat.
Above that inverted stone peak, the giant insect was halfway through re-wrapping itself in silk!
The puffshrooms mercilessly bombarded several small mayflies that approached, right before its eyes.
The giant insect, not yet in its cocooning state, naturally witnessed these small creatures that had come to disturb it again.
A sharp shriek emanated from its mouth.
The giant insect directly bit through its half-woven cocoon and charged forth!
Though the advance unit fought back desperately, just like last time, the giant insect only sustained minor shell damage before nearly wiping out the hundred-plus puffshrooms.
Lin Jun's heart remained unmoved—this was an expected loss.
The giant insect continued upward, intending to smash all the fungal platforms that had extended into its territory, just as before.
However, it soon entered a purple spore fog.
[Hallucinogenic Spores LV7]
The ravine terrain wasn't truly enclosed, so toxic mists could easily disperse. But with sufficient puffshrooms and proper timing, short-term effectiveness was still achievable.
So... what was the effect?
In the toxic fog, the giant insect's vision was obstructed. Though it could still locate enemies through [Vibration Sensing], Lin Jun had ordered the puffshrooms to enter silent mode after releasing all their spores at once.
The giant insect could only thrash about randomly, relying on luck to cause damage.
Unfortunately, the Level 65 Thousand-Pivot Mayfly was simply too large—even such a concentration of hallucinogenic spores couldn't induce paralysis.
However, it wasn't entirely ineffective. After breaking through the second defensive line, the giant insect's movements had slowed somewhat.
Facing the continuing assault of the giant insect, the third layer of puffshrooms charged down to meet it head-on under Lin Jun's command.
Simple yet efficient [Self-Detonation].
Countless fireworks bloomed across the giant insect's body.
After the small fireworks came the big ones. The fourth layer's fungal platforms were particularly thick because they supported chunky puffshrooms.
Several bat puffshrooms lifted the chunky puffshrooms into flight, then simply dropped them after positioning themselves correctly.
Just like dropping bombs, the difficulty lay in controlling the timing of their self-detonation. Unlike bombs that explode upon impact, if a puffshroom died from the collision, it couldn't use [Self-Detonation].
A full ten chunky puffshrooms.
The giant insect's carapace already showed numerous fine cracks from the previous round of bat swarm explosions. Now, facing the more powerful chunky ones, its defenses finally broke.
The outer shell of its head crumbled, the interior was mangled and bloody, and one chunky puffshroom had detonated directly in its mouth, blasting apart its mouthparts.
The originally fierce giant insect immediately became unsteady, hanging in mid-air neither rising nor falling, emitting pitiful wails.
Lin Jun had prepared contingencies for the fifth defensive line, but it seemed unnecessary now.
A bat puffshroom gracefully flew to the head of the still-dazed giant insect, its fungal tendrils carrying an entire vial of freshly collected powerful acid breath liquid.
Without any intention of conserving it, the puffshroom poured it all over the giant insect's brain, now exposed without its protective shell.
Accompanied by the "sizzling" sound of corrosion, the giant insect's shrieks became even more wretched.
However, these cries didn't last long. Under Lin Jun's watchful gaze, the giant insect's already depleted health bar quickly reached zero.
The moment it hit zero, its wings stopped beating, and its massive body crashed against the jagged stone walls, tumbling downward.
*Phew—*
Back in the day, a Level 65 Flame Demon could block Lin Jun's path.
Now, he had managed to kill a Level 65 flying giant insect outright.
It was impossible not to feel a little proud.
But Lin Jun didn't relax—instead, he spread the fungal carpet downward even faster than before.
He could ignore the corpses of those low-level Thousand-Pivot Mayflies, but this Level 65 specimen was something he would never allow other monsters to devour.
Level 60+ Thousand-Pivot Mayflies possessed an additional [Cocooning] skill compared to other lower-level mayflies.
Lin Jun was intensely curious about what effects this ability might have!
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