In the largest passage of Cave No. 3, the bovine-equine puffshrooms were busily spreading spores.
Although letting the fungal carpet spread on its own would work, Lin Jun clearly intended to accelerate the process.
This Yellow Book creature had some capability, but its heart wasn't unified—it was constantly scheming for its own benefit.
The passage twisted and extended, with its end connecting to a desolate cavern.
Inside the cavern were only some moss and tiny insects. Though the space was considerable, it had almost no cover and couldn't hide anything.
The only magical creatures were some slow-moving giant snails, scattered in twos and threes, curled up in their shells and quietly attached to the rock walls.
Compared to the snake cave that Little Pig was currently assaulting, this place seemed much more lonely.
Moreover, no cave dwellers were visible.
Lin Jun didn't immediately return to interrogate the Yellow Book, but instead had the puffshrooms search around thoroughly. Sure enough, there was a discovery—some footprints with three toes.
This matched the characteristics of the cave dwellers Lin Jun had seen before.
Unfortunately, this could only prove that cave dwellers had been here, but not where they came from.
Unlike the soft soil in the caverns, the passages were all reinforced by earth worms, making it difficult to leave traces.
And this cavern, like most caverns in the deep layer, connected to more than ten passages.
Without resorting to exhaustive methods, Lin Jun truly didn't have many idle puffshrooms on hand—the great expedition was like a bottomless pit, never having enough puffshrooms no matter how many were thrown in.
Those footprints were relatively fresh, indicating that cave dwellers had been here recently.
Lin Jun had some mimic puffshrooms transform into the appearance of stones to wait for prey to come to the trap.
This wait lasted two days. During this period, one mimic puffshroom was even targeted by a giant snail that caught its scent, and by the time Lin Jun noticed, it had already been half-eaten.
Fortunately, Lin Jun's wait wasn't in vain.
Seven cave dwellers emerged from a passage with a relatively gentle slope, carrying a huge piece of curved tree bark.
Upon emerging, most of them prostrated on the ground and began collecting moss to place on the tree bark they had brought.
So that's how it was—eating moss did fit their image and status.
But... why was one still standing in place without working?
Only the standing cave dweller held a crude spear, while the other cave dwellers were all empty-handed.
Standing guard?
Cave dwellers could use simple tools, so cooperative division of labor seemed natural.
However, this spear-wielding one didn't feel like a sentinel to Lin Jun.
It neither looked around vigilantly nor drove away the snails that approached and interfered with the cave dwellers collecting moss.
It simply held the spear, leaning against the rock wall, waiting for the other cave dwellers to fill the tree bark with what Lin Jun considered a very slacking attitude.
A word involuntarily surfaced in Lin Jun's mind—overseer.
Mainly because its behavior perfectly fit this role. Its existence seemed to serve merely to be "present," using oppressive presence to drive the worker slaves to labor, while itself requiring no physical exertion. The spear in its hand held far greater meaning for intimidating its own kind than defending against external enemies.
What happened next almost confirmed Lin Jun's speculation.
When one worker slave was vigorously scraping a large patch of thick moss, its movements were slightly too large, accidentally flinging out a piece of moss mixed with wet mud, which happened to splash onto the foot claw of the "overseer" leaning against the rock wall.
"Hiss-gah!" A sharp, piercing shriek suddenly erupted from the overseer's mouth, clearly filled with rage.
It didn't even wipe the mud from its foot claw, but instead stepped forward fiercely. The spear in its hand, accompanied by the sound of cutting wind, stabbed viciously toward the worker slave who looked up in terror!
The target wasn't a vital point, but the worker slave's tail.
"Poof!" The stone spear tip penetrated the worker's tail with some resistance—clearly this crude weapon was barely adequate even for dealing with its own kind.
The worker slave let out a pained wail, clutching its injured tail and curling up on the ground, emitting fearful whimpers.
The movements of the other worker slaves instantly froze. They all crouched low, trembling, not daring even to breathe heavily.
The overseer seemed very satisfied with this effect.
It casually wiped the bloody spear tip on the moss, no longer paying attention to the injured worker slave. It merely emitted a series of low, threatening sounds from its throat, seemingly warning everyone to continue working without stopping.
The injured worker slave endured the pain, using trembling claws to grab a handful of moss to press against the wound to stop the bleeding, then gritted its teeth and continued scraping moss. Its movements were even more careful than before, filled with fear.
Seeing this, the "overseer" slowly paced back to the rock wall, resuming its leaning posture.
It had no idea that a stone ten steps away was actually a mimic puffshroom, and that a certain existence had watched its entire performance with great interest.
Indeed, with great interest.
A group of cave dwellers had actually developed slavery!
And this wasn't the kind of slavery maintained purely by individual violence. The difference between the overseer and worker slaves on their status panels was minimal—these worker slaves could definitely tear the overseer apart easily if they swarmed together.
But facing the overseer's abuse, they dared not resist.
This indicated that the cave dwellers' slavery had already become a relatively complete social form.
They were clearly the same species, clearly with little difference between them.
However, this was good news for Lin Jun.
Originally thinking they were just some primitive human-like existence, they now seemed to have a higher level of intelligence than he had expected.
Rather than having the puffshrooms suddenly attack and capture these cave dwellers, he quietly watched as they filled the large tree bark with moss mixed with some soil, then carried it back under the overseer's direction.
Meanwhile, a scout puffshroom, under the control of [Familiar Manipulation], followed them from a distance.
Although cave dwellers also had the [Vibration Sensing] skill, their level was only around LV3.
Lin Jun's detection skill level was higher than theirs, with a larger range, making tracking effortless.
The cave dwellers continued upward, passing through several completely barren caverns without magical creatures—presumably "safe passages" explored by the cave dwellers.
However, Lin Jun always had a strange feeling...
When they reached a special cavern riddled with holes drilled by earth worms, Lin Jun understood the source of the strangeness—wasn't this the damn place where he had fought earth worms before?
So this was near his old home?
Cave dwellers actually lived nearby?
Lin Jun had definitely never seen cave dwellers before, so from this perspective, the cave dwellers had indeed come during that wave of the magic tide.
Watching several cave dwellers climb up a familiar passage, a speculation emerged in his mushroom cap.
It couldn't be...
Following the cave dwellers through familiar paths and familiar passages.
After several hours of trekking, the cavern where the old mushroom garden was located finally appeared in his perception...
So after he left, this place had been taken over by cave dwellers?
However, the scene before him bore no resemblance to the mushroom garden in his memory.
The passage entrance that had once been guarded by battle puffshrooms was now completely sealed by a massive living giant tree.
The giant tree's thick, blood vessel-like gnarled dark brown main trunk was deeply embedded in the rock.
On the side of the giant tree facing the passage, there was an irregularly excavated entrance and exit, roughly dug out, with claw marks and gnaw marks remaining on the edges, like an ugly scar.
Several cave dwellers armed with crude weapons stood guard beside this entrance.
At this entrance, Lin Jun even discovered traps they had set.
Several pitfalls covered with grass and vegetation; massive stone blocks suspended using vines.
These traps weren't heavily disguised, probably because their usual enemies were just some unrecognizable stupid magical creatures.
The scene before him could be called a primitive, crude castle without exaggeration.
Clearly, these weak cave dwellers' survival in the deep layer wasn't accidental.
However... they apparently hadn't removed the mushrooms that originally grew here. Through the living wood fortress, Lin Jun could sense large amounts of fungal carpet, mushrooms, and even... puffshrooms inside?
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