Underground City Third Floor.
Unlike the other floors that focused primarily on combat, this level consisted almost entirely of puzzles, traps, and hidden doors.
It would produce some wooden treasure chests—far inferior to the stone chests found behind hidden doors, but still valuable enough for ordinary adventurers.
The few monsters on this floor were mainly trigger-type stone guardian statues, mimic chests, or harmless scavenger creatures that fed on corpses.
Since the underground city had been closed for some time, this place naturally looked rather lifeless and lacking in vitality.
But today was a bit different—a group of puffshrooms had arrived here.
Under the sweeping arc of massive pendulum blades, a group of scale-armored puffshrooms was methodically clearing each obstacle.
One not-so-bright puffshroom accidentally got its stubby leg stuck in a gap in the floor while stepping through the blade corridor, struggling desperately but unable to pull it free.
The swinging blade inevitably crashed into the puffshroom without mercy.
Surprisingly, the puffshroom wasn't cut in half directly, but instead flew like a struck baseball, smashing against the wall before dropping down.
Though partly due to the blade's insufficient sharpness, the defensive power of Scale Armor LV5 was already satisfying enough for Lin Jun.
Of course, this puffshroom still died—after all, scale armor didn't protect against blunt force trauma.
After passing the swinging blades, the puffshrooms continued forward.
They used [Assault Launch LV5] to clear the death-trap platforms, and their light weight to bypass trigger-based traps.
Finally, they gathered in front of a stone gate, with the puffshroom that had first discovered it standing guard beside the door.
This stone door looked familiar!
Lin Jun had been trapped inside one for three months—he definitely wouldn't mistake its design.
This had to be a treasure room!
The reason for mobilizing so many forces was that this treasure room had been perfectly integrated into the third floor's mechanics.
In front of the door was a giant pressure plate, with a massive stone pillar suspended from the ceiling above, and a small stone monument with a keyhole beside the door.
Clearly, one needed to find the key or use lockpicking skills to release the stone weight, activate the pressure plate, and open the door.
But lockpicking... was that really something puffshrooms could handle?
Actually, it was possible—Lin Jun did have Lockpicking at LV2...
However, that would require producing specialized puffshrooms, and LV2 was obviously too low level.
With no other choice, he'd have to use a more crude method. After all, he just needed to activate the pressure plate.
The puffshrooms lay down neatly on the pressure plate one by one. When the first layer was full, they climbed onto their companions to form a second layer, stacking up like a pyramid.
Thanks to the extra mass from their surface scales, when they reached the fourth layer, the mechanical device finally sank into position.
Just as expected, the stone door smoothly slid open to both sides.
The scene inside was similar to the treasure room Lin Jun had stayed in, but without the central pool—clearly not the same room.
This wasn't surprising either; it would be stranger if the entire underground city had only one treasure room.
So now it was—treasure time!
One puffshroom quickly rushed forward and skillfully jumped up to kick the stone treasure chest lid open.
Let me see what's inside~
A... scroll!
Lin Jun recognized it—it was that escape... escape scroll!
He quickly controlled the puffshrooms to transport this treasure back, firing at every slime they encountered along the way to ensure absolute safety.
Not that Lin Jun planned to use the escape scroll to get his main body out.
This scroll provided random teleportation, only responsible for getting you out of the underground city—you might even get stuck underground.
Too dangerous; definitely not suitable for his main body.
In Lin Jun's view, this was essentially a sunshine experience ticket.
His main body wasn't suitable, but he could send a puffshroom instead.
Though he couldn't feel the warmth of sunlight himself, being able to see the sun and catch a glimpse of the outside world through a puffshroom would be nice too.
Of course, to ensure this puffshroom wouldn't die immediately upon teleportation, equipping it with multiple survival skills was absolutely necessary.
[Rock Eating LV3] for digging, [Underwater Adaptation LV4] to prevent drowning...
As for how to handle falling from the sky?
It wasn't that there were no flying monster skills available, but they all had poor compatibility with puffshrooms.
He'd use [Assimilative Absorption LV3] instead.
This was a skill obtained during the magic tide from those creatures called Sagus Blood—flesh monsters.
Those creatures had relied on this ability to continuously absorb surrounding flesh and withstand the puffshrooms' bombardment.
However, this skill worked a bit differently in Lin Jun's hands.
It could only absorb materials similar to itself to construct a shell.
Simply put, puffshrooms could only absorb mycelium, not flesh like Sagus Blood could.
It felt somewhat useless—perhaps only useful during defensive battles when taking advantage of battlefield terrain covered in mycelium.
But it was perfect for this situation—constructing a fluffy mycelium shell around the puffshroom.
If it appeared in mid-air, it could use this to cushion the impact of landing.
As for other combat and defensive skills, he'd add a bit of everything. Otherwise, it would be laughable if it got carried off by a stray dog before enjoying a few minutes of sunshine.
All in all, it could be considered a weakened version of a one-time Knight Puffshroom.
He'd call it Explorer No. 1.
Of course, Explorer No. 1 was still in the gestation phase—with so many skills to add, there was no rushing it.
This precious escape scroll would have to stay hidden in Lin Jun's little treasury for a while longer.
"Boss!"
Hmm?
The only one who could chat through the mycelial network at this time was Little Black, and she was even calling him "Boss" now.
Though Lin Jun seriously doubted whether she truly understood what "Boss" meant.
She looked like she'd just finished her patrol and returned.
Her entire body was soaking wet, with water stains on her scales that dripped occasionally.
She was also carrying the corpse of a large turtle-like monster with its head missing.
Probably caught from the seventh floor waterways.
When Little Black came back calling for him like this, there was only one reason.
"Not bad, not bad. This type is quite rare today. What flavor of puffshroom would you like?"
"I want cream-filled!" Little Black answered instantly.
"Good, good, I have some."
Hearing there were cream-filled puffshrooms, Little Black immediately dropped the turtle in her hands and ran toward the mushroom forest—her den was over there now.
Meanwhile, several other nearby puffshrooms approached and dragged the fresh corpse toward the swamp area.
The so-called cream-filled puffshrooms were actually just ones with added slime digestive fluid—the same stuff used to catch mosquitoes back in the deep zones.
Among Lin Jun's various bizarre combinations, this was one of Little Black's favorites.
By the time Little Black entered the mushroom forest, two cream-filled puffshrooms were already waiting by her bedroom—a hollowed-out large mushroom.
The dragon-person didn't mind dirtying her sleeping area either, hugging both puffshrooms and crawling directly into the mushroom to lie down and eat!
It was only because the mycelium could decompose residue and mucus that this little nest hadn't become filthy beyond recognition.
After dealing with Little Black, Lin Jun had intended to focus his energy on his recent new research—skill combinations for melee puffshrooms.
After digesting the skills from the magic tide wave, he could indeed create proper melee puffshrooms now; he just needed to find the most cost-effective combination suitable for mass production.
But it seemed he had no time for that now. Images from the upper levels showed that adventurers were finally beginning to enter the underground city!
The first batch to rush in was quite numerous—seemed they all wanted to be the first to try their luck.
And Lin Jun spotted a familiar figure among the crowd.
Dylan had finally returned!
(End of Chapter)
Comments