Morning sunlight filtered through the wisteria curtains, weaving patterns of broken gold across the oak floorboards.
The young lady curled up in the velvet cushions was still deep in slumber.
"Mm... so satisfying..."
Three rhythmic knocks roused the maiden from her sweet dreams.
"Good morning, Miss," came Butler Eric's voice from beyond the door. "The new magic tutor should arrive shortly. Please prepare yourself in advance."
Ever since Inanna had been found and brought back, Eric had been assigned by the Duke's command to attend exclusively to her needs—arranging her daily affairs while ensuring her complete safety.
As for the Duke himself, he was forced to remain at the border, unable to leave due to the constant small-scale military provocations initiated by the Hermit Empire.
"Uncle Eric, I understand. I'll be ready shortly."
After the footsteps faded away, Inanna stretched lazily and climbed out of bed, beginning her morning routine by herself.
By custom, the Duke's mansion employed dedicated ladies' maids to help the young miss with her grooming and dressing, but ever since Inanna's return, she would only tend to herself.
Everyone speculated this was a manifestation of the young miss becoming increasingly cautious after experiencing betrayal, and the entire household felt deep sympathy for Inanna's ordeal.
But in reality, that wasn't the case at all.
Inanna reached her hand into her pink hair, feeling toward the back of her head—where there grew a very, very small mushroom cap the same color as her hair.
Inanna had told no one about either her experiences in the dungeon or about this mushroom.
The former was due to Lin Jun's request for secrecy, while the latter she herself wasn't entirely sure why she kept hidden.
Perhaps it was because if she told others, they would certainly try to remove this little mushroom cap, and she wanted to keep it.
After arranging her hair properly, Inanna moved to the window to feel the warmth of the sunlight.
"Such lovely weather. I wonder what Lin Jun is doing now? After I left, did he successfully subjugate a dungeon worm?"
————
Hahahaha!
Yes, yes! Blow them up! Blast these disgusting creatures to pieces!
In the swamp area of the fifth floor, a war between Puffballs and Parasitic Trees was raging in full swing.
Over a hundred shell-less Puffballs equipped with [Evasion LV7] were engaged in fierce combat with swarms of Parasitic Trees.
The more Lin Jun fought these creatures over the past few days, the more frustrated he became. The source of his irritation ultimately came down to the issue of returns.
The [Fusion Parasitism] skill wasn't bad—it could parasitize any humanoid creature with flesh and blood.
Among the opposing Parasitic Tree forces, a small portion used jackalmen as their trunk bases (the easiest type to deal with).
The problem with this skill was that Level 1 and Level 10 made virtually no difference!
This skill could only parasitize dying creatures, and the only benefit of leveling it up was the ability to complete parasitism when creatures weren't quite as near death.
It was essentially like adding nothing at all. Since anything to be parasitized would definitely be captured by Lin Jun first, he could beat them to whatever health level he wanted—what need was there for this minor enhancement?
So this skill provided absolutely no returns.
[Entanglement] was similarly a case of "useful to have but pointless to upgrade." His own combat relied on elegant artillery bombardment; he had no use for such primitive fighting methods as mycelium tentacles.
In the end, only [Toughness] had some utility, making the mycelium more resilient and naturally providing the Puffballs with some additional defense while making the mycelium tentacles sturdier.
Useful, but truly not by much.
For such meager returns, the losses he'd paid were enormous...
Over these past few days, Lin Jun had already encountered several high-level parasitized beings multiple times, each instance causing him considerable losses.
Now these Parasitic Trees appeared in Lin Jun's eyes as nothing more than a swarm of cockroaches—disgusting to look at, yet he had no choice but to crush them since he still needed to claim their swamp territory.
It had to be said, swamps were truly perfect for mushrooms.
The humidity and temperature were both ideal, but more importantly, the swampland was rich in magical power!
This swamp seemed to exist solely for the establishment of a mushroom garden, requiring only a bit of cleanup.
After today's battle, he would have claimed half the swamp area—gratifying progress indeed.
Watching the Parasitic Trees turn to ash under the mushroom artillery, Lin Jun's main body, hidden deep in the swamp of the occupied territory, couldn't help but shake with satisfaction.
The Parasitic Trees also seemed to be retreating under the Puffballs' fierce offensive.
Just when Lin Jun thought this round of battle was about to end, a wildly spinning individual burst forth from the Parasitic Tree ranks.
Its very emergence, with spinning roots, shredded two Parasitic Trees blocking its path.
[Blade Storm LV8]?!
The parasitized individual was actually a full Level 45!
Come on, brother—how do you end up wiping on the fifth floor as a Gold-rank adventurer?
How embarrassing!
In reality, most melee skills became severely distorted when used by Parasitic Trees, with greatly reduced power.
But Blade Storm clearly wasn't among them.
Like a tornado, it charged into the Puffball formation, instantly shredding the surrounding Puffballs into scattered mycelium.
When the Puffballs' mushroom cannons hit it, they were all intercepted by the high-speed spinning roots, causing only trivial scratches.
That wasn't the end of it—magical fluctuations arose from the Parasitic Tree ranks, and two water elementals formed from mud and water appeared in the swamp, looking filthy and disgusting.
Summoning magic?!
This was only the second time Lin Jun had witnessed summoning magic. The first was with the Flame Demon, when he'd seen it summon several apparently powerful puppets that ultimately didn't contribute much to the battle.
The summoner was hidden among the Parasitic Tree crowd, impossible to identify.
Damn it!
The two water elementals were only Level 35, but their water flow attacks could sweep away large groups of Puffballs with a single strike.
More critically, these were summoned creatures—when they died, they could be summoned again. Did he really have to use Puffballs to drain the summoner's mana?
The sudden emergence of two elite opponents caught Lin Jun completely off guard, and the other Parasitic Trees began counterattacking as well.
Tch.
Retreat!
Several Puffballs attacked the water elementals and the Blade Storm Parasitic Tree, drawing attention while fleeing to either side, leading their pursuers away.
The remaining Puffballs retreated at full speed.
Fortunately, Parasitic Trees weren't particularly intelligent creatures. After eliminating the Puffballs serving as decoys and finding no other Puffballs in the vicinity, they returned to their slow-moving mode.
After the battle, Lin Jun took stock—of the hundred-plus Puffballs he'd deployed, only about forty had returned, with half the losses caused by that final surprise attack.
Worst of all, having lost the battle meant he couldn't collect Parasitic Tree remains to replenish his forces.
Predictably, the next offensive would have to be delayed.
Damn Parasitic Trees—they still had some heavy hitters available!
But no matter, the hidden trump cards were the real killers. Now that they'd been exposed, he had ways to counter them.
However, Lin Jun had also discovered a problem: while his Puffballs had evasion skills that allowed them to easily dodge single-target attacks, they were helpless against large-area attacks like Blade Storm or water flow impacts.
With their stubby little legs, they couldn't run fast and were easily caught and eliminated.
It would be great to have speed-boosting skills, like the most straightforward and practical [Acceleration] that the werewolves on the tenth floor possessed.
His own [Rolling Charge] didn't count—curling into a ball required preparation, reverting to original form also took time, and it was inconvenient to use other skills for attacks while rolling.
He wondered if this floor had any useful acceleration skills. While replenishing his Puffball reserves, he might as well explore the area thoroughly.
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