"Big mushroom, was it you who saved me?" In the tree hollow, the finally awakened elf spoke with a pale face marked by post-disaster weakness, yet unable to hide her excitement.
She kept stroking the smooth cap of the Scout Puffshroom with her fingers, her eyes full of joy. The moment she opened her eyes and saw two Wind Wolf corpses cleanly severed at the cave entrance, along with this Puffshroom beside her whose Tentacle Blades still bore traces of dark red blood, the conclusion was practically obvious!
This new friend must have repelled the wolf pack and protected her while she was unconscious!
Although being eaten by wolves wouldn't have been unacceptable either, being able to live and continue making friends was obviously better! But still... a Puffshroom killing Wind Wolves was simply too incredible!
She didn't bother to investigate deeply why this Puffshroom would help her. With her [Animal Friend] title, being approached and helped by forest creatures was a common occurrence.
Puffshrooms... counted as half-animals?
Without dwelling on such trivial details, she now just wanted to get close to this life-saving "mushroom" benefactor. The memory of that warm, soft sensation from before she lost consciousness was still fresh, and she couldn't help but want to press against it to express her gratitude.
Faced with this pervert with a face full of infatuation trying to get close, the Scout Puffshroom decisively raised one foot and pressed it against her cheek.
[Name: Airaven Whitestone]
Lin Jun didn't want to randomly parasitize unknown targets, nor did she want to deliver a killing blow, so after discovering this elf wouldn't die, Lin Jun had considered having the Scout Puffshroom leave and continue exploring.
The reason she ultimately didn't have the Scout Puffshroom leave directly was simple - that "Animal Friend" title on her. It wasn't that Lin Jun was influenced by the title, but rather that someone with this title should have many animal friends! So having one more Puffshroom friend mixed in among them would be perfectly natural, right?
She wanted to see if she could follow along and infiltrate the elven city.
As for the issue of magical creatures entering and leaving dungeons, that wasn't a problem in the Divine Tree Dungeon. This was the only dungeon without magical creature activity range restrictions and without so-called magic tides, though that "only" was no longer unique. You could tell it was quite special from the fact that sunlight could shine into the dungeon.
As for the reason behind such specialness, the collected materials contained no records of it. This was normal - Lin Jun's information sources were Inanna and Adin, but humans actually didn't have deep understanding of this dungeon located on elven territory.
After all, the entire elven territory was unwelcoming to foreign races. Only a few recognized individuals could move freely through the forest without worrying about being shot by arrows flying from who knows where, and this activity range also included the Divine Tree Dungeon.
It was said that the Sword Saint had briefly obtained such recognition in his youth, though it was later revoked for unknown reasons.
In any case, Lin Jun changed this Scout Puffshroom's action plan to infiltrating the elven city. Naturally, other scouts would take over the dungeon exploration task. Lin Jun now had plenty of Puffshroom control capacity anyway, so maintaining one or two more [Familiar Control] wasn't a problem.
The actual situation was about what she expected - this elf named Airaven indeed seemed to regard the Puffshroom as one of her "animal friends." The only problem was that this creature was a bit too enthusiastic...
...
"Just once! Just let me press against your belly one more time!" Airaven stubbornly lunged forward again, arms spread wide, trying to press against the Puffshroom's abdomen.
Her response was [Assault Launch LV7]!
The Scout Puffshroom stepped on Airaven's approaching face, used it as leverage to push off, and bounced to the other end of the tree hollow in one go.
Airaven was pushed back and stumbled, covering her nose as she crouched down. Two round, mud-stained footprints were clearly left on her face. She rubbed her aching nose bridge, and her fingertips were soon stained with a touch of bright red - her nosebleed had been stepped out...
"Hiss..." She wiped the nosebleed while muttering quietly, "Stingy... How strange, Furball and the others clearly love being hugged like this..."
Muttering aside, she didn't pester further.
Standing up, she efficiently dragged the two Wind Wolf corpses from the tree hollow entrance and walked out. Lin Jun thought she was going to make a fire to roast meat and replenish her strength, but instead found her digging a pit and burying the two Wind Wolves under the tree.
After finishing this, she stretched lazily, moved her joints, and felt her strength slowly recovering.
Then she turned her gaze to the giant tree beside her that would require several people to embrace. She took a deep breath, suddenly made a running start, and using both hands and feet, "swish swish swish" scrambled straight up the trunk!
That speed was indeed startling, and her movements could be called agile, but... it was completely devoid of the elegant grace an elven ranger should possess. Her posture clinging to the bark with all four limbs, body pressed tight against the trunk as she struggled upward, only reminded Lin Jun of a giant cockroach...
In just a few moves she had climbed to the branching area bearing fruit, nimbly picked several plump fruits that were green tinged with red, stuffed them into the small leather pouch at her waist, then once again used the cockroach-crawling posture to quickly scramble back down head-first.
Airaven gnawed on a fruit while offering one to the Puffshroom: "Can you eat this?"
The Scout Puffshroom ignored her. Airaven didn't mind, shrugged, pulled back her hand and stuffed the second fruit into her own mouth to gnaw on it, mumbling indistinctly to herself: "Mmm... Strange, how do Puffshrooms... usually eat anyway?"
It was possible to encounter Puffshrooms in some forest caves, but she had never really studied them before, and this one in front of her... With a small opening on its cap for unknown purposes, a pair of small wings on its back, plus four bladed tentacles, it was clearly a mutant variety no matter how you looked at it.
After eating the fruit and replenishing her strength, she prepared to head back.
But before that...
Airaven knelt in front of the Puffshroom with a serious expression. A emerald light glowed in her palm as she gently grasped one of the Scout Puffshroom's mycelial tentacles.
This time, she didn't speak those words in Elvish that Lin Jun couldn't understand at all.
Strangely, a vague yet friendly intention, accompanied by that green light, was directly transmitted - Come with me!
Was this the elves' racial talent, Natural Affinity? It wasn't any language, but more like a "gesture" that anyone could understand, like knowing someone was greeting you when they waved. This communication method felt similar to how she communicated with the tree spirits.
Speaking of which, did she herself also count as part of "nature"...
The Scout Puffshroom flapped its wings and flew up, plopping down on the elf's head.
Unfortunately, this head was clearly not as convenient and comfortable as Shou's type with built-in "handholds," so the Puffshroom clamped its feet together to secure itself on Airaven's head.
Finally got to stick close... though it was a bit different from the warm scene Airaven had imagined...
But since the Puffshroom was willing to come with her, Airaven was still very happy.
"So you're like Fly-Fly, you both like staying on top of my head!" She happily shook her head, feeling the Puffshroom's weight. "I hope you two won't fight over territory when you meet! Speaking of which... where is Fly-Fly?"
She suddenly thought of her companion, cupped her hands around her mouth, took a deep breath, and let out a clear, long whistle.
A muffled bird call responded to her, coming from inside the belly of the Puffshroom on her head...
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