“Whoa! Is it? It is!”
A Puffshroom Master watched a freshly matured Fatshroom Puffshroom wiggle its massive bulk, slowly breaking free from the Mycelial Network’s tendrils. With a pop, it landed steady on the ground.
Instantly, a clear mental link bridged to the Puffshroom Master’s mind.
He froze, then roared like a wildman, tears welling up!
A Fatshroom Puffshroom! Elite-tier for sure!
What a big score!
He fondled the Fatshroom’s soft, springy bulk, then remembered something. “Right, gotta check its skills beyond self-destruct…”
As he thought it, his body grew heavy, like an invisible weight pressed his shoulders.
“Gravity effect?!” He was thrilled but a bit let down.
A skill unseen in other Puffshrooms was rare, but the effect felt low-level.
Watching the Puffshroom Master leave with his new prize, Lin Jun decided the next lucky draw would get an elite Shock Puffshroom.
Dylan’s recent Thunder Rat and Earth Bear corpses had arrived, their [Gravity Field], [Thunder Cloak], [Lightning Speed], and [Arc Bolt] skills added to the Puffshroom skill pool.
Elite Puffshrooms?
No such thing as a random draw. Lin Jun just picked favorites.
True randoms only got slightly varied, mostly weak Puffshrooms.
He wasn’t stingy, though.
He’d let a [Tastiness LV7] Puffshroom slip from Little Black’s food stash and tossed out several elite Puffshrooms since.
Puffshroom Master wasn’t yet tempting Gold-tier and above pros, but once someone built a full elite team, would it stay that way?
Picture it: as an adventurer, skipping Puffshroom Master meant falling behind peers!
That’d force hesitant mid-tier talents to join, fueling the Mycelial Network’s outer expansion.
More Puffshroom Masters meant smoother human infiltration and a workforce to level up Lin Jun’s niche skills!
His skill library was vast, but he leaned on a few favorites.
Some were just better; others were too low-level.
Skills like [Trample], from human corpses, couldn’t level fast via [Greed].
Lin Jun had no time to grind every skill himself.
Now, he could mix two or three skills, stuff them in a Puffshroom, and hand it to a human.
Eager Puffshroom Masters would rack their brains, finding uses for those skills, grinding levels for Lin Jun.
Once leveled, even basic skills might shine in a pinch.
The Puffshroom Master trend was set—Lin Jun just needed to tweak drop rates.
The werewolves, though, needed more of his attention.
In the vast cavern once home to the Fire Demon, Norris and Qióng bid farewell to two towering werewolves.
“Come back soon!” Norris waved hard.
[Come back soon!] His Yellow Codex translated, flashing demon script.
The werewolf didn’t reply but stepped forward, wrapping Norris in a furry, bone-crushing hug, leaving gray-blue fur in his scales’ gaps as he staggered.
Qióng, chatting easily with the other werewolf, laughed and planned a trip to see the Far North’s grand vistas.
As the werewolves vanished up the stairs, Qióng glanced at a dazed Norris.
“What’s up? They’re just one level up. We’ll see them soon. No need to get sappy.”
“It’s not… uh…” Norris’s face twisted, hesitant. “She… was a female wolf…”
[Not just female—she’s into you.] The Yellow Codex’s words dripped with glee.
“Senior, don’t mess with me…” Norris pictured her head-and-a-half-taller, muscle-packed frame, his eye twitching.
[No lie.]
[Her hug’s emotional pulse was near mating season levels.]
“But… I’m a half-lizardman!” Norris’s voice mixed disbelief and panic, forgetting he wasn’t even fully human.
[Not asking you to raise wolf pups. Just have fun. Maybe she likes your… ‘petite’ build?]
At nearly six feet with trained muscles, Norris wasn’t petite.
But compared to Louisa or werewolves? Yeah, a bit.
Qióng shot him a helpless, sympathetic look, free of such woes as a demonkin.
Gulp—
Norris swallowed, vowing to beg the boss for a transfer back to Far North prisoner duty…
Level ten, werewolf settlement.
The two returning werewolves reached their familiar den, greeted by the white-maned clan elder and a waiting pack of old wolves.
More clanmates watched from afar.
“Lang, Karen,” the elder boomed, his explosive muscles radiating menace despite his age. “Where were you?”
“We… uh…” Lang stammered, but Karen’s paw clamped his mouth.
Karen stepped forward, fearless. “We went down! Saw the outside world!”
“Fools!” an old wolf roared. “The clan banned the stairs! You defied us?!”
(End of Chapter)
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