After Meimei had a good sleep, the pink puffshroom finally remembered to command the knight to pick up clothes and hide in a corner before its transformation wore off, getting properly dressed before emerging.
Meanwhile, Aidin stretched his muscles and bones. The experience of lying on the fungal carpet was indeed novel and comfortable—that feeling of being wrapped in gentle energy was truly relaxing.
But as a well-traveled, strong-willed middle-aged man, this comfort wasn't enough to make him addicted—at least, it was far less attractive than the two hefty A-grade magic crystals glowing with alluring luster in his arms.
After both had finished resting, Lin Jun took the opportunity to test their actual control over the puffshrooms.
The results surprised Lin Jun somewhat. That guy Aidin, without being granted the [Mental Integration] skill, could actually control up to forty puffshrooms stably through his own mental power alone!
Inanna's performance was within normal range—she could command twenty-two.
Afterward, at Inanna's earnest request, Lin Jun gave her twenty puffshrooms, including two elite ones. They could just claim publicly that they were controlled through the knight.
Inanna couldn't stay in the dungeon indefinitely.
If Aidin disappeared in the dungeon, Fall would probably send people to search symbolically a couple times and leave it at that.
But if the duke's daughter got lost in the dungeon again, Fall would definitely go mad—even the duke himself would lose it!
Before leaving, Lin Jun picked out some magic crystals and accessory equipment from his small treasury to give Inanna, calling it "treasure hunting gains."
This way, no one would covet the "puffshroom treasure" like they were after "ONE PIECE."
Passing through the fifth floor, Lin Jun also pulled Little Black out to let her recognize these allies.
"Little Black, remember these two's magical auras—they're our people."
Little Black leaned close to Inanna, wrinkling her nose as she sniffed her face several times carefully, her eyes showing a hint of confusion.
For Inanna and Aidin, this was their first time seeing Little Black's true form after she dropped her mimicry!
"A dragonkin?!" Aidin gasped, his voice filled with incredulous shock. "The big black mushroom on the fifth floor is actually a dragonkin!"
He had personally taken on that reconnaissance mission, but he never would have imagined that a dragonkin was mixed in among a bunch of puffshrooms!
Inanna was more purely curious.
She carefully extended her finger and gently touched the thick scales on Little Black's body... a bit prickly.
...
Half a day later, the two successfully returned to the Adventurer's Guild.
Upon seeing Fall, Inanna, surrounded by puffshrooms, wore an unprecedentedly bright smile and proactively asked: "President Fall, is there anything else I can help with while controlling the knight?"
This sudden enthusiasm truly startled Fall, who was accustomed to Inanna's cold and distant attitude.
He immediately put on a smile and responded warmly: "Miss Inanna, you've already done our guild an enormous favor this time! For those trivial follow-up matters, how could we dare trouble you further? Please rest assured, our guild can definitely handle things properly. Your kindness—I'm infinitely grateful!"
Fall's words weren't entirely polite pleasantries.
First, with the dungeon's collapse approaching, the puffshroom problem was indeed no longer urgent;
Second, from current observations, indirect control through the knight puffshroom seemed to only allow commanding these puffshrooms within visual range, making its practical application value... rather limited.
However, the moment he finished speaking, that bright smile on Inanna's face visibly collapsed at lightning speed, as if the sunlight had been instantly drained away.
She pursed her lips, those beautiful eyes filled with undisguised disappointment and displeasure, even harboring a hint of resentment as she glared at Fall for several seconds.
Finally, only after a careful reminder from a guard beside her did she reluctantly turn and set off on her return journey.
Fall: ???
To transport these twenty "precious" puffshrooms, Inanna grandly bought two sturdy wooden wagons right there in town.
"Miss, these puffshrooms won't suddenly attack and break the wagons, will they?" Looking at the mushroom cannons on top of the puffshrooms' heads or the blades on their mycelial tentacles, one guard asked with some concern.
"How could they!" Inanna said while staying close to the knight puffshroom. "Puffshrooms are the most gentle, cute, and peace-loving creatures! As long as you don't deliberately provoke them, they won't attack randomly!"
---
Deep Zone.
A giant lizard that had been lowering its head to munch on plants suddenly froze mid-motion.
Possessing night vision, it raised its scale-covered head in confusion, its murky vertical pupils vigilantly scanning the surrounding darkness—just now, there seemed to be some unusual movement?
However, there was nothing within sight.
The giant lizard shook its head, letting out a low rumble from its throat, preparing to continue enjoying its "salad."
*Swish!*—
Just as it lowered its head, a sharp sound that tore through the air suddenly rang out!
"ROAR—!!!" The giant lizard's agonized cry instantly exploded!
Its massive head whipped backward violently as both eyeballs were pierced by invisible blades in an instant, scalding blood gushing out!
That spraying blood outlined the silhouette of a puffshroom in mid-air!
And this was just the beginning!
Almost simultaneously, all the vital points across the giant lizard's massive body—neck, flanks, joints—echoed with the terrible muffled sounds of blades cutting into flesh!
Agony like countless red-hot steel needles piercing nerves drove the giant lizard completely mad!
It let out shrieks so shrill they became distorted, its enormous body rolling and crushing frantically across the ground like something out of control!
A dull explosive sound rang out as a puddle of flattened mycelium appeared on the ground it had rolled over—one unlucky puffshroom hadn't been able to dodge in time.
Puffshrooms!
Invisible puffshrooms had surrounded it!
The puffshrooms sliced at the giant lizard's body, making its injuries continuously worse until finally, with one last mournful cry, it collapsed to the ground motionless.
The scene in the cavern rippled and twisted violently like water waves before finally revealing ten... twenty... one hundred... five hundred puffshrooms!
Of course, only a few had actually attacked just now.
The [Refractive Invisibility LV7] skill was practically a dimensional reduction attack when dealing with these wild magical beasts that lacked intelligence and detection abilities.
Unfortunately, this was the crisis-filled depths underground.
Many hunters that relied on vibration, heat, or pure perception lived here, making invisibility far from omnipotent.
Even so, [Refractive Invisibility] had forcibly cut the difficulty of Lin Jun's advance in half!
Thanks to the Sword Saint's blessing, going back and forth, while he hadn't exactly killed every magical beast along the way, he had indeed eliminated all the truly formidable and threatening ones, greatly reducing the difficulty for Lin Jun to reach the core.
Adding the [Refractive Invisibility] skill, Lin Jun ultimately only sent 500 puffshrooms to advance toward the core while laying fungal carpet, not even needing Little Pig to oversee.
It wasn't that Lin Jun wasn't eager to repair the core, but before repairing it, he first needed to prepare a shelter for his main body.
As for the shelter's location...
Nearly eighteen hundred puffshrooms had gathered in the cavern of the Chis Rift, with Little Pig among them.
This was the first batch of pioneers to cross the rift.
Once Lin Jun established a foothold on the other side, spread out the fungal carpet, and preliminarily scouted the situation over there, Norris and even Little Black would join as the second wave of main forces.
Anyway, when he began dealing with the core, nothing and no one important would be left on this side.
Oh right, as a polite and civilized mushroom, he should greet the neighbors before seeking shelter!
A distorted voice puffshroom was carried to the edge of the rift.
Then, an inhuman voice squeezed out from within, like rusted metal scraping against stone—dry, hoarse, echoing in layers as it poured into the darkness on the other side of the rift: "Chis... I'm... coming... in..."
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