For some unknown reason, after that cave dweller who had been influenced by him and voluntarily served as a diplomatic ambassador stepped forward, the opposing cave dweller formation became even more chaotic.
The declaration had barely finished when the cave dweller warriors on the opposite side yanked down the vines suspending the massive stones.
The polished round boulders came rolling down, charging straight toward Louisa.
Blood transformed in Louisa's hands, taking the shape of a long spear.
Although she usually preferred to use blood threads that allowed for more precise manipulation, this didn't mean that was her only technique.
Her body arched like a bow as Louisa hurled the blood spear with tremendous force. The strike directly shattered the boulder and continued its momentum, exploding the head of that cave dweller warrior who had been roaring something incomprehensible.
Stone fragments scattered everywhere, with one piece flying straight toward Norris's face.
Norris reacted quickly, using the Yellow Book to deflect the stone.
[You used me to block a rock?]
[Norris! You used my noble cover to block a rock!]
"No... sorry, it was just instinct..."
[Damn vampire!]
While Norris was fine, the other puffshrooms weren't so lucky.
That single wave of stone fragments took out more than twenty puffshrooms.
Lin Jun paid no attention to the puffshrooms' casualties—he was more concerned about the dead cave dweller on the opposite side.
"Louisa, that's one."
Louisa, who had been smugly showing off just moments before, gave a start as she recalled the death quota her boss had set for this mission—no more than five cave dwellers could be killed.
Catching ants without crushing them to death?
This task was far more difficult than conquering the cave.
Breaking their limbs... that shouldn't kill them directly, right?
Facing Louisa and the puffshroom army approaching them, the cave dwellers didn't immediately collapse.
Although their fear was almost tangible, when a fat, elderly cave dweller appeared among their ranks, all the other cave dwellers gripped their weapons tightly.
This anomaly caught Lin Jun's attention, prompting him to pull up its status panel.
【Skill: Pheromones LV6】
Comparing it with the other cave dwellers' panels, he discovered that the fat ones in the nest all had this skill at LV6.
Lin Jun roughly understood—they obeyed individuals with higher pheromone concentrations?
Lin Jun also possessed this skill, though at a low level, and had never bothered to use it.
This wasn't some charm or mind control ability—it was simply the release of chemical substances carrying information, and it only worked on members of the same species who could receive that information.
Utterly inefficient. With Lin Jun possessing the fungal network, such a useless skill could only gather dust in his repertoire.
But among the cave dwellers, this had become an important skill related to social hierarchy—at least within the tribe.
Upon reflection, obeying individuals with higher pheromone concentrations probably allowed cave dwellers to unite more easily, which was beneficial for collective survival.
However, that was as far as it went.
After maintaining basic survival, these individuals who possessed nothing but high pheromone concentrations became parasites, limiting the tribe's further development.
Their slave-based social structure probably originated from this very phenomenon.
With this understanding, it was no wonder that despite possessing the intelligence to create traps, cave dwellers could only exist as the lowest of the low.
While Lin Jun leisurely studied cave dweller sociology, the battle to reclaim the old mushroom garden officially began.
To avoid unnecessary cave dweller casualties, Lin Jun hadn't even brought artillery puffshrooms—all the ones present were close-combat types wielding fungal tendrils.
This gave the cave dwellers at least some chance to resist... just a tiny bit...
Blocking the entrance, the cave dwellers thrust their spears outward again and again, continuously killing the puffshrooms that surged forward.
But occasionally, tendrils would find the right moment to wrap around a cave dweller and drag it outside.
Once pulled out even slightly, more fungal tendrils would quickly entangle that cave dweller, dragging it away completely.
Faced with such scenes, the other cave dwellers could only thrust more desperately, vainly trying to halt the puffshrooms' assault.
Louisa didn't join the puffshrooms in attacking the main gate—in such a crowded environment, what if she accidentally crushed a few cave dwellers to death?
Based on her understanding of her boss, if she exceeded the death quota, forget about getting a good meal—she'd probably be starved half to death or have mushrooms growing somewhere on her body.
At this thought, she moved even further from the entrance.
But obviously she couldn't just idle around doing nothing, or her boss would give her trouble too.
【Blood Manipulation LV8】
The blood she kept with her transformed into a giant axe in her hands, then she raised the axe and brought it down with full force against the living wood wall!
The axe successfully bit into the wooden wall but didn't create the large opening she had expected.
Louisa frowned.
She took out some minotaur blood and drank it.
【Bloodthirst Enhancement LV7】
"Haa—"
Stimulated by the minotaur blood, Louisa's eyes glowed red and her muscles swelled, then she struck down with the axe once more.
Accompanied by flying wood chips, the wooden wall was directly split open in a large section. Several cave dwellers behind it were knocked down by the scattered wood fragments—whether they were dead or alive was unclear.
Louisa's expression changed as she rushed over to dig them all out and toss them to the puffshrooms behind her.
...
The sudden appearance of a second entrance threw the cave dwellers into chaos. The puffshrooms pouring in continuously dragged away the outer cave dwellers, regardless of whether they were warriors, overseers, or slave workers.
The highest-ranking cave dweller shrieked, trying to command the cave dwellers to retreat to the center and continue their resistance—there was still terrain they could utilize there.
However, when they retreated to the mushroom cultivation area, they encountered tendril puffshrooms identical to those outside.
The fungal matter they had previously cultivated for food was continuously coalescing into puffshrooms that dropped to the ground.
There were already more than thirty tendril puffshrooms here!
While this number wasn't particularly large—certainly far fewer than the endless stream pouring in from outside—it blocked the cave dwellers' retreat route.
It also shattered their final psychological defenses.
Even with the fat cave dweller boss releasing pheromones, it could no longer suppress its subordinates' panic. They scattered in all directions, trying to escape from various exits of what had once been their stronghold.
Some lucky cave dwellers, under the "cover" of their companions, managed to reach other passages that hadn't been completely sealed off by puffshrooms.
There, they would encounter Norris—holding the Yellow Book, clad in scale armor that made him invulnerable to blades and spears, swift as the wind.
Looking at the cave dweller before him that had been kicked to the ground and bound by puffshrooms:
"This mission... is surprisingly easy."
Although the area he needed to cover wasn't small, there were only a few cave dwellers who could actually escape, and their levels were low.
Most cave dwellers were only in their teens level-wise, with those in their twenties already considered strong among cave dwellers.
Their skills were also trash. Under the Yellow Book's detection, they couldn't even evade Norris's pursuit—not a single one escaped.
However, before each cave dweller was sent away, Norris would check whether it was still alive, though whether this was from fear of using too much force or to prevent a certain book from secretly snacking was unclear.
[...]
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