Magic cannonballs exploded in the swamp, sending up clouds of black mud and rotting bark fragments.
After several months, fierce artillery fire once again rained down on the swamp area.
However, this time there were only two beastman enemies.
When they realized they were surrounded, Inigo and Milo's beast eyes simultaneously locked onto the forest direction.
If they could break out of the swamp area, even if there were more enemies in the outer perimeter, they could rely on the forest's complex terrain to escape.
Of course, the prerequisite was being able to break out of the swamp.
Neither had any intention of fighting—there were simply too many Puffshrooms.
So many that even if they stood still and let them hack away, the two could be exhausted to death.
Only by breaking through before the encirclement tightened was there a glimmer of hope.
During their mad dash, several mushroom cannons tore through the air, crashing down toward their positions.
[Acceleration LV6]
[Flash Step LV7]
Both used their respective skills to dodge the attacks, but this was merely a prelude.
Near-saturated fire coverage set the entire swamp boiling. The two gave their all, weaving and dodging through the mud, barely managing to avoid direct hits.
As for the explosion aftershocks—they could only grit their teeth and endure.
Inigo, confident in his thick hide, charged even more fiercely and wildly.
Seeing he was approaching the edge of the encirclement, dozens of scattered Puffshrooms stood before him.
Inigo raised his blade high and with one charge flashed behind a Puffshroom—its upper half went flying into the air.
Nimble positioning and the beastman's excellent combat instincts allowed Inigo to precisely find gaps in the killing formation, breaking through outward all the way.
Almost at the edge!
Several Puffshrooms rolled into balls ahead, simultaneously charging at Inigo.
The scene nearly made the tigerman laugh out loud.
Those magic cannons he indeed didn't dare take head-on, but these soft, squishy things wanted to play close combat with him?
Blade meeting charge, he could instantly...
In a series of self-detonation sounds, the tigerman burst out covered in scorch marks.
At the last moment, his instincts made him react to flee, but it was still a bit too late.
Inigo's left leg from the knee down had completely vanished.
Now collapsed on the ground, he could no longer stand.
And the Puffshrooms aimed their mushroom cannons at him from a distance.
"Fifth floor... *cough cough*... this is gonna be laughed to death. This is even worse than dying in the mist."
In his final moments, he turned his gaze toward Milo's direction.
He saw that figure blown into the air.
The flying posture was so ridiculous that Inigo couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"Puff!"
Bang—
————
Having finally dealt with the two adventurers who came looking for trouble, Lin Jun was about to tally his losses.
Suddenly, a message he'd been longing for appeared in his mind.
[Level Up LV49→LV50]
[New Selectable Racial Skill+]
Finally!
Finally reached 50!
Leveling up was really too difficult. He was already LV48 when he first arrived at the fifth floor.
First he'd nearly consumed all the magical beasts on the fifth floor, then relied on mycelium spread throughout the entire level to gather resources for several months.
Finally completing that last step!
He was so moved he nearly cried.
Based on Lin Jun's experience, the skills given every 10 levels were always skills that matched one's own race.
Like Mushroom Cannon—at first glance it was tailor-made for the mushroom race, much more useful than most randomly acquired skills.
Quickly, let's see what skills are available.
[Selectable Skills:
Long-Range Propagation (Greatly increases spore dispersal distance, allows ultra-long-distance spreading)
Mycelial Reconstruction (Regardless of individual life or death, can automatically repair using mycelium as the base unit)
Deliciousness (Unparalleled flavor)]
...
Is this "Deliciousness" for real?
Aspiring to become the most delicious ingredient in another world?
Come to think of it, "Juicy" had appeared as an option before too.
So the mushroom race really does have an upgrade path toward becoming super ingredients?
How utterly ridiculous.
Excluding "Deliciousness," the first option "Long-Range Propagation" didn't hold much significance for Lin Jun either.
His will couldn't transmit through mycelium that wasn't connected into a network—he couldn't manage it.
Like that mushroom garden in the deep area—once he walked far enough away, he completely lost all sensation of it.
Looking at it this way, there didn't seem to be much choice.
[Acquired Skill: Mycelial Reconstruction LV1]
Soon, a test Puffshroom was cultivated in the swamp area.
A small knife wrapped in a tentacle stabbed into the Puffshroom's body.
The Puffshroom with only 10 HP immediately kicked the bucket.
After waiting a long while, the Puffshroom seemed to show no reaction.
However, Lin Jun, who'd been watching intently, could see clearly that the skill was indeed effective.
Around the wound, intact mycelium was slowly collecting magic power, dividing to create new mycelium to replace the severed portions.
It's just that this process was extremely slow.
After quite some time, the Puffshroom finally stood up again.
[HP: 1/10]
At this point the wound still wasn't completely healed, but the Puffshroom had already regained its mobility.
Lin Jun struck again, this time directly cutting the Puffshroom in half.
Then...
The Puffshroom really did croak...
After several more experiments, Lin Jun finally figured it out.
The Puffshroom's integrity needed to be above 80% for repair to be possible, and the greater the damage, the slower the repair.
Things like being cut in half, smashed flat, burned, or frozen to death were beyond recovery.
At the same time, since new mycelium had to be generated to fill wounds, it required consuming magic power from the surrounding environment.
If the Puffshroom itself carried skills like [Magic Storage], repair speed could be increased by more than half.
Overall, it wasn't as useful as Lin Jun had imagined. He'd thought it could be like slimes—even if only a small blob remained, it could grow back with some magic power supplementation.
It might also be because this was only LV1.
However, even at just LV1, it seemed there were places it could come in handy.
————
Deep in the cave area, at the old bat's cavern.
A Hallucinogenic Puffshroom swaggered out of the passage.
Just like before, it was instantly killed by infrasound waves the moment it showed itself.
The Puffshroom, with several fine internal wounds bursting open, collapsed on the spot, falling among its already-rotting predecessors.
After dealing with it, the old bat lost interest.
These mushrooms were all poisonous and inedible. They kept coming endlessly—it just found them annoying.
However, it didn't know that the mycelium inside this Puffshroom was slowly repairing itself.
After a long while, the Puffshroom jumped up again.
The old bat, which had been sleeping with closed eyes, instantly awakened at the sound and killed the Puffshroom that had barely taken two steps.
This time the old bat gave the Puffshroom a few extra glances, but still couldn't figure out what was going on.
When the Puffshroom stood up once again, the old bat finally couldn't hold it together.
One claw stomped the Puffshroom to pieces.
This time it wouldn't regenerate, but the violent destruction directly caused the hallucinogenic spores on the Puffshroom to burst out.
The old bat was close by, and despite frantically flapping its wings to retreat, it still inhaled some spores.
Fortunately it wasn't much. The old bat only felt slightly uncomfortable, and after hanging upside down to rest for a short while, it returned to normal.
However, an ominous premonition lingered in its heart.
It should indeed feel ominous.
On Lin Jun's side, now that he'd confirmed it worked, a new force of 100 anti-old-bat specialized Puffshrooms had already entered the production queue.
Once this army deployed, those three S-rank magic crystals would be right in Lin Jun's pocket!
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