Lin Jun was truly at his wit's end.
He had chosen to accelerate this process precisely because he was concerned that the ever-increasing rifts might cause chaos and affect his mushroom garden—better a short-term pain than prolonged agony.
But he never expected this "short-term pain" could hurt this much!
Not only had the Scarecrow Abyss torn open a massive breach on the fifth floor, but another rift had connected to a primeval forest, spewing forth a motley crew of magical creatures!
In the ensuing chaotic battle, the already sparse puffshrooms on the fifth floor were nearly wiped out in an instant.
Lin Jun had originally planned to ignore it all, but wouldn't you know it—another rift opened connecting to the Stone Fortress.
Now he had no choice but to fight. What if they weren't satisfied with just ravaging the current floor and decided to venture into the Stone Fortress?
The beast-type magical creatures might fear the cold and stay away, but those scarecrows presumably wouldn't care about temperature...
The enemies weren't particularly strong—most ranged between levels 20 to 40—but this was only the fifth floor.
Other floors had similarly fallen into chaos, though none were quite as tumultuous as the fifth floor's demonic free-for-all.
On the sixth floor, tree spirits led their subordinate puffshrooms in a desperate defense of the mountain cavity and the Tree Spirit Secret Grove. The seventh floor's water level kept dropping—presumably a large hole had opened below as well. He wondered how those fishmen were faring.
As for floors one through four, Lin Jun wasn't too concerned. The underground mycelial network roads would serve as a safety net, preventing complete loss of control.
As for the humans caught in between, Lin Jun paid them no mind whatsoever.
Right now, Lin Jun was simultaneously participating in a battle royale on the fifth floor, harassing the war golems in the core area, and coordinating the demon spawn who had come to work in the Stone Fortress.
Given that the danger level of the Amethyst Dungeon had risen dramatically, Lin Jun had the demon spawn temporarily switch to tasks like feeding the fat worms or hunting frost spirits.
Unfortunately, as the demon spawn had mentioned, those ice figures formed by frost spirits would just crumble into useless ice shards when destroyed.
Pure elemental spirits were impossible to capture, and after some time they would reform from the ice fragments.
What a waste of their skills.
...
Time quietly passed for several days.
The humans outside the dungeon seemed to have chosen relocation after noticing the dungeon's changes—the entire town was now almost completely empty.
On the platform in the core area, a puffshroom stepped over the still-smoking, charred corpse of its predecessor and once again crossed the centerline.
The two war golems moved into action, just as they had countless times before.
Purple shadow like lightning!
One war golem instantly appeared behind the fleeing puffshroom. The amethyst spear ignited with flames and pierced through the puffshroom's body in one thrust, burning it to a heap of black ash.
But this time, the war golem's return steps grew increasingly slow and heavy... Finally, it froze mid-path like a marionette with severed strings, slumping over in dejection.
This was... success?
The puffshroom tried again, cautiously stepping across the centerline.
On the platform, the two war golems remained motionless!
It had really worked!
To say Lin Jun wasn't excited would be a lie. The dungeon was currently overrun with all sorts of chaotic magical creatures on every floor, and the fifth floor had been littered with corpses over the past few days.
Most frustratingly, Lin Jun couldn't recover most of these "resources"—the fungal carpet had been torn to shreds, and those giant moths flying overhead had even stripped the ceiling's fungal covering.
Several hundred puffshrooms could barely hold a quarter of the fifth floor.
The sixth floor was in similar condition, and the seventh floor was even worse—a massive rift had drained ninety percent of the water, leaving the enormous deep-water magical creatures exposed and half-dead.
Strangely, Lin Jun hadn't seen any fishmen. Perhaps they were all hiding in the temple ruins.
The deeper levels were even worse off. If not for the pre-dug mycelial network roads, Lin Jun's fungal network would have been severed long ago.
Under these circumstances, Lin Jun truly felt the dungeon was on the verge of collapse.
Fortunately, the war golems had finally stopped functioning as the Yellow Book had predicted—just before the dungeon's complete collapse.
Hordes of puffshrooms surged onto the platform with a clear objective: first, carry away these two inactive killing machines!
Never mind whether Lin Jun had any way to control them in battle—they were covered in S-rank magic crystals!
Moving them to the Stone Fortress would provide some consolation even if the Amethyst wasn't repaired.
The puffshrooms approached the pitch-black door and were surprised to encounter no new obstacles. The door was merely extraordinarily heavy—Lin Jun sensed no magical formations.
Had there been no protection originally, or had everything shut down like the war golems?
Several heavily armored puffshrooms pressed against the door panels, and with grinding sounds, the massive door was slowly, laboriously pushed open inch by inch...
Beyond the door, Lin Jun finally saw what he had been longing for—
The dungeon's core!
What was this?
Before him was not the radiant energy orb he had envisioned, but a precise, cold, and mysteriously rhythmic massive device.
It occupied the center of the entire core hall. Rather than a "core," it was more like a silent, operating machine constructed of metal and crystal!
Enormous support structures gleaming with cold metallic luster formed the base and framework. Countless pipes of varying thickness extended like the roots and branches of a giant tree, deeply embedded in the hall's floor, walls, and ceiling while intertwining with each other.
A non-magical energy flowed through these pipes, surging and converging within the core like the dungeon's true "nervous system."
At the center floated a diamond-shaped crystal monument about a person's height. It was completely transparent, yet its interior was far from pure—it seemed to contain an entire miniaturized nebula, with countless tiny points of light flowing, colliding, and reorganizing at high speed within.
What did Lin Jun feel about the scene before him?
Like an elementary school student who had just learned to recognize characters suddenly walking into the most advanced technological laboratory.
Forget about controlling it—Lin Jun was terrified that a puffshroom might accidentally kick some "power source" and cause the dungeon to shut down on the spot!
Behind this control room-like chamber was another small door.
A puffshroom tried to push it open but failed.
After some investigation, Lin Jun confirmed one thing.
He definitely couldn't repair the dungeon core by himself—he had to let the Yellow Book handle it!
---
In a cavern not far from the core, a puffshroom extracted the Yellow Book from its body.
As soon as it emerged, the Yellow Book sensed the surrounding changes.
[Ah! The dungeon is in this state!]
[Boss, did you successfully deal with the war golems?]
"Yes, so now it's time for you to work," the speaking puffshroom's tone carried a hint of temptation. "Codex, listen—if you can repair the dungeon, I'll no longer restrict your feeding, and... I'll send puffshrooms specifically to 'hunt' souls for you. All you can eat."
[Really?! Boss! You are truly the most benevolent and generous existence in the world!]
[Rest assured! Watch me repair it to perfection with the fastest speed and most flawless technique!]
However, Lin Jun wasn't finished: "It's just... the dungeon is far too important to me, to us all. Therefore, I must ensure absolute certainty and need to be more cautious..."
[What do you mean?] The Yellow Book felt some confusion and unease.
"What I mean is..." the voice puffshroom slowly uttered cold words, "before beginning repairs, I may need to... first empty the souls stored in your pages."
[!!!]
Just then, another fat otaku puffshroom walked over with heavy "thud thud" steps. The puffshroom's belly deformed, and finally, Little Black's head squeezed out from inside.
Golden pupils darted around wildly before finally settling on the Yellow Book!
[Boss... this isn't necessary...] The Yellow Book, having guessed what was about to happen, made a final struggle.
"Be at peace, Codex." The ugly voice of the speaking puffshroom carried a strange tenderness. "Every bit of savings you lose today, I will repay you tenfold, a hundredfold in the future! This is merely a small, necessary pain on the path to true freedom."
[...]
[...........]
[No——ooo——ooo——ooo——ooo——ROAAAAARRRR!!!]
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