It seemed the Adventurer's Guild had a new leader.
Lin Jun noticed Farr shortly after his arrival in Mute Wind Town. It would have been hard not to—that carriage covered in dazzlingly complex magical arrays flashed so brightly that even Lin Jun, who was still studying basic formations, couldn't look directly at it.
[Name: Farr Isaacs]
[Race: Human]
[Level: 28]
[Name: Lillian]
[Race: Half-elf]
[Level: 55]
The whole setup gave off that classic "useless young master accompanied by a powerful battle maid" vibe...
Now, most of Mute Wind Town fell within Lin Jun's field of vision, though this wasn't intentional on his part. His fungal carpet had only spread to just outside the dungeon entrance. It was simply that the townspeople came to harvest large quantities of mushrooms from the dungeon daily, naturally allowing spores to grow into mycelium and mushrooms on their wooden houses.
When the number of mushrooms within range reached a certain threshold, they naturally formed a surveillance network. The only issue was the significant delay since they weren't connected to the main fungal carpet.
Places like the Adventurer's Guild, where mushrooms couldn't penetrate, remained blind spots in Lin Jun's vision of Mute Wind Town. However, he had no intention of truly monitoring the entire town anyway.
His attention remained focused on the deep layers. As long as the Adventurer's Guild didn't provoke him, he couldn't care less who their guild leader was.
The deep layer expedition had successively conquered eight caverns, which Lin Jun had numbered sequentially from Cavern 1 to Cavern 8. Since each cavern required puffshrooms for defense, the expedition team lost some of its puffshroom forces with each conquest. By now, Louisa's expedition force had dwindled to half its original size.
Reduced firepower meant slower progress. The latest cavern had been locked in a stalemate with a nest of snake monsters for two whole days.
Yet there was still no sign of the dungeon core's location. Lin Jun estimated it would be quite some time before they found it.
This made the cave dwellers all the more important. However, the Yellow Book, tasked with finding cave dwellers, had made zero contributions during this period.
Time for some motivation...
---
[Norris, you betrayed me!]
Just a few short words, yet they appeared on the book's pages like knife carvings, filled with the Yellow Book's disbelief.
"I... I didn't..."
[Then why did you close me just now?]
[Why?]
Norris glanced at the minotaur they had defeated, now being carried away, and explained somewhat helplessly:
"Boss's orders! If I hadn't closed you, Senior, wouldn't you have absorbed the minotaur's soul again? Just like last time!"
The previous incident involved Norris commanding two puppet minotaurs and puffshrooms, with the Yellow Book's mental manipulation causing their minotaur opponent to lose judgment in a rage, leading to its clever defeat.
The minotaur had originally been left with a breath of life, but the Yellow Book suddenly intervened, directly soul-draining the barely alive minotaur to death!
Remembering his boss's instructions, Norris had preemptively closed the Yellow Book when this minotaur was about to be defeated. The minotaur was fine now, but the Yellow Book was furious...
[Boss's orders? Are you trying to starve me to death?]
[Norris, do you know how long I've been hungry? Just a little bit of food, that's all!]
[And I didn't forget to share with you last time!]
Norris scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly. The Yellow Book really hadn't forgotten to share the spoils last time—he could still vaguely remember that fulfilling sensation of attribute enhancement. It was intoxicating.
"But the boss said..."
[Norris, you're confused!]
[The minotaur was something WE worked hard to kill. What's wrong with eating a little occasionally?]
[And who tells you stories every day?]
[Do you know how many book pages I've secretly wasted behind the scenes just to make you happy with my stories?]
[And what about you? I just don't want to go hungry!]
[Norris, you've been hungry before, haven't you? You know that feeling!]
[That emptiness, that pain—I'm suffering through that torment right now!]
[You can at least starve to death, but I can't. I can only endure this torture eternally. Can you understand that?]
[Waaaaaah]
Looking at the Yellow Book's words, Norris was speechless for a long moment.
Though the Yellow Book was usually arrogant and typed with a pompous attitude, it had indeed been very good to him. The stories every three days brought him joy he'd never experienced before.
Not only that, the Yellow Book would chat with him like a friend. In combat, he'd received considerable help from the Yellow Book, whose reconnaissance abilities always allowed Norris to avoid risks in advance.
Most importantly, he really had experienced that near-death hunger. He hadn't realized the Yellow Book had been living like this all along.
"Then, next time, just occasionally one..."
"Eh? Won't... starve to death... also... means... not eating is... okay too!"
A hoarse, withered, echoing distorted voice suddenly rang out from Norris's chest. It was the voice puffshroom that Lin Jun had given Norris to wear—something that hung around his neck like a scarf but was rarely used afterward.
Norris, who had nearly violated his boss's orders, froze in place with a miserable expression, not daring to speak.
The text on the Yellow Book's pages rapidly deleted itself, and within half a second, the pages were as clean as new. But it was obviously too late.
Lin Jun's earlier decision to split part of his attention to Norris wasn't a joke. The Yellow Book's every move was under his watchful eye—he had simply chosen to let it slide before.
Norris suddenly felt control of one of his puffshrooms being withdrawn. That puffshroom stepped forward, extending mycelial tendrils to take the Yellow Book from Norris's hands.
Norris didn't dare resist in the slightest, while the Yellow Book had already begun frantically writing:
[Boss! It's all a misunderstanding!]
[I really wasn't trying to steal food!]
[I was just teasing little Norris]
[Testing whether he truly took your instructions to heart]
[See, didn't this test reveal that he couldn't fully comply!]
Norris: ???
"I sent you down... with no results to show... and you're pulling tricks?"
The puffshroom rolled up the Yellow Book and headed toward Cavern 1, apparently to deliver it back to Little Black.
[Boss! Wait!]
[Give me a chance!]
[Can I make up for my crimes with merit?]
Brief silence.
"I can... consider it."
[I, I, I have clues!]
[I have intelligence!]
[In the direction connected by Cavern 3's largest passage, there are creatures matching your description!]
The Yellow Book then quickly described the cave dwellers it had detected—their appearance, numbers, and behavior—insisting it wasn't lying.
The puffshroom nodded its cap.
"Under... stood."
It continued carrying the book away.
[Why?]
[I provided clues! I contributed to the Mushroom Garden!]
[You just promised me! How can you do this?]
"The crime of tempting Norris... is pardoned. Now it's the crime of... knowing but not reporting!"
[?!]
Two days later, Norris received the successfully slimmed-down Yellow Book, along with a voice puffshroom that, while still unpleasant-sounding, could now speak fluently.
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