After sending away the shaken Norris, whose back was still soaked with cold sweat, Lin Jun thoughtfully reserved a special themed nightmare for him that night.
He would be endlessly chased through dim tunnels by an indescribable giant thing.
Switching perspective, Lin Jun looked at the failed test subject in the cavern.
[Giant Trait LV5]
The skill Kiss had given him was proving very useful. The giant Puchi in Dragonroar Valley had already shown its value beyond doubt.
Not only did it enlarge the body, it also pushed physical attributes beyond a normal Puchi's limits, turning them both huge and tanky.
Combined with skills such as [Life Source], a giant Puchi in the right terrain could become a one-Puchi fortress that blocked entire armies.
Not to mention, the power of [Self-Destruct] scaled directly with constitution.
The only flaw was that strength and speed did not grow in sync with size. Giant units became slow and clumsy.
Even so, that was a minor blemish on a very promising skill.
Naturally, Lin Jun did not hesitate to invest resources in further research.
The thing groaning in pain before he was one such test subject.
AD rank lizardman prisoner, unlucky enough to be selected.
The result, however, disappointed him.
Just as many skills resonated differently with Puchi, [Giant Trait] seemed fundamentally incompatible with lizardmen and perhaps humanoids in general.
Under the skill's influence, the lizardman had indeed bulked up rapidly by eating everything in sight, but the process was crude and brutal.
His skin and scales had been ripped open by expanding muscles, exposing red, pulsing tissue beneath.
His original skeleton was completely unable to support such mass. If Lin Jun had not reinforced it with [Steel Bones], the body would have collapsed during the growth phase.
The same weakness in strength and speed appeared here as well.
But humanoids had long, slender legs and vulnerable knees. Once their bodies grew too large without enough strength and speed to support them, they could barely stay upright, let alone fight.
In actual combat power, this giant lizardman was inferior to the giant Puchi.
Worse, the food needed to sustain such a form was enormous, not nearly as convenient as Puchi, who only needed mana.
He had not disposed of this failure right away, and it ended up scaring poor Norris earlier.
One mushroom after another pushed out from beneath the torn lizardman skin, growing rapidly.
The pain made the enormous test subject let out a thunderous scream. The sound waves shook the cavern and sent bits of rock raining from the ceiling.
The agonized roars did not last long.
As the fungi drained the last of his life, the sound faded to a long, almost relieved sigh.
Thus ended the sinful life of a D rank lizardman.
Lin Jun did not dwell on the failed experiment.
The Sunstone had arrived.
At the entrance of the Puchi Underground City, two fully armored guards leaned lazily on their spears.
When they saw the figure in a dark cloak approaching, one of them straightened at once and smiled broadly, almost obsequiously.
"Lord Aedin, back to the underground city so soon?"
In Mushroom City's government system, nobody failed to recognize this man, a powerful subordinate under Lord Fal, the city lord.
Recently, rumors said he had gone personally to the frontlines and rescued the lord of Redstone City from the demon army and berserk elementals.
The legendary small team that had earned an entire city as payment for a mission was said to be resting in nearby Norwid.
Aedin kept both hands inside his cloak and merely nodded slightly at the guard before walking into the dark entrance.
Now that the underground city was fully Puchi-fied, Puchi supply stations dotted every level. As long as you paid "protection fees," you even got Puchi rescue services. It was much safer than before.
For the same reason, the upper layers' resources had long been stripped by adventurers. They had become a training ground for beginners and a wholesale market for Puchi-handlers buying stock.
Anyone dreaming of making a fortune through adventure had to risk the dangerous regions below the eighth floor.
To the guards, Aedin's frequent visits were probably related to research on Puchi production.
Judging by recent decrees, the upper authorities were clearly paying attention to this new profession of Puchi-handlers.
Only Aedin himself knew his true purpose.
Close to his chest, he carried a magic container that blocked all aura. Inside it lay a fragment of the Sunstone.
An invisible Knight Puchi followed right behind him like a shadow.
He turned into a quiet corner on the first floor, and a familiar hidden room silently appeared in front of him.
The fungus chamber teleported him directly to the tenth floor, where a squad of fully armed Puchi was already waiting in neat formation.
Surrounded by this silent honor guard, Aedin moved unimpeded through the passages and returned to the deep sector.
Once they reached the core region, he carefully took out the container and passed the still-warm Sunstone fragment to the Knight Puchi behind him.
The Knight Puchi did not waste a second. It stuffed the fragment into its body, dove into a mycelial tunnel, and vanished.
Mission complete, Aedin finally relaxed. He could now go home and focus fully on the S grade magic crystal.
In a huge chamber sealed off from the world that could only be reached via the mycelial network, the Knight Puchi emerged.
The moment it appeared, blazing warmth flooded over it.
At the center of the room rested a massive half Stone, radiating light and heat.
Today, this artifact belonging solely to Lin Jun would finally be restored to its complete form.
Lin Jun took direct control of the Knight Puchi and wrapped its tendrils around both Sunstone pieces, his excitement so intense that the tendrils trembled.
As the fragments slowly drew together, the ancient cracks lined up perfectly. Not a single gap remained.
In that instant, a wave of radiance far beyond anything before exploded from the completed Sunstone.
The light was so bright it felt like it would devour everything. The Knight Puchi's tough tendrils sizzled where they held it, almost losing their grip.
Fortunately, the outburst lasted only a heartbeat.
The light quickly dimmed and settled, and the warmth the complete Sunstone gave off was actually weaker than when it was broken.
At the same time, the panel text changed.
[Divine Artifact: Sunstone (The soul is the keystone of the Ark)]
The artifact was whole again, but instead of a usage description or function list, the new line was just a cryptic phrase mentioning an "Ark."
The soul is the keystone.
Did that mean the Sunstone was connected to the soul?
Lin Jun immediately began testing what had changed.
The most obvious difference was the weakened light and heat. That could be confirmed by the fungal carpet's [Photosynthesis] output. Mana production had clearly dropped.
As for everything else… aside from being fully rounded and more comfortable to hold, he felt no difference.
Was the complete Sunstone actually worse than the broken one?
That could not be right.
The panel suggested something about "bathing his soul in the light" to grow stronger.
If that was the case, it did not sound particularly useful. Did he look like he was lacking soul strength?
As his thoughts wandered, something in the corner of the cavern stirred.
A massive cocoon of tightly woven mycelium that had sat undisturbed for half a year twitched slightly.
Then the Puchi that had been dormant inside pushed its way out, tearing the fibers open and wobbling to its feet.
What shocked Lin Jun was that he was not controlling it.
The Knight Puchi and the newly emerged Puchi faced each other in silence. The whole cavern fell still.
Then a voice sounded in the mycelial network.
Strange yet eerily familiar.
"Mo… ther…"
There was a sharp crack.
Lin Jun reflexively lashed out through the Knight Puchi and obliterated the thing with a single whip strike.
(End of Chapter)
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