In the swamp area, four puffshrooms were wrapped in cocoons made of mycelium, having fallen into a [Rigid] state.
The specific effects of this skill were unclear, so Lin Jun could only test it hands-on and wait for results.
The reason for placing the cocoons in the swamp rather than the mushroom forest was mainly to prevent Little Black from discovering them during one of his wanderings and devouring them directly.
The swamp area had an unpleasant odor that Little Black disliked, so he wouldn't come here. It was safe for incubation.
Who knew what would hatch from these things?
Meanwhile, the great expedition was proceeding relatively smoothly for now.
Although the deep layers contained high-tier monsters like flame demons and giant worms, they weren't everywhere.
Most caverns were inhabited by vast numbers of ordinary monsters.
The puffshroom army, combined with Louisa, had the capability to conquer the vast majority of caverns without suffering excessive losses.
However, problems still existed.
Given that each cavern had numerous interconnected passages leading in all directions, every time they conquered a deeper cavern, Lin Jun needed to station some puffshrooms to guard the territory.
Otherwise, if monsters suddenly emerged to destroy the mycelium carpet in the rear, cutting off the network connection to the front lines—that would be fatal for Louisa.
Each cavern required dozens or even hundreds of puffshrooms to guard the mycelium carpet, depending on the situation. Lin Jun's originally abundant troop capacity was rapidly declining.
The normal operation of the mushroom garden alone required 800 capacity, with 400 stationed on the fifth layer. Reducing this number further would make Lin Jun feel insecure.
With the remaining capacity, at the current pace, after conquering another ten or so caverns, the expedition would be forced to halt due to insufficient cannon fodder—even without encountering boss-level enemies.
Therefore,
He needed to quickly find usable intelligent beings to serve as intermediate nodes and expand the army.
This was why Lin Jun had given Louisa strict orders: intelligent humanoid lifeforms could only be captured, not killed.
However, so far, only two minotaurs had been captured.
The cave dwellers that Lin Jun had placed high hopes on were nowhere to be seen.
Most likely, the direction of the great expedition wasn't the same as the direction of the cave dwellers' lair.
To search for traces of cave dwellers, Lin Jun continuously dispatched reconnaissance bat puffshrooms from already conquered caverns to explore various connected passages, though there had been no results so far.
While there was no good news about finding cave dwellers, there was bad news!
Rifts... more rifts!
Lin Jun had now conquered 4 caverns and explored over a hundred passages, already discovering no fewer than six rifts.
Although they were all small, with nothing but harmless void space on the other side, they inevitably gave Lin Jun the feeling of living in a dangerous building.
Security! A sense of security!
Why was it so difficult to stay peacefully in one place?
Lin Jun had even considered the worst-case scenario: failing to seize the core and the dungeon crumbling.
Having to flee outside like a homeless dog and restart development.
Just thinking about that scene made his heart ache.
Of course, Lin Jun had also considered other methods—perhaps he could find a way to let humans know about the deep layer situation?
Humans surely wouldn't be willing to watch the dungeon collapse, right?
While this method wasn't as good as seizing the core himself, it was still a hundred times better than being homeless.
It's just that there were too many uncertain factors involved...
Returning his thoughts to the present, the two minotaur prisoners had awakened, but recruitment wasn't going smoothly.
Even after being affected by [Fusion Parasitism], the thoughts transmitted through the mycelium network remained resistant and violent.
"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!"
It proved that the favorability bonus brought by [Fusion Parasitism] had virtually no effect on the berserk and stubborn minotaurs.
These two minotaurs weren't lacking intelligence; they were simply unwilling to compromise, preferring death.
Initially, Lin Jun wondered if these minotaurs had some kind of warrior's honor, requiring a one-on-one duel victory to subdue them—that kind of plot.
It turned out that wasn't the case. The two minotaurs were simply engaging in pure racial discrimination, looking down on puffshrooms.
They even looked down on Louisa, the vampire.
Lin Jun couldn't understand the source of their inexplicable sense of superiority. In any case, the minotaurs had no intention of yielding from beginning to end.
In the end, Lin Jun found himself with two minotaur puppets...
---
The recruitment failure made Lin Jun's mood even worse.
At times like this, it would be great if the Yellow Book could control the minotaurs' obedience through charm.
Unfortunately, the Yellow Book was too useless, completely helpless against minotaurs whose culture lacked written language.
What use was such a worthless book?
Wait, it actually did seem to have some use!
Lin Jun remembered that the Yellow Book's detection range seemed quite large?
...
Norris was actually quite diligent. After coming out, he threw himself wholeheartedly into improving his strength, spending almost every day on the sixth layer training his combat abilities.
The Yellow Book used its detection ability to help him select suitable combat opponents. With his excellent set of skills, he always fought above his level.
Under the rush of experience points, his level had now reached LV27, not far from silver rank.
However, today, suddenly called to the rift valley, Norris looked at the bottomless abyss below and had a vague sense of foreboding.
"Boss, what's the matter?"
"Norris, have you been feeling that the monsters on the sixth layer are a bit too weak lately?"
Hearing this, Norris nodded.
The sixth layer was, after all, at most level 30. For his current self, it really couldn't be said to offer much challenge.
But the seventh layer had waterway terrain, and he had no underwater skills, making it unsuitable for training there.
As for the eighth layer, not to mention the difficulty, the mycelium carpet hadn't been successfully laid, so it wasn't suitable either.
"Today I'm taking you to a new place where there are more monsters suitable for you to practice on."
"Um, boss... that new place wouldn't be..." Norris kept staring at the rift valley beneath his feet, clearly having guessed something.
*Sigh*, Norris had grown up too; he wasn't so easy to manipulate emotionally anymore.
Seeing this, Lin Jun didn't hide it and confirmed: "It's down there!"
"But boss, I can't fly..."
"No problem, puffshrooms can!"
Just as he finished speaking, four bat puffshrooms grabbed Norris's limbs and lifted him up.
Norris instinctively wanted to struggle, but Lin Jun kindly reminded him: "Don't move around, or you'll fall."
Already suspended above the rift valley, Norris instantly went rigid, allowing the bat puffshrooms to carry him slowly downward.
Half an hour later, Norris finally reached the bottom cavern. The moment he landed, he uncontrollably vomited!
His nerves had been highly tense, and he'd been keeping his body rigid the entire time. When he suddenly landed safely, the nauseous feeling could no longer be suppressed.
After resting for another half hour, Lin Jun finally assigned him his task—to work with the Yellow Book to search for traces of cave dwellers.
Of course, the prerequisite was not to leave the controllable range of the mycelium carpet.
At the same time, Lin Jun transferred control authority of the two minotaur puppets and 10 elite puffshrooms to him.
This way, combined with the Yellow Book's detection ability, Norris would have safety guarantees.
Norris looked at the two monsters before him, each more than twice his height, and swallowed hard.
This was his first time seeing puppet individuals, and they were minotaurs whose strength far exceeded his own!
The feeling of casually commanding monsters stronger than himself was incomparable to controlling a few puffshrooms. This filled Norris with a strange excitement.
When he learned this was the deep layer, Norris became more cautious but wasn't intimidated by it.
The boss had arranged bodyguards, provided the mycelium network, and even had the Yellow Book to help.
If he still didn't have the courage to explore the vicinity, then there was no point in thinking about getting stronger!
As for the Yellow Book, it displayed far more enthusiasm than when it had been playing around with Norris on the sixth layer.
[Boss, just leave this matter to us with confidence. We guarantee easy completion!]
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