[Seven Sins: Greed Triggered]
[Plundered Skill: Cold Resistance LV7→LV8]
[Plundered Skill: Bite LV3→LV4]
......
Upon the fungal carpet, the flesh and blood of the grease worms had been completely decomposed, leaving only their thick, resilient hide and that ring of dull teeth.
The hide was indeed a fine material—tough and substantial. Many demon descendants used it to stitch clothing for protection against the cold.
Though Lin Jun had no immediate use for it, he still air-dried the hides and stored them in his materials warehouse for future needs.
As for the teeth, they were truly too ordinary to be of any use. Even polished to a shine, they wouldn't catch Little Black's eye. In the end, they could only be treated as waste, tossed wholesale into the corrosive slime of a puffshroom's belly for disposal.
Though his resistance was sufficient, Lin Jun hadn't abandoned the cultivation of grease worms.
Resistance, as a passive attribute, could never be too high.
Besides, in this barren land of the Far North, apart from raising these thick-skinned, hardy grease worms, there truly weren't many other productive options available.
Meanwhile, with his resistance now adequate, Lin Jun immediately dispatched a batch of burrowing puffshrooms to dig underground toward the tribe.
However, excavating in the Far North proved considerably more difficult than anticipated.
The heat emanated by the burrowing puffshrooms would melt the fine ice crystals in the soil, not only making the tunnels damp and muddy but also wastefully consuming large amounts of energy. The digging speed was noticeably slower than it had been back at the Amethyst Underground City.
Even more troublesome was that the deep layers here weren't entirely frozen earth—encountering large patches of solid ice while digging was commonplace. When faced with such situations, the puffshrooms could only choose to detour.
After all, no matter how capable the mycelium might be, it couldn't directly grow on ice layers...
By his calculations, completely establishing an underground mycelial network connecting the demon tribe and its surrounding areas would require at least half a month.
What comforted Lin Jun was that the demon tribe hadn't sent anyone south, but had instead chosen to make contact with him first.
......
"Puffshrooms! I'm back again!"
From afar, Qiong waved his intact arm, greeting the puffshrooms tending to the grease worms in the distance.
This time, two others accompanied him.
Shou, whose hands remained disabled, and another unfamiliar demon descendant.
Whether migrating south or not, obtaining food from the dungeon was essential for survival.
Out of caution, Shou had decided to personally witness what this "employment" Qiong spoke of actually entailed.
A bat puffshroom flew down from the cliff face, landing precisely atop Shou's head.
Shou's eye twitched slightly, but he said nothing.
"Qiong, Shou, welcome back. And this one is...?" Lin Jun's voice resonated through the mycelial network in their consciousness.
"He's called Ze! This time he came to work with us!" Qiong habitually responded loudly, as if speaking to empty air.
"What?" Suddenly called upon yet unable to hear the mycelial transmission, Ze looked bewildered, instinctively glancing left and right.
"Eh?" Only then did Qiong realize something was amiss, blinking in confusion. Did the puffshrooms also act shy around strangers, refusing to "speak" with unfamiliar people?
He had assumed the puffshrooms also used telepathic abilities for communication.
Shou, meanwhile, thoughtfully lowered his head, glancing at the mycelium wrapped around his arm.
Still bringing all three to the mushroom forest, which had now taken initial shape—glowing blue mushroom trees stood scattered throughout, their luminous spores drifting through the air like fine snow, beginning to display the unique charm of a mushroom forest.
Along the way, Ze's eyes were hardly sufficient to take everything in, curiously observing the busy puffshrooms, the fungal carpet covering the ground, and those various luminescent mushrooms of different forms.
Then they witnessed the scene of Jida battling the vampire.
Both Shou and Ze instinctively tensed their bodies, assuming combat stances. Ze even reflexively reached for the bone blade at his waist!
"Don't be nervous, they're sparring," Lin Jun promptly stopped them.
More precisely, Norris had used his own blood to request Louisa's training partnership, though these details needn't be explained to the demon descendants.
After three bowls of glowing "specialty luminous mushroom soup" were placed on the table, Lin Jun got to the point:
"Qiong, Shou, you two wanting work is always welcome. But regarding Ze here..."
"Is there some problem?" Shou inquired.
"It's like this," Lin Jun explained. "I can communicate with you two entirely through the mycelial symbiosis within your bodies. But Ze doesn't have that—I can't even communicate with him."
In truth, there were also interpreter puffshrooms, but Lin Jun obviously wouldn't reveal that now.
"Meaning one must first achieve mycelial... symbiosis before being able to work?"
"Exactly. Consciousness connection is the foundation of puffshroom operations." Lin Jun spoke honestly. "However, I must make clear beforehand—once symbiosis occurs, the mycelium becomes difficult to separate, and you'll need regular magic power supplementation. When I first encountered you, Qiong couldn't communicate, and Shou was hanging by a thread—there was no choice but to proceed thus. Please forgive me."
"Not at all! Being able to survive was already fortunate—how could we blame you..." Qiong waved his hands repeatedly.
Shou, however, weighed the matter privately.
He had brought Ze this time precisely to understand the mycelium within his body. For the tribe's sake, all three of them were expendable if necessary—Ze had understood this before coming.
But from current appearances, the puffshroom master had merely substituted the more palatable "symbiosis" for the harsher "parasitism," and seemed forthright in other respects, even proactively pointing out the difficulty of separation after symbiosis.
At least for now, no obvious malice or trap was apparent.
Actually, in his heart, he did want to trust the puffshrooms that had saved his life, but as the tribe's leader, even reluctantly, he had to consider more angles.
After Ze nodded his agreement to connect to the mycelial network, Lin Jun summoned Louisa.
Qiong seemed to guess what was coming, but Shou frowned: "First Embrace?"
"Of course not, just clearing some space in his body to make room for inserting mycelium." Lin Jun fabricated an explanation.
There was no help for it—directly stating that near-death conditions were ideal for parasitism would sound too sinister.
Louisa was naturally delighted with such pleasant work, enthusiastically giving the resolute Ze a "passionate" embrace.
Afterward, Louisa rather gentlemanly carried the weakened Ze in her arms, delivering him to a nearby mushroom hut to rest.
Half a day later, the somewhat frail Ze emerged from the mushroom hut, officially becoming a glorious "half-mushroom person."
Subsequently, guided by puffshrooms, they passed through the fissure.
However, this time Lin Jun didn't send them to collect glowgrass.
Instead, he assigned the three to a cavern guarded by cave dwellers, jointly defending against monsters.
Cave dwellers weren't particularly friendly neighbors—facing the newly arrived demon descendants, they showed coldness tinged with hostility.
Qiong felt uncomfortable all over. Compared to last time's pleasant grass-digging alongside puffshrooms, this assignment felt much more oppressive.
Shou, however, observed deeper aspects: these similarly mycelium-parasitized, low-intelligence creatures seemed to live quite well.
Food was abundant, and in battle they fought shoulder-to-shoulder with puffshrooms rather than being treated as expendable resources.
As for the minor unpleasantness of working alongside cave dwellers, it gave Shou a sense of authenticity that actually put him more at ease...
In just two short days, the mushrooms the three had earned piled into a small mountain, requiring two chubby puffshrooms to transport!
This time Lin Jun symbolically charged them two contribution points for shipping, reminding them: "Next time you'd best bring your own transportation, save contribution points to buy other things."
Watching the departing trio, Lin Jun knew this demon tribe was most likely secured.
Through the mycelial network during their pre-departure communication, Lin Jun had already sensed that Shou's wariness toward him had relaxed considerably.
Indeed, merely two days later, Mushroom Garden No. 3 welcomed more demon descendant figures.
Louisa gazed at the steady stream of "customers," falling into a long-missed, sweet predicament.
Little Black, meanwhile, developed a certain inexplicable vigilance. At her strong insistence, Lin Jun could only help relocate her mushroom hut and shiny trinkets to an unfrequented corner before she felt at ease.
---
While Lin Jun gradually assimilated the demon village in the Far North, harassment of the core area's combat puppets continued unabated.
Puffshrooms charged across the platform's center line at fixed intervals, fled in panic, then promptly perished. Just as the combat puppets returned to position, the next cannon fodder would charge in again...
As time passed, the dungeon's collapse visibly accelerated, directly affecting the still-unaware adventurers...
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