“Hissss!!!”
D”
Dwarf Thorin jolted awake, rubbing his arms as he scrambled out of bed. “Damn, haven’t been frozen awake in ages…”
In fact, ever since symbioting with mycelium, he only needed a thin blanket at night. It had been a long time since he felt cold.
Muttering “this is weird,” Thorin opened the dorm door.
A wall of snow blocked his view.
“…”
When the door opened, the others in the room shivered awake one after another.
Thorin turned to his lizardman friend. “Baroque, you said you’re from a northern lizardman tribe, right?”
“Used to be,” Baroque corrected.
“Do northern tribes get blizzards right before summer?” Thorin pointed at the snow wall outside.
Baroque came over, looked at the waist-high snow, and shivered. He stuck his head out to survey. “Uh… I lived a bit farther south. First time this far north this season…”
“Hope they distribute warming gear before tomorrow, or some folks will freeze solid,” Glenm grumbled, crawling out of bed.
The three stared at the still-rising snow, discussing how to clear a path to the tunnel for work.
Not because they loved labor, but because they realized: burrowing Puchis generated heat. In this weather, the once-dreaded job would become the most coveted.
They hadn’t decided when distant cheers of “Praise the Boss!” rang out, growing closer.
Lizardman Baroque stuck his head out first. Thorin and Glenm, facing the snow wall, could only stare blankly and urge, “Baroque, what do you see? Speak!”
“Puchis are coming!”
“What?”
“A huge Puchi is coming!”
*Puchi—*
The familiar “whirr,” only louder.
A shovel roughly cleared the snow outside the window, letting the two dwarves see.
A gigantic burrowing Puchi far larger than the plump recluse variant advanced slowly along the road, “whirring” idly while radiating massive heat.
It moved steadily. Around it, many captive laborers like the trio shoveled snow and tossed it into the opening atop the giant Puchi.
Snow melted instantly upon entry; remaining water drained from the sides into underground channels.
The only flaw: residual water froze soon after, making the ground slippery.
The three watched the snow-clearing brigade pass their dorm. Then two mushroomkin pulling carts arrived.
They handed the trio three sets of cold-weather beast-pelt coats and fur blankets.
The mushroomkin glanced at the dwarves and said routinely, “If they don’t fit, make do for two days, then swap at logistics. Later remember to get a small self-heating Puchi from Puchi management; one per dorm, free use, but damage costs contribution points.”
After marking their dorm with a √ in his notebook, he moved to the next.
Glenm tried his pelt coat; lucky, it fit.
“Praise the Boss! Finally warm.” Looking at the mushroomkin’s back, he sighed. “So fast… Did he know it would snow? But if so, why not distribute earlier?”
Baroque shrugged. He had no answer.
Back in his lizardman tribe, warming supplies like firewood took one or two days to distribute during cold snaps. Freezing deaths were common. Nothing like same-night snow followed by full gear next morning.
The three stepped out and discovered giant burrowing Puchis clearing snow on nearly every main street.
Since snow kept falling, they patrolled back and forth, each with dedicated snow-shoveling teams.
Some just followed for warmth, walking the same routes repeatedly. The blizzard made the fortress livelier than usual.
Passing Call Gate, even the green-skinned vampire had a small burrowing Puchi under him.
Though it seemed a bit too close to his feet; one wondered how much of his screams were from burns.
At the tunnel entrance, as expected, the job had become hot property; a crowd wanted to sign up.
“You can’t just work when it’s cold. We need stable labor,” the managing mushroomkin said, driving the opportunists away.
This relieved the trio; they had worried the job would be taken.
After finishing, the mushroomkin stopped the three heading to collect Puchis. “New mega-tunnel task; needs experienced diggers. Interested?”
“Mega-tunnel?”
…
Lin Jun was swamped!
While mass-producing giant, large, and small burrowing Puchis, he also arranged urgent tasks.
The “mega-tunnel” was the search for the runaway Frenzied Spirit.
After sinking underground, it had vanished from perception yet directly affected the entire north’s climate.
Thanks to his [Cold Resistance] already at LV9, otherwise, not total wipeout, but everyone huddled indoors warming up and the fortress grinding to a halt would be inevitable.
Even now functioning normally, he couldn’t let it rampage unchecked.
Though out of perception range, changes in underground mana flow revealed its position.
Lin Jun planned to tunnel over. A single LV71 elemental spirit wasn’t unbeatable with his current strength; just a question of cost.
But this “mega-tunnel” wasn’t the top priority. Rescue was.
The fortress and recently “allied” tribes had heating Puchis. Other northern tribes didn’t.
Though temperatures there weren’t as low as the fortress, their members lacked sufficient cold resistance.
They could manage short-term with firewood, but prolonged cold would make food scarcer. They wouldn’t last long.
If they were imperial demons, Lin Jun wouldn’t care if they froze or starved.
But these were future Northern Alliance members!
Each death was like losing twenty Puchis.
Unacceptable losses!
Thus, under Lin Jun’s organization, Puchi rescue teams set out from his tribes toward surrounding areas.
(End of Chapter)
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