Unlike the fungal mat clinging tightly to the earth, the mycelial network floating on the water's surface constantly endured the impact of ocean waves.
Even in the dungeon's relatively calm waters, continuous surges persistently tore at the mycelial connections.
They were scattered, broken, then healed again and tangled back together.
Simply increasing mycelial thickness wasn't very useful.
Faced with truly turbulent waves, even the thickest mycelial layer couldn't escape being torn apart. And if thickened enough to withstand any storm... perhaps it should no longer be called a "fungal mat" but an "offshore platform."
By having the mycelia mimic kelp forms, floating on the water's surface in small, loosely structured clumps that rose and fell with the waves—
This method dispersed the tearing force of the waves. The mycelial clumps swayed with the current and weren't easily damaged.
However, the new structure brought new defects.
In land-based fungal mats, magic power could be transmitted through tightly interwoven mycelial networks with extremely low loss, allowing Lin Jun to easily concentrate magic power from vast areas at a single point to efficiently generate troops or advanced Puchi units.
But the mycelial clumps in "kelp mode" lacked stable connections between them.
Magic power could certainly be transmitted through the air, but loss increased dramatically—far less efficient than the land network.
Such floating fungal mats could be used to expand sensory vision, but if one hoped they could rapidly spawn armies or become reliable remote magic power sources, that would be wishful thinking.
Of course, one could also lay fungal mat along the seabed like on land.
But this meant abandoning precious sunlight, directly losing more than half the magic power source.
And there were other thorny problems.
Like how to protect one's own fungal mat.
Mycelia rich in magic power were delicacies in the water that everyone loved to eat.
And the quantity of marine life far exceeded what land could compare to.
If investing great effort to maintain it, the gains wouldn't be worth the losses.
And if left unmanaged, allowing free growth, the result would probably be mycelia gnawed full of holes, with most of the painstakingly collected magic power having to be used for self-repair, falling into a futile cycle.
Even wanting to dig tunnels to lay underground networks wasn't easy—burrowing Puchis performed very poorly digging holes in water.
Lin Jun temporarily hadn't thought of a good solution and could only make do with laying it for now.
At present, solving those seafood monsters to complete the old fishman's commission and retrieve that half divine artifact was the primary mission.
...
On the other side, the fishman sage Gulgulu handed over a crude map depicting Tidal Sanctuary's internal structure.
When handing over the map, beside the old fishman stood a young fishman with tight skin and scales gleaming with healthy luster who appeared quite anxious.
Most fishmen, though not as "pure" as Little Black, couldn't be called particularly clever either.
Lin Jun felt this mainly stemmed from lack of education—quite common in tribal societies.
And the fishman tribe's education level was clearly inferior even to those Northern Tribes, so most fishman warriors gave Lin Jun the impression of being dull and straightforward.
This young fishman constantly following beside the sage was very likely being groomed as a successor.
It was one of the few individuals in the fishman tribe whose eyes sparkled with intelligent light.
Seeing the old fishman produce such an important map, it clearly showed worried expression, but after Gulgulu's few low gurgles of reassurance, it ultimately quieted down.
The map was quite crudely drawn, but key information could still be discerned—unknown whether from the old fishman's or that young fishman's hand.
From this map, Lin Jun learned that this dungeon was actually a spherical three-dimensional maze.
Countless passages and rooms of various sizes intricately interwoven together formed this massive spherical dungeon network.
The map marked densely packed secret passages and trap locations—clearly a very treacherous dungeon.
He hadn't noticed before, probably because they had fishman guides.
Gulgulu and its tribe's current hiding place was in the interlayer of the sphere's lower half as shown on the map. Those soulless seafood monsters had invaded from the dungeon entrance at the map's upper portion—from the actual ocean.
Who knew what it looked like outside now.
At the map's center was a massive hollow area without any markings. Lin Jun speculated that might be the dungeon's core location.
Lin Jun didn't covet the core too much—having one dungeon as headquarters was enough. More would wastefully consume his control limit.
However, according to information Divine Tree had revealed, every complete dungeon should possess an attached space.
His own attached space was filled with treasure and hid methods to control the sun stone. So might Tidal Sanctuary's attached space contain records about that [Ocean Scepter]?
Or other secrets and treasures?
Moreover, that space might even be usable as an experimental site for his abyssal magic, saving him the trouble of operating in the Empire.
The space coordinates Divine Tree gave last time were in the north-central Empire, right in Crown Prince Visarius's sphere of influence. Trying to make moves there wouldn't be easy.
Hmm... perhaps he could ask that old Divine Tree geezer again later, see if he knew any methods to bypass the dungeon core and directly enter its attached space?
After Little Pig took the map, she immediately began detailed communication with old fishman Gulgulu, inquiring one by one about the detailed conditions of each area on the map.
The old fishman could mostly provide answers, but the closer to that unmarked massive hollow area at the map's center, the vaguer the information it could provide.
Unclear whether the fishmen truly didn't know or were unwilling to speak in detail.
However, Little Pig didn't mind this.
The goal was to expel the soulless seafood monsters from Tidal Sanctuary. As long as they could recapture the dungeon entrance and hold it, subsequent work would just be methodical cleanup.
Therefore, Little Pig quickly formulated a multi-stage plan—first, intelligence gathering!
Though the old fishman had provided considerable intelligence, it wasn't enough. Little Pig couldn't completely trust the fishmen either—only as reference. Intelligence she personally collected was reliable.
She selected several mixed squads composed of Mycelium Puchi Fortress soldiers, Puchis, and fishman guides.
These squads would split up along several different routes she marked on the map to conduct preliminary reconnaissance. Their main mission was to scout terrain and traps along the way and assess nearby enemy strength and numerical distribution.
Only after collecting sufficient intelligence would she formulate the final general offensive route and specific tactics.
Norris and Ming also chose a route for reconnaissance. Lin Jun also gave them a special mission—capture a few seafood monsters and bring them back.
Though constantly calling them "seafood monsters" or "soulless monsters," these creatures did possess roughly humanoid outlines.
Lin Jun wasn't sure if they could be classified as "humanoid creatures" and planned to capture a few to attempt mycelial parasitism, seeing if they could be controlled.
Should have known better than to randomly use electric arc before...
As for Little Black, she was accompanied by a Puchi fish Lin Jun personally controlled, wandering randomly in the area near the fishmen's hiding place.
Mainly to keep her from staying here.
After arriving in a completely new unfamiliar environment, Little Black's irrepressible curiosity and destructive power had already been fully demonstrated in just this short while.
The surrounding walls had gained several rows of deep claw marks. Even the old fishman's coral throne had been curiously gnawed off a small piece by her.
She even found it didn't taste good and spat it back out.
Old fishman Gulgulu didn't seem to mind this, merely shaking his head gently.
But the fishman warriors around clearly didn't think so—their dissatisfied "glubglubs" rose and fell.
That young fishman constantly attending at the side even glared at Little Black with visible anger, sharp teeth slightly exposed.
Unfortunately, Little Black couldn't read the atmosphere at all and completely ignored them.
...
Just as the reconnaissance squads departed, outside Tidal Sanctuary's entrance in the open ocean, a ship carrying ordinary Puchis and snakefolk mercenaries slowly approached.
(End of Chapter)
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