"Magic Shield, Resonance—!"
The mushroom voice echoing through the cavern made the summoned Norris shudder all over.
"B-Boss..." Norris rubbed his tormented ears, "Why do you have to shout it out like that?"
"It's common sense to shout loudly before unleashing an ultimate move!" Lin Jun declared matter-of-factly.
There's no such common sense!
Norris frantically complained internally, but only dared to ask weakly: "So... what did you call me here to do?"
"Nonsense!" Lin Jun spoke with a tone of "how could you not understand this," "If no one's listening when I shout, what's the point of shouting?!"
"..."
Beside him, three Puffshrooms simultaneously deployed [Magic Shield LV6] under Lin Jun's instruction. This was the skill Lin Jun considered most suitable for demonstrating the [Resonance] effect.
The edges of the three pale blue semi-transparent shields merged together under the effect of [Resonance].
It really looked like the skills had combined!
However, after Lin Jun tested the strength, he was disappointed—the shield's defensive power had barely increased.
This shouldn't be right!
A LV60 upgrade skill shouldn't just provide seamless coverage!
What happened to the stacking effect?
"Magic Shield, Resonance!"
"Magic Shield, Resonance!"
"Magic..."
Ignoring Norris beside him, who was suffering from both sonic and mental attacks, his face pale and looking ready to vomit, Lin Jun tried different poses and soon made a breakthrough!
He had the three Puffshrooms' mycelial tentacles intertwine and tie together, finally rolling into a tangled mess!
Now, their magic shields finally merged seamlessly, the blue light flowing between them appearing especially solid!
With the Puffshrooms having identical intelligence attributes, when a level-nine mushroom cannon blast that could previously make the shield violently fluctuate hit it, now it could only create a few ripples!
The defensive power had indeed improved considerably!
However, looking at this ball of tangled mess on the ground...
"How the hell do you use this thing in actual combat?"
Lin Jun was stumped. That extinct whatever bee also had resonance—did they also huddle together like this?
If that was really the case, their extinction wasn't unfair at all!
"How about... mounting it on Jida?" Norris's weak voice came from the corner. Even nearly stunned by the noise, his beloved Jida was still on his mind.
Now that he thought about it, that could work. Mounting it on Jida would eliminate the mobility issues caused by awkward positioning.
But Lin Jun still wanted to try other methods.
Like putting a small Puffshroom inside a large Puffshroom, then activating the shield!
The result was disappointing—the resonance effect was even worse than the initial attempt, essentially each operating independently with no sign of fusion.
After researching for quite a while, Lin Jun finally understood.
Size, attributes, and skill levels all affected resonance effectiveness—the closer they were, the better the resonance!
Big containing small might seem like using the same skill, but there was probably some frequency mismatch that completely prevented resonance activation.
Lin Jun then tested which skills it worked with.
As expected, it was ineffective on skills like [Claw Strike], and also ineffective on toxin attacks like [Hallucinogenic Spores].
Magic-type skills or energy-based skills like [Mushroom Cannon], [Magic Shield], and [Infrasonic Attack] could be used relatively easily.
Among these, [Infrasonic Attack] was the simplest—no need to huddle together, just placing the Puffshrooms randomly near each other worked. The downside was also the usual problem: indiscriminate damage to friend and foe alike, with the excessive intensity making this skill infinitely close to another form of [Self-Destruct].
Using [Mushroom Cannon] was more abstract. Puffshrooms lined up side by side easily caused energy disruption and direct explosion. After some tinkering, the problem was solved by arranging them in series instead.
This wouldn't work with pure natural Puffshrooms—Lin Jun had to manually create hollow Puffshrooms with empty spaces from rear to head, then insert them one into another, forming a Puffshroom long-barrel gun.
This combination naturally had no mobility of its own and was only suitable for mounting on Jida.
What was quite surprising was that it also had some effect on skills like [Chitin Shell] and [Rock Eating]. When pressed together, the generated shells and rock armor had somewhat improved hardness, though not by much.
The former could make Jida a bit tougher, while the latter... several large rocks pressed together did become harder, but they were also completely welded together and immobile. He really couldn't think of what use it could serve.
Maybe a row of heavy-armored Puffshrooms could stand together to generate a stone wall?
Currently, [Resonance] could only support three Puffshrooms working together. It wasn't that Lin Jun didn't want more, but LV1 was at this level—more than three not only didn't enhance effectiveness but actually interfered with each other, making the effect worse.
However, three was already enough for Jida.
Let's do it!
Lin Jun first removed the cumbersome rock shield from Jida's left hand and replaced it with the "Magic Shield Ball" formed by three Puffshrooms huddled together. Despite having more Puffshrooms, the overall weight was actually much lighter.
Next, he removed the original two single-barrel mushroom cannons from Jida's shoulders and replaced them with the newly assembled triple-barrel "long-barrel mushroom cannon."
Finally, he mounted it on the right shoulder.
Actually, Lin Jun would have preferred to mount it on the right hand—that would be so much more flexible for aiming!
Unfortunately, Norris stubbornly held onto the drilling Puffshroom on his right hand, and even Lin Jun's genius compromise proposal of "moving the drill to the crotch" was rejected by this foolish lizardman.
In the end, he had to reluctantly settle for the right shoulder.
The Puffshrooms responsible for resonance on Jida were all elite individuals.
From current testing, after resonance enhancement, whether it was the shield's defensive power or the mushroom cannon's destructive force, in terms of sheer power alone, it already reached Diamond-class level!
Of course, if you really had Norris pilot Jida to fight Little Pig, Little Pig would definitely be able to toy with him to death without engaging in a direct confrontation.
LV1 could resonate too few—it was only suitable for Jida to play with.
After LV10, who knows if he could assemble a hundred-meter-long mushroom cannon and shatter the void with one shot to snipe the Sword Saint?
A hundred-meter-long mushroom cannon... the scene would be a bit abstract, but it was still worth looking forward to.
For resonance, the Puffshrooms still needed more practice, not just the directly subordinate ones, but also those under the nodes.
Maybe it was time to promote Jida among the demons...
---
On the other side, Inanna practically raced back to the Duke's mansion with sparks flying.
Actually, Inanna was still somewhat anxious inside.
The Dream Flower matter was based on childhood memories—theoretically they should still be there, but she couldn't guarantee what the actual situation was, since she'd never had reason to randomly check her family's treasury before.
But Boss had been so happy rubbing her head and praising her competence—if she returned empty-handed... she didn't dare imagine Boss's disappointed expression!
Driven by anxiety, she compressed a two-day journey into one day, rushing back to the Duke's mansion overnight.
As soon as she entered the mansion gates, she didn't even bother looking for the butler Erik and dove straight into the family treasury.
Thank goodness!
With guidance from the treasury guards, Inanna didn't waste much effort finding the Dream Flowers.
Only... the quantity seemed to exceed her expectations by quite a bit!
Two entire large rows of shelves, packed full—all Dream Flowers!
Each flower was carefully stored individually in specially crafted boxes carved with complex magical arrays.
Never mind the flowers inside—just these boxes alone had considerable value.
She took down two boxes. Boss said only one flower was needed, but she'd bring an extra in case of accidents.
However, looking at these two towering rows of shelves, Inanna couldn't help but wonder: Why did her family store so many Dream Flowers?
Footsteps suddenly appeared behind her, deliberately heavy, clearly meant for Inanna to hear.
From behind came the butler Erik's emotionless voice: "Miss, your need for the Dream Flowers... is there some particular purpose?"
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