The familiar environment of the great cavern. When Lin Jun's fungal network finally spread down, various sounds of chewing and writhing intertwined in the darkness—a veritable feast was taking place below.
Giant spiders tore at mayfly corpse chunks with their sharp chelicerae, slimes writhed as they dissolved insect shells, beetle swarms produced fine gnawing sounds, cave dwellers stealthily carved off insect legs with remnant flesh still clinging to them, lizard monsters used their long tongues to roll up food... all manner of magical beasts crowded together.
Lin Jun even spotted a human-sized giant turtle methodically gnawing at the remains.
Since when were there turtles in the deep layers?
These magical beasts were unusually peaceful with one another, merely burying their heads in devouring the mountain of mayfly corpses, showing no intention of hunting each other.
However, this scene wasn't particularly pleasant for Lin Jun.
These fellows were shamelessly eating the prey he had brought down!
Even the great worm wasn't spared—while they couldn't break through its thick carapace, the worm brain that Lin Jun had already blasted apart was a different story.
Now only a small portion of the great worm's head remained.
More than thirty puffshrooms dropped onto the worm's back. A nearby giant spider noticed these small creatures before it and tentatively extended one spider leg toward them, only to be met with a blade whip in response.
All thirty-plus of these were elite puffshrooms.
Just as special forces weren't suitable for cannon fodder, Lin Jun hadn't deployed these elite puffshrooms when fighting the great worm—when the worm charged, elite or cannon fodder alike would be instantly killed.
The spider leg flew off, and painful shrieks emerged from the mouth dripping with venom.
However, within half a second, its head was blown away by several enhanced mushroom cannons.
The headless body swayed twice before crashing heavily to the ground.
The moment the spider fell, the puffshrooms launched an indiscriminate attack on the surrounding magical beasts that were stealing their family's prey, immediately throwing the situation into chaos.
The lizard monster, under attack and wanting to retaliate, stepped into a slime with one foot.
The beetles, sensing the confusion, scurried about to hide themselves.
Two cave dwellers wanted to make off with a chunk of fat meat in the chaos. The one lagging behind had his leg blown off on the spot by a mushroom cannon, while his companion, seeing this, abandoned both the meat and his fellow.
The cleanup didn't last long. Though the magical beasts were numerous, each had their own habits and wouldn't truly unite to attack the puffshrooms.
Moreover, this squad of elite puffshrooms was already quite formidable in combat. After suffering two casualties from a lizard monster's tongue ambush, they had essentially cleared the field.
Scale-armored melee puffshrooms wandered among the remains, finishing off the wounded magical beasts that couldn't escape, leaving only the disabled cave dweller and the turtle.
The turtle was simply impossible to defeat—when attacked, it decisively retreated into its shell, and all six openings sealed completely shut, leaving not a single gap.
Attacks on the shell were quite ineffective, and its defensive power seemed no weaker than the great worm's carapace. Lin Jun could only set it aside for now.
As for the cave dweller, Lin Jun was somewhat curious about this eyeless humanoid creature—he'd never seen such cave dwellers near the mushroom garden before.
These two cave dwellers were quite low level, only in their twenties, with weak skills. Though they carried weapons, those primitively crude short spears could hardly be said to have any combat effectiveness.
No wonder they only dared to break off insect legs at the very edges, not venturing into the central area for more succulent insect meat.
Looking purely at attributes and skills, a single cave dweller would probably have difficulty winning a one-on-one fight even against the fire mosquitoes of old.
And fire mosquitoes moved in swarms—who knew if these cave dwellers had such numbers? Humanoid creatures most likely couldn't reproduce as prolifically as fire mosquitoes.
Dragging the cave dweller to a dead end and pushing the turtle over as well, he paid them no further mind.
The puffshrooms began spraying spores throughout the cavern.
This cavern had no native magical beasts, only some fern plants common to the deep layers.
This made sense—directly above was the gathering place of the Thousand-Pivot Mayflies, who would come down to forage from time to time. Even if there had originally been magical beasts here, they would have been eaten clean long ago.
Unlike his original mushroom garden where he had lived in a corner of peace, this cavern connected to more than ten passages—an average number for deep layer caverns.
He wondered where his original mushroom garden might be located. Back then, with limited strength, he had explored too small an area.
After half a day, the fungal carpet spreading down from above finally connected with the new fungal carpet grown from the spores the puffshrooms had scattered.
Not knowing when some great monster might emerge in the deep layers, and to avoid complications from delay, Lin Jun spent extra magic power to accelerate the decomposition of these corpses. What should have been several days of decomposition work was completed within two hours.
[Greed of the Seven Sins Triggered]
[Plundered Skill: Chitin Shell LV7→LV8]
[Plundered Skill: Insect Silk LV3→LV4]
[Plundered Skill: Cocooning LV1]
...
Having finished the decomposition work, the puffshrooms brought out the cave dweller with the broken leg.
[Fusion Parasitism] had already been used, but his leg had been completely blown apart and could no longer be reattached.
Lin Jun simply bound an insect shell to his severed leg, allowing him to barely move on his own.
Then he released him.
If the cave dwellers lived nearby, Lin Jun could determine their location through sensing this one.
If they lived far away, given his broken-leg condition, he would most likely become some magical beast's dinner.
Through the fungal network, Lin Jun had already tested the cave dweller's intelligence—primitive but not stupid.
He was still somewhat interested in them.
The number of puffshrooms Lin Jun could directly control was around 3,000.
While this was more than sufficient for controlling the seven layers he currently commanded, it was clearly inadequate when facing the deep layers of unknown vastness.
Before coming down, Lin Jun had planned to control some humanoid creatures—just as he had entrusted all the puffshrooms on the sixth layer to the tree demon—to save his own operational capacity.
His original target had been minotaurs, that is, bull-headed men, since they were the only humanoid creatures he had previously encountered in the deep layers.
But as for how confident he was, Lin Jun truly had no certainty.
His impression of minotaurs was that they were hot-tempered, easily angered, and tremendously strong.
[Fusion Parasitism] wasn't mind control—if they truly swore to resist unto death, Lin Jun would have no choice but to turn them into puppets.
Moreover, minotaurs didn't seem numerous enough. The few times Lin Jun had encountered them, they had all been solitary minotaurs.
Encountering cave dwellers now was undoubtedly another option. At least these cave dwellers moved in pairs.
After releasing the cave dweller, Lin Jun controlled a puffshroom to follow him from a distance.
However, the best-laid plans of mushrooms and men often go awry[1]. In just over ten minutes, the cave dweller vanished in the passage.
When the puffshroom reached his disappearance point, what it saw was the cave dweller's broken spear fallen on the ground, and a manhole-cover-sized fissure in the passage floor.
Beyond the fissure—no curse, no sound, just pitch-black darkness...
---
T/N:
This is an adaptation of the famous line "The best-laid schemes of mice and men often go awry" from Robert Burns' poem, playfully modified to reference the protagonist's fungal nature ("菇算不如天算" literally means "mushroom calculations don't match heaven's calculations").
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