The Mycelium Puchi Fortress soldiers deployed reconnaissance operations in five-person squads.
Compared to those regular squads dragging along hundreds of various Puchis creating a massive dark mass in the water, Norris's team composition was much more streamlined.
The team consisted only of Ming, Norris, a fishman guide responsible for leading the way, and following at the rear, a specially modified "Super Puchi Naval Combat Version" adapted for the underwater environment.
Of course, there were also the essential oxygen-supplying Puchis.
Unlike those half-demon soldiers with innate underwater survival capabilities, though Norris and Ming had been granted [Underwater Adaptation LV7], they still needed to periodically replenish oxygen.
This ability modified their skin structure, enabling them to extract oxygen directly from water, but when active, the absorption rate couldn't keep up with consumption.
While stationary, they could remain underwater for long periods. Once swimming, they needed to use oxygen-supplying Puchis to replenish roughly every hour.
If conflict erupted, this interval would sharply decrease.
Norris grabbed a soft tentacle offered by an oxygen Puchi and took a deep breath of the oxygen-rich moist air, deflating the round, plump oxygen Puchi slightly—though the Puchi would automatically replenish oxygen from the environment, so no problem.
Then Norris passed the tentacle to Ming behind him. Their mission was to traverse the winding, meandering corridor before them and inspect an area at the end marked as "Altar Room."
That place was a convergence point of several passages with high probability of encountering enemies.
This was a route that didn't require navigating secret passages, specially arranged by Louisa considering the super Puchi's size and the mission Boss had given Norris.
The corridor was long, its stone walls on both sides covered with reliefs and murals eroded by seawater until blurred.
Initially Norris found it novel, but after seeing enough, it was just that—he discovered nothing profound.
So his attention naturally shifted to his partner for this mission—Ming.
As the first mushroomkin to successfully be born with Boss's help, Ming had considerable renown within the tribe.
At least when Norris chatted privately with Dome, the other would occasionally mention this fellow tribesman who was taken away by Boss for personal cultivation shortly after birth and was rarely seen.
After Ming, the mushroomkin had held several more birth ceremonies, but none had drawn Lin Jun's sustained attention like Ming had.
The mushroomkin had two theories about this. Some believed "the first" held special significance—Boss taking Ming away symbolized formal acceptance of the mushroomkin tribe.
Others speculated that the sacrifice used in that birth ceremony was exceptionally powerful, granting Ming extraordinary potential worth individual cultivation.
However, most mushroomkin leaned toward the former explanation.
As the earliest tribe to join the Mushroom Garden and pledge loyalty, the mushroomkin had a different status from newcomer fungal citizens who joined later in "alliance" form.
New fungal citizens and those captives could choose to leave the Northern Territory after meeting requirements—Boss didn't restrict this.
But for mushroomkin, there was no option to depart.
Of course, with life now stable and prosperous, they'd never considered leaving.
But this distinction meant Boss opened more of the Mushroom Garden's secrets to them.
For example, skill bestowal.
Ordinary fungal citizens only knew that after symbiosis with mycelia they naturally gained [Cold Resistance], treating it merely as a characteristic of the mycelia.
But the mushroomkin knew clearly that Boss had the ability to directly add specific skills for them.
As long as they accumulated enough contribution points, they could exchange for desired abilities. This made them true elites within Mycelium Puchi Fortress, with few rivals at the same tier.
Based on this understanding, they didn't believe the magic patterns inherited through the birth ceremony could provide Ming much advantage.
Before Boss's near-creator-like abilities, the magic patterns the mushroomkin once took pride in seemed less important.
Therefore, everyone preferred to believe this was a special gesture of acceptance and recognition Boss showed toward the mushroomkin as "one of us."
Whenever Dome discussed this point, he would sigh about Boss's attentiveness and consideration, doing this deliberately to put them at ease.
"Considerate Boss"—this description always sounded somewhat subtle to Norris's ears, but he couldn't really refute it.
However, curiosity about Ming had gradually accumulated through these intermittent chats.
Unfortunately, though both core members, the two didn't interact much.
Norris had only learned from the Mushroom Garden's alchemy supervisor, the small fairy Riel, that Ming seemed to have a dedicated training ground with sparring partners—indeed looking very valued by Boss.
This rare opportunity—
"Ming, what do you usually do?" Norris smiled and started the conversation.
Ming, who was sucking on a tentacle, didn't think much and honestly answered: "Arena death matches!"
Norris felt like he'd just heard something incredible.
"Death matches?"
"Yeah, I beat those enemies to death."
Good thing they were in water, otherwise Norris would already be sweating.
"I see, a very... special training method. What about when you're not training?"
"Eating, drinking potions, sleeping."
Is your life missing something?
Looking at Ming who clearly didn't think anything was wrong, Norris secretly decided that if he ever had offspring, he definitely wouldn't let Boss raise them.
"So... what kind of enemies can you handle now? I can save suitable enemies for you." Norris worked hard to maintain the image of a reliable senior.
"Three or four ordinary gold-level, or dozens of silver-level I guess. Before departing, I wanted to challenge a complete gold-level squad, but didn't have time before signing up to come here."
Norris's brain took two seconds to process this sentence—what was this kid under one year old saying?
What did he mean by wanting to challenge a complete gold-level squad?
You know, he himself was only LV43 now—just gold level.
Without relying on the super Puchi, depending on his skill combination advantages, he might manage a few same-tier opponents, but facing a complete gold-level squad with good coordination and full professions would still be very dangerous.
If Ming wasn't boasting... didn't that mean his actual combat ability already matched or even... exceeded his own without the super Puchi?!
Wait, the super Puchi!
Norris seemed to instantly grasp the key point.
That's right, it must be!
"Ming, so you can also control a super Puchi!" Norris's tone suddenly filled with confidence. "Then why didn't you bring your own super Puchi? I can teach you some practical techniques I've figured out. I guarantee after learning them, handling gold-level squads will be easy!"
"Brother Norris," Ming's expression became somewhat dejected, "I don't have the talent to control super Puchis. I can only control twenty-three Puchis at most simultaneously, and... I can't give different detailed commands to different Puchis at the same time."
"Then how do you fight gold squads? What level are you now?" Norris was even more confused.
"Level thirty-six. As for fighting... I just fight like this." Ming said, naturally swinging his fist that didn't look particularly thick.
Norris instinctively leaned back slightly.
So this kid wasn't even a year old yet, his level was already close to his own, and actual combat ability might even be higher?
How was this achieved?!
For a moment, Norris didn't know whether he should first comfort Ming for being dejected about being unable to pilot the super Puchi, or first pick up his slightly shattered senior dignity.
"Glub!"
The fishman guide suddenly issued a warning.
Norris immediately focused his mind, all distracting thoughts suppressed.
[Vibration Perception]
The perception feedback came—ahead was the target "Altar Room," and it was indeed occupied by enemies, and... quite a number of them!
(End of Chapter)
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