Let's set aside the matter of a certain blue parrot chattering away with complaints after being rescued.
Lin Jun temporarily withdrew most of his attention from that situation.
The reason was quite simple—on this peaceful afternoon with gentle winds and bright sunshine, he had suddenly reached level 60!
There was no arduous cultivation, no defeating of powerful enemies. He had simply basked in the sun, spread his mycelial network, and naturally reached level 60.
Come to think of it, he had been at level 59 for quite a while now.
During this period, he had upgraded his Sun Stones, successfully spread to the surface for photosynthesis, and even received "feeding" from humans.
Above ground, under Lin Jun's guidance, humans had finally "discovered" the correct method for cultivating high-yield mushroom fields!
One key was lighting—mushroom fields under sunlight doubled their yield, though this required more frequent watering to maintain moisture.
The other trick was fertilization—using monster corpses to enrich the soil.
Mycelial networks nourished by monsters not only produced explosive mushroom yields but also more easily gave birth to tender, delicious Red Mushrooms!
With humans' active cooperation, the surface mycelial network had long since broken through the original boundaries of Yafeng Town and was rapidly spreading toward the surrounding cities.
Moreover, those sun-bathed mycelial networks weren't lacking in caretakers. The thousands of refugees from before hadn't even been fully allocated work, let alone the continuous stream of new refugees arriving.
However, most of the current arrivals were from the Northwest, fleeing to escape the war.
Word was that the front lines weren't going well. The human defense had been beaten back repeatedly, and naturally, people unwilling to be killed by the demon race or enslaved had no choice but to flee.
Among these desperate migration groups, there circulated an extremely absurd yet irresistibly tempting rumor: Yafeng Town had endless mushrooms to eat!
In normal times, even if life wasn't ideal, as long as people could survive, few would believe such outlandish rumors.
But during wartime, refugees weren't particularly welcome anywhere.
Young men might still have chances to join lords' armies or gangs, but most others had no such opportunities.
Many came with the attitude of treating a dead horse as if it were alive, following the rumors' direction to gather here.
There were also traces of other regional lords adding fuel to the fire—after all, regardless of whether the rumors were true, they could offload some of their troubles.
Don't think that Dylan's journey from there back to Yafeng Town in less than a month was typical—that was the result of a single person riding hard to return.
For ordinary civilians with families in tow, the journey was more than twice as slow.
Many people died on the road for various reasons.
Yet those who clung to that distant hope and finally reached Yafeng Town discovered—this time, the legend was actually true!
There really were endless mushrooms here!
Not only endless, but they could even export some to surrounding cities!
Just basking in the sun could spawn mushrooms with short growth cycles and no pest problems!
Crop after crop, seemingly unaffected by seasons. Recently, as autumn passed and temperatures gradually dropped, mushroom yields had actually increased as cultivation methods were figured out!
Refugees received mushroom soup upon arrival. Though the taste was monotonous, they didn't have to worry about starving.
If they applied to tend mushroom fields and were selected, they could receive many other supplies as well.
Faced with the flood-like influx of refugees, Farr's biggest headache had long ceased to be how to fill everyone's stomachs, but rather how to manage this explosively growing population!
Dividing residential areas, organizing the cultivation of new mushroom fields, allocating work, mediating endless disputes...
Yafeng Town's population had long exceeded the limits of an ordinary town and was unstoppably expanding toward the scale of a small city. Farr understood this, but cities couldn't function with just people alone.
The exploding population brought countless urgent problems—public security, sanitation, resource allocation. Infrastructure and management capabilities couldn't keep up with the development speed at all. This was the root of what made him frantically busy.
...
In any case, Lin Jun's current expansion and development were proceeding smoothly.
Relying on magical power continuously collected and gathered from the vast mycelial network, this level-up was truly a natural progression.
Rather, having accumulated such massive holdings yet only reaching level 60 now, his leveling difficulty was already quite hardcore!
As with every major breakthrough, a familiar "+" quietly appeared at the end of the skills section on his status panel.
The long-awaited talent skill selection!
Please, don't let something like "Juicy" appear again!
Unfortunately, this world had no Goddess of Fortune, or Lin Jun would definitely prostrate himself before her right now!
**[Available Skills:**
**Mental Guidance (Control hallucination effects)**
**Resonance (Some skills can be stacked for amplification)**
**Negative Energy Collection (Convert various negative energies into magical power and experience)]**
Emmmm...
Mental Guidance looked like a complementary skill to Hallucinogenic Spores!
Making people see whatever illusions he wanted them to see?
Could it make others see flocks of black crows filling the sky?
Like some degraded version of Sharingan... though he wasn't sure if this counted as a mental-type skill.
It felt useful, but he couldn't immediately think of how to use it.
The first application that came to mind was still scaring Norris...
Setting that aside, let's look at the second one—Resonance.
If it was about skill stacking, Lin Jun could already achieve stacking effects by having several Puffshrooms simultaneously release [Infrasonic Attack]. So what was special about [Resonance]?
Like the previous one, the skill description was too simple, making it hard for Lin Jun to grasp.
As for the third option, it was simple and clear, but what did "negative energy" include?
Maybe curses counted as a type of negative energy?
Beyond that, Lin Jun couldn't think of anything else.
From this perspective, this skill really wasn't necessary.
Surface sunlight was available in abundance—no need to covet negative energy from Scarecrow Abyss.
Maybe with this skill, he could completely devour curses and purify Scarecrow Abyss?
But this had no meaning for Lin Jun...
It seemed the choice had to be made between the first two options.
However, Lin Jun didn't rush to decide, instead temporarily closing the panel.
When he reached level 50, Lin Jun was still a lone mushroom fighting solo, facing unknown skills with only his preferences to guide his choice.
Now it was different!
—
Adin's fingers traced across page after page of rough paper. The files stacked before him mostly recorded frictions and disputes arising between refugees, or between refugees and original townspeople.
As now an important member of the branch, Farr hadn't been polite with Adin, decisively dumping many matters onto him to handle.
This was both responsibility and implicit power, though Adin hadn't used this power for personal gain—or rather, not yet...
Adin, who was buried in a report about mushroom field territorial disputes, suddenly froze.
A few seconds later, he resumed flipping through papers, though his fingertips carried a barely perceptible distraction.
Adin's attention focused on the Mycelial Network—the boss had issued a new task after a long absence.
"Investigate three skills..."
The Adventurers' Guild naturally maintained detailed records about various skills, but access permissions weren't available to everyone.
Fortunately, Adin's current position granted him exactly this access.
At the same time, a certain Duke's Daughter who had been lounging in the dungeon for days and refused to leave, forcing the guild to send people down every couple days to ensure she was safe, waved her little hand: "No problem! Leave it to me!"
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