[Pinnacle of the Sword]... a level-less skill, but it was just so-so!
Lin Jun had now, through his own hard work and sweat, trained up a level-less skill that completely belonged to him!
Unfortunately, after calling Norris and Cullen over, Lin Jun found that [Peerless Flavor] seemed a bit different from what he had imagined.
Regrettably, the two couldn't become the first batch of little... lucky ones to taste the Peerless Flavor.
In a certain cavern of the Mushroom Garden, a tiny cyan mushroom grew right in the center.
It looked just like an ordinary, not-yet-fully-grown hallucinogenic mushroom.
However, if someone with the [Mana Perception] skill stood here, they would see endless mana converging from all directions through the fungal mat, continuously pouring into this tiny mushroom.
One must know, with such a massive mana supply, even if it were growing Delicious Mushrooms, they would grow out of the fungal mat huala huala like pouring beans.
Yet this tiny mushroom was like a bottomless pit. It accepted all of this massive mana without question, but its growth margin was almost imperceptible.
Lin Jun didn't know if this Peerless Flavor mushroom would be delicious in the end, but with such a dense amount of mana, Little Black would definitely love it.
The skill [Peerless Flavor] similarly possessed uniqueness. Lin Jun could install it onto a Puchi, just like [Source Essence of Life].
But he didn't even know how much mana was needed to produce such a tiny mushroom; how much mana a Puchi's body size would need was even more unknown.
Anyway, let's just grow one normally first and see how long it takes to feed it to maturity.
To be honest, looking at this Peerless Flavor mushroom, Lin Jun always had a feeling of déjà vu, like a heavenly material or earthly treasure absorbing the essence of the sun and moon, taking a thousand years to bear fruit.
Lin Jun didn't know if any plant in history had ever obtained [Peerless Flavor].
But judging by the amount of mana it required to bear fruit, if it weren't for Lin Jun's massive fungal mat providing mana, could an ordinary plant truly survive long enough to bear the fruit?
Mm... probably only that old geezer the Divine Tree has a chance.
Carefully sealing off the cavern to prevent D-class personnel from accidentally wandering in while playing hide-and-seek, Lin Jun estimated that just this single Peerless Flavor mushroom would require the combined mana of the entire Puchi Dungeon and a portion from the Mushroom Fortress side, supplying it for seven to ten days.
He only hoped the effect after it matured wouldn't disappoint him.
...
Northern Territory, middle section.
After the Empire temporarily retreated previously, Little Pig, who had long known the opponent would make a comeback, directed the army to set up defenses along the Luo River.
The reason for choosing this place was mainly because of this river.
Over by the sea, due to the Chisi intentionally avoiding them, the Puchis' Sea Fungus had never found a real opponent to test their strength. This opportunity was just right.
Now, beneath the calm river water, countless bizarrely-shaped marine Puchis were waiting for their first batch of guests.
And in the camp built along the riverbank, apart from the soldiers of the Mushroom Fortress, there were also many dwarven figures.
However, the forces on both sides were distinctly separated.
On the Mushroom Fortress side, various races were mixed together; while on the dwarven side, besides the dwarves, there were only figures of Heating Puchis.
The camping styles on both sides were also completely different.
The Mushroom Fortress side consisted of large and small, colorful, low mushroom house camps. Everywhere in the camp were underground networks for Puchis and soldiers to drill into and transfer.
On the dwarven side, calling it a miniature fortress wouldn't be an exaggeration.
Which was superior was hard to say, but purely in terms of construction capabilities, the dwarves were indeed much more outstanding than the Mushroom Fortress.
Although the dwarves had agreed to the request for aid, they obviously still didn't quite believe in the Mushroom Fortress's strength.
After all, according to their intelligence, the Mushroom Fortress had entirely relied on a massive number of Puchis going to their deaths to drag out the Empire's previous attack.
The one responsible for commanding the dwarven reinforcements this time was actually an acquaintance—General Duwalin.
When Inanna went as an envoy, he was the one responsible for attacking the Molten Dungeon. Lin Jun's impression of him was that he played by the rules.
General Duwalin was good at commanding battles, but his personal strength wasn't considered strong. Therefore, this time the dwarves also sent Bador along with him.
He was also the only dwarf who would carelessly run over to the Mushroom Fortress camp to ask for Delicious Mushrooms.
Unfortunately, no matter how many Delicious Mushrooms he ate, he could never again savor a taste like No. 4's tentacle.
"Of course, of course. All intelligence will be sent to your esteemed unit immediately, please do not worry."
Sending off the slightly arrogant dwarven staff officer, Louisa put away the smile on her face, coldly watching the dwarven camp in the distance.
She clearly knew what the Boss meant by bringing in dwarven reinforcements.
One was to drag the dwarves down into the muddy water to share more of the pressure that might come later; the other was to let as many of them as possible be parasitized by mycelium.
No schemes or tricks were needed; they just needed to provide these allies with the best medical support.
Louisa was very curious: when the fungal mat spread across the Mountains and most dwarves were connected to the mycelial network, would these dwarves still speak to her in the tone of ordering a servant around?
Reining in these minor thoughts, Louisa's attention returned to serious matters.
According to intelligence, due to Eugene pulling in aid from all over, the Empire army organized this time was significantly stronger than the Mushroom Fortress had initially estimated. It was estimated there was no shortage of experts among them either.
Therefore, Louisa also decided to appropriately elevate the overall strength of the Puchis under her command.
After all, playing the pig to eat the tiger was a technical job. If not done well, one might truly become a pig.
Louisa didn't want to appear so incompetent even with the Boss's full support.
Thus, batches of Puchis were strengthened, and some were even re-equipped with [Combat Intuition].
The only problem was...
As Louisa collected information from various units through the fungal mat, the speed of upgrading the Puchis was much slower than she expected.
The new batch of flying Puchis she had applied for earlier, which the Boss had approved, hadn't even grown out up to now.
This didn't quite match her impression of the Mushroom Fortress's production capacity.
She euphemistically asked the Boss and received the reply:
"There are important projects on this side too... The difficulties are only temporary... The Empire hasn't arrived yet... Wait until the Empire comes..."
In short, he couldn't attend to it temporarily.
Louisa tapped her finger lightly on the table; it seemed she had to figure out a way herself.
Just as she was pondering how to use the Sea Fungus to deal a ruthless blow to the Empire army—weakening them as much as possible—an intelligence agent responsible for the Empire side delivered intelligence regarding a portion of the reinforcements Eugene had brought in.
Louisa took it and flipped through it.
Prince Vesalius sent two Palace-tier blood kin—that old thing was actually willing to part with them. She didn't know what price Eugene had paid.
A troll unit from Veralise—those thick-skinned, fleshy things were slightly troublesome.
Duke Levi of the vampires might have dispatched the assassins under his command (questionable)—even if it were true, it didn't matter; the Mushroom Fortress was never afraid of spies or assassins.
She flipped through page by page, until the final page.
Under Duchess Elinore's command, newly promoted Palace-tier, Yvette.
Louisa's movements paused.
Her scarlet eyes stared at that name, staring for a long time.
After a long while, Little Pig licked the corner of her mouth with some amusement: "Already Palace-tier, huh? As expected of my good sister..."
(End of Chapter)
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