Lin Jun had realized long ago that to level up, he needed to kill far more monsters and disassemble far more corpses than ordinary adventurers.
He'd made many hypotheses. Among them, one of the more plausible theories was this:
Whether killing monsters, disassembling corpses, or collecting energy through the fungal mat—all these actions were performed by his extended fungal mat and Puchi, not by his main body personally.
Experience might suffer massive losses during transmission. This could be glimpsed from the efficiency of using Puchi to practice skills.
If skill proficiency could be gained without loss, then with tens of thousands of Puchi casually practicing for a day, wouldn't that equal thirty years of training for a normal person?
But reality was that while practice efficiency was indeed high, it was nowhere near that heaven-defying.
Lin Jun had always thought that experience and proficiency were being drastically diluted when transmitted back to him.
Now it seemed... that wasn't the case?
It was simply that he needed far more experience to level up than others—not just twice or ten times more, but hundreds or thousands of times more?
Was it still because of his soul...
After all, the most significant difference between himself and other beings was probably that massive soul of his.
Lin Jun couldn't help wondering: if he'd reincarnated not as a mushroom but as an ordinary human or demon, with this experience requirement, would he have been stuck unable to break through level 20 his entire life?
Among humans and demons, there were indeed quite a few individuals permanently stuck at low levels—and not a small number either.
After the fungal mat spread to the surface, Lin Jun had spent time carefully observing such people.
But sensing them with inspiration LV7, their soul sizes were completely normal.
Moreover, they didn't level slowly—rather, after reaching a certain level, they hit what seemed like an invisible wall. Without special circumstances, they'd be trapped there.
Even with great effort, they'd at most climb one or two more levels. Old Dylan was a typical example.
This was clearly different from Lin Jun's situation of continuous growth with merely enormous experience requirements.
To say he wasn't disappointed that life source had limited effect on his own leveling would be a lie.
But objectively speaking, Lin Jun's current leveling speed wasn't actually slow.
Since the fungal mat network continuously expanded, wide-area mana harvest combined with photosynthesis meant his progression from level 63 to 64 took even less time than going from 60 to 61.
When he used life source himself, it functioned as a super enhancement skill.
Lin Jun had tried loading it onto an S-grade magic crystal knight Puchi—the result was that the knight burst out with hall-tier combat power and had far superior stamina compared to normal.
As for normal usage, having himself absorb all the produced life water now seemed somewhat wasteful. Better to distribute it.
Diluted, of course!
Core members would definitely get shares. Among them, Little Black could be fed more—after all, her growth potential was clear. If not for the diminishing returns from consuming too much, Lin Jun would've wanted to feed her half of all life water production.
As for why only half? Because the team now had another rising star—Ming!
Physical immunity!
Lin Jun didn't even know how powerful he'd become once fully cultivated.
Originally, Lin Jun had worried that with such slow leveling, Ming might end up just being used as a physical immunity shield like the yellow spellbook. But with life source, he could rapidly feed him into an expert!
As for Norris, Little Pig, Kari and the others—they'd get diluted doses.
Speaking of Ming, it was time for bonding again.
...
Puff—squish—
Puchi puchi puchi—
The marshal Puchi still wore that bright red cloak, seated high on a throne atop a specially made plump recluse's mushroom cap.
Before and behind the plump recluse Puchi marched eighteen ceremonial Puchi.
These ceremonial guards all had chitin shell equipped and had been sculpted afterward to create armor that, while full of gaps and impractical, looked very cool.
Though the marshal Puchi wasn't the true main body, in most Mushroom Fort residents' eyes, this was indeed Lin Jun's image. The procession naturally couldn't be shabby.
Passing through several caverns in succession, the demon-kin tending plants or raising monsters in those caverns would stop their work upon seeing the procession and perform a somewhat crude tribal salute.
This wasn't Lin Jun's requirement but rather because, for them, the boss was no longer just a simple chieftain of one or two tribes.
Anyone whose memory wasn't impaired could compare current Mushroom Fort with their past tribes and realize that Mushroom Fort's power had far exceeded the limits of a northern tribe, developing toward something like a Northern King.
For such a force's leader, the fungal citizens who had less direct contact with Lin Jun would naturally feel emotions like awe, worship, reverence, and longing. Under Starfire's intentional guidance, this simple ritual etiquette had formed.
As for why Starfire guided it this way—as Mushroom Fort's diplomatic chief, he felt that giving the boss a dignified image would make it easier to subdue and win over other tribes.
Though no tribal chieftain's first impression upon seeing the marshal Puchi for the first time would be "dignified"...
The Puchi King's procession finally arrived at a massively renovated cavern.
Calling it a cavern was actually no longer appropriate—it more resembled a huge underground coliseum, the air permeated with a faint bloody smell. Though Lin Jun couldn't smell it anyway.
This was Ming's daily training ground.
The arena floor was already piled with corpses of various low-tier monsters. Clearly Ming had completed today's first phase of combat training and was now in the second phase—fighting people!
Facing Ming were several selected D-rank personnel of similar level to him.
If they could defeat Ming, they could leave that dungeon and, while concealing their identities, enjoy a week of good life in Mushroom Fort!
This reward had become what this group of D-ranks desired most, so they fought especially desperately against Ming!
Of course, Ming couldn't be some harmless kitten either. Just look at the monster corpses around—occasionally consuming one or two D-rank personnel during duels was a common occurrence.
Like right now, this D-rank team clearly understood Ming's amazing defense. Two mages served as main attackers while three melee fighters restrained him, with the ultimate goal of capturing Ming.
Not that they didn't want to kill him—but Ming not only had physical immunity, his magic resistance was also LV9, not to mention skills like regeneration. A low-level mage could exhaust all their mana and still might not kill him.
Today both sides' strength was fairly close. Ming nearly got pinned to the ground several times, but ultimately he found an opening. One counterattack killed a warrior, then he kicked a mage flying, and after that it was crushing victory.
Leaving the arena, covered in blood and breathing deeply to recover his stamina, Ming saw the marshal Puchi in the audience seats and immediately ran over excitedly!
His eyes were full of anticipation. "Boss! I won again today!"
The marshal Puchi extended a tentacle and wrapped it around Ming's blood-covered head. "Well done. Worthy of being my Ming! You'll definitely become one of my most capable right-hand men in the future."
Having received the boss's praise as hoped, Ming smiled with satisfaction. "Not 'one of'—I'll definitely become Boss's very best helper!"
"Good ambition! Then you must become even stronger! Let me help you too!" The marshal Puchi extended a tentacle and fed Ming fresh life water.
[Level Up: LV22 → LV23]
Grow quickly...
(End of Chapter)
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