Puchi Dungeon, inside the arena cave that was never open to outsiders.
Viscous blood had stained large patches of fungal mat dark red, though that color was fading at a visible rate—the mycelial threads never ceased fulfilling their decomposition mission.
Around the field lay a dozen or so figures in disarray, all D-grade personnel. Some bodies were relatively intact, merely unconscious or severely wounded, while others were incomplete, with severed limbs and internal organs exposed.
Those still barely alive emitted pained moans, while more had completely fallen silent.
Only Ming, covered head to toe in blood as if fished from a blood pool, still stood panting heavily in the center of the field.
He was still holding a D-grade personnel member whose legs had been stomped broken.
"Please... have... mercy..." the captive squeezed out intermittent pleas through swollen lips.
Before he could finish—
Bang—!
With a dull impact, Ming had already grabbed the man's head and viciously smashed it into the hard rock wall beside them. Brain matter flowed down from the indentation.
"You already won, so why do you keep hitting them?" A clear voice came from above.
The small fairy Riel sat on a higher viewing platform, dangling her legs.
In one hand she held a bottle of emerald green potion, while the other pinched her delicate nose—the thick smell of blood below was a bit too pungent for her.
Beside her were two mushroomkin serving as apprentices and assistants.
"Sister Riel!" Ming, face covered in bloody grime, looked up, revealing a brilliantly sunny and cheerful smile. "Boss said these people all deserve to die anyway."
This point Riel was clear about. She didn't sympathize with these D-grade personnel either.
The D-grade personnel even included Ark members who had nearly gotten her strangled to death by a berserker tree, though those few hadn't survived to today.
She just simply felt Ming was a bit too violent.
Riel handed the special water of life potion mixed with various precious materials to Ming as he climbed up, unable to help lecturing: "But if you beat them all to death, who will come fight with you in the future? Me?"
Ming took the potion and tilted his head back to drink it. Hearing this, he paused, scratching his blood-clotted hair.
He hadn't thought about this question. He only knew that if he won, Boss would praise him.
"What will you do next?" Riel asked.
"Fight another round," Ming wiped his mouth, fighting spirit dancing in his eyes. "This time, I want to try fighting a complete gold-level squad."
"Sigh... fight, fight, fight, all you know is fighting." Riel sighed like a little adult. Though she was two heads shorter than Ming, her tone was distinctly that of an older sister. "I asked you to come study basic magic with Teacher Spark, but you won't. Your aptitude is clearly very good."
As she spoke, she extended her small hand. Magic power flowed, and a large ball of clear water condensed above Ming's head.
With a "splash," it poured down, washing away most of the bloody grime from his body.
"I... I can't remember..." Ming squinted his eyes as the water poured over him, his voice muffled with a hint of embarrassment. "Those twisting and turning magic circuits, and incantations... my head gets dizzy after looking at them for a while."
In fact, this couldn't really be blamed on Ming—he was actually less than a year old.
Though there were no obstacles in terms of intelligence or comprehension ability, magic as a discipline, even if Lin Jun directly granted him related skills, still required him to learn and experience how to guide, control, and utilize magic power.
The accumulation of knowledge was a long and often tedious process.
In comparison, close combat held natural advantages for him.
Bearing [Physical Immunity], as long as he completely immersed himself in battle, his level and practical combat experience would naturally increase rapidly—far more intuitive and swift than gnawing through those obscure magical theories!
But Riel didn't care about these objective reasons. In her view, learning some magic would always be beneficial for Ming's future.
"You're not fighting this afternoon—come with me to Teacher Spark's class!" Riel said, her small hand already grabbing Ming's arm, trying to lead him to Mycelium Puchi Fortress.
Just then, Lin Jun's recruitment announcement simultaneously sounded in both their consciousnesses.
Ming, who had been looking somewhat deflated at being required to study, instantly brightened.
"Boss! I want to go!" He responded in his consciousness almost without thinking, full of eager excitement.
"Ming? Ah... mm... alright then." Lin Jun considered briefly, then agreed.
Though he couldn't see those "seafood monsters'" panels, he could see the fishmen's levels.
The fishmen were at most diamond level, yet they could hold out under those monsters' invasion. Even with the advantage of the secret passages, this indicated the enemies' average strength shouldn't be too outrageous.
It was indeed time for Ming to be released to temper himself in more complex environments.
They couldn't really expect to train a "Ten-Mile Slope God of War" in their own closed arena.
Of course, accompaniment was still necessary. Lin Jun began selecting from the Mushroom Garden again.
Getting permission, Ming jumped up: "Yay!"
He looked at the small fairy beside him, his face showing a smile mixing apology and pleading: "Sister Riel, so... you see?"
Riel's little mouth pouted high, her face writing unhappiness all over it, but she still released the hand gripping him.
Ming grinned sheepishly, then turned and sprinted toward the Mushroom Garden like a gust of wind.
...
Lin Jun quickly assembled the team.
Since there was no fungal mat on the other side and fungal mat spread slowly in water, the main force would still be Puchi masters.
The number didn't need to be too large—just select some elites, commanded by Little Pig.
Little Pig clearly wanted to test the effects of that magic crystal armor, though Lin Jun wasn't sure if there would be suitable opponents for her.
After all, it was hard to imagine there would be lord-level existences among the opponents.
Norris also signed up, wanting to test the new super Puchi's combat capabilities.
Lin Jun simply made him Ming's babysitter.
With Norris out on assignment, the yellow book was left in Spark's hands—it still needed to guide the fortress defense array arrangements.
Logically this should be enough, but Lin Jun still dragged up the drowsy Little Black.
Not because he actually needed her to fight any enemies, but because he couldn't let her keep eating and sleeping anymore.
Several months without combat, her greatest daily exercise coming from chasing delicious Puchis.
Though thick scales concealed it, it was still obvious Little Black had gotten considerably fatter.
Thinking back to their first meeting on the fifth layer, if you removed all those big black scales, Little Black's body proportions had been quite trim.
Now... she was already trending toward becoming a fat lizard.
Little West's lack of restraint and combat power decline from getting fat was a cautionary tale right before his eyes. Lin Jun couldn't let Little Black repeat the same mistake.
Therefore, taking her out to move around would prevent her from getting too fat to fly in the future.
As for Little Black's own thoughts—
After Lin Jun showed her several large, round, shiny pearls from the seabed, Little Black was already impatient to depart.
Unfortunately, going underwater required many preparations.
...
Two days later, before the enlarged fissure on the seventh layer.
"Boss, do we... really have to do this?" Norris scratched his head, looking uncomfortable all over.
"This is called a sense of ceremony! You understand? Pre-expedition declarations are important, they can... can boost morale! Stop dawdling, quick quick quick! Finish this and let's set out properly!"
Faced with Boss's demand, Norris could only steel himself!
"Silver Flash, Little White!" His speech was rapid, almost mumbled, and after finishing he wanted to crawl into a crack like a thief.
"Crimson Killer, Little Pig!" Louisa was expressionless, her voice as clear and unvarying as reading a report.
"Vajra Indestructible, Little Ming!" Ming practically jumped out, his face brimming with the excited smile of going on a spring outing.
"Ah—woo—!" Her line had a full six characters—Little Black couldn't remember it.
(End of Chapter)
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