Faced with the incoming fire mosquitoes, Lin Jun, who had been their neighbor for quite some time, wasn't panicked in the slightest.
He waited until they flew within a 50-meter range before several Slime Pujis spat out digestive mucus, catching the unsuspecting fire mosquitoes completely off guard and bringing them all crashing down.
The fire mosquitoes that hit the ground still tried to shake off the mucus coating their bodies and take flight again, but as the Hallucination Pujis spewed their bewildering mist to envelop them, these creatures completely lost their ability to resist and were crushed to death one by one by the Hallucination Pujis' shells.
But it wasn't over yet. More fire mosquitoes swarmed in, and Lin Jun engaged in a frenzied, meat-grinder battle with the fire mosquitoes right at this tunnel entrance.
Facing fire mosquitoes that outnumbered his forces several times over, even though the hallucinogenic spores had sealed off the space below and limited the fire mosquitoes' attack directions, Lin Jun couldn't intercept all enemies with just mucus alone.
From time to time, fire mosquitoes would break through the defensive fire net, stabbing down with their mosquito proboscis to pierce through a Puji, only to be paralyzed themselves by the hallucinogenic spores on the ground.
"Ice Blade! Ice Blade! Water Snake Technique!"
Inanna finally had some good news on her end—she had finally killed several fire mosquitoes!
With fire mosquitoes filling the sky, even attacking with eyes closed would hit something. Now the fire mosquitoes' evasion skills had become almost useless in this scenario.
Casting spells to kill magical beasts in real combat for the first time made her so excited she actually laughed out loud. Compared to this, the hunts she had participated in before really couldn't be called battles.
But this excitement ended there. A mosquito that broke through the defensive net stabbed one of the Cannon Pujis beside Inanna to death with its proboscis, instantly making her shudder.
If that fire mosquito had charged at her instead...
"Lin Jun! What do we do now? So many Pujis have died!"
Only a dozen or so Pujis dead—this was nothing at all!
A certain someone whose main body was still hidden deep in the mushroom garden sighed inwardly at the recruit's insufficient psychological fortitude.
Still, Lin Jun offered his suggestion:
"Stop using attack magic and use Illumination instead."
Illumination?
What use could that have?
Inanna couldn't figure it out, but remembering she had agreed to follow orders, she cast Illumination anyway. The spell had pretty low consumption, after all.
To Inanna's surprise, as soon as the Illumination spell appeared, the fire mosquito swarm immediately fell into chaos.
The mosquitoes in the front row started flying around like headless flies. Some crashed into other fire mosquitoes behind them, while others simply dove headfirst into the hallucinogenic mist below.
Inanna was completely stunned.
"It really works!" Lin Jun was amazed too.
"Eh? You didn't know it would work originally?"
"I just didn't expect the effect to be this good... Quick, turn it off and cast it again!"
"Okay!"
The deep areas were perpetually dark or had only dim light. Seeing that the fire mosquitoes still had eyes, Lin Jun wanted to try the flashbang tactic, though he hadn't expected it to be this effective.
This was when the superiority of mushrooms not relying on eyesight for observation really showed.
With the Illumination spell's assistance, the fire mosquitoes, who were already no match, became even weaker, falling down in batches.
When the fire mosquitoes' numbers could no longer surround the tunnel entrance completely, these nearly brainless magical creatures seemed to finally remember the taste of fear and scattered, disappearing into other tunnels.
Left behind were the empty fire mosquito cavern and the high-temperature water pool full of larvae.
"Finally... it's over."
Inanna plopped down on the ground.
Even though they had maintained the advantage throughout, having cast several attack spells in succession and then using over twenty Illumination spells in one go, Inanna felt truly exhausted, with very little magical power remaining.
Though her body was tired, having personally participated in this kind of "major scene" for the first time, Inanna was still in an excited state.
"Lin Jun, what do we do next?"
"Next? Next, we naturally collect our spoils of war!"
The 20 Pack Mule Pujis who had been at the back of the formation without participating in combat began their work—using their tentacles to package the fire mosquito corpses into their bodies.
The numbers were about what he had estimated. The Pack Mule Pujis would need to make two trips, and by the time Lin Jun finished decomposing these fire mosquitoes, his Heat Resistance should level up again.
As for this fire mosquito cavern, Lin Jun didn't consider expanding the mushroom garden here.
This cavern was connected to too many tunnels—it was like a maze, impossible to defend.
The mushroom garden was territory Lin Jun had carefully selected, with only four tunnels on one side, particularly suitable for hiding and developing.
As for the white fire mosquito larvae in the water pool, after Lin Jun had the Cannon Pujis fire all their remaining magical power at the pool, they turned into debris floating on the water surface.
"These are the spoils of war?"
Looking at the mosquito corpses being transported, Inanna felt there was a tiny bit of difference from the spoils of war she had imagined.
"What else? Miss Duke's daughter, what kind of spoils did you expect from subjugating some magical beasts?"
It's not like you could split open their bellies and have swords and gold coins drop out...
"Wait, actually, maybe. There might be some good stuff in that water pool."
"The water pool?"
The pool with floating chunks of meat was still steaming, but what exactly was heating it?
Underground magma?
Unlikely. The place where the flame demons lived wasn't close at all, and the surrounding environment wasn't hot either.
Lin Jun figured there was probably something inside that could continuously generate heat.
But now there was a problem—
He couldn't swim.
While the Pujis wouldn't dissolve on contact with water, after soaking they would only become bloated and float motionless on the surface.
These fire mosquito larvae did have the [Underwater Adaptation] skill, but that would require taking them back for decomposition, acquiring the skill, and then creating new varieties of Pujis to handle it.
While Lin Jun was still thinking of solutions, Inanna had already dove headfirst into the pool to look for treasure.
Only then did Lin Jun remember she had LV6 Underwater Adaptation.
Second-generation characters were just awesome...
"Lin Jun! Look what I found!"
Inanna climbed out of the pool, her Water Snake Technique carrying a fragment that glowed orange behind her, constantly radiating heat and evaporating the surrounding moisture.
The Water Snake Technique couldn't hold it for long, so Inanna tossed the fragment onto the ground beside the pool.
"Do you know what this is?"
Lin Jun originally didn't know, but this thing actually had a status panel?!
You have to understand that Lin Jun had never seen a status panel on inanimate objects before!
[Divine Artifact: Sunstone (Fragment)]
???
What the hell? Fighting a group of LV20 mosquitoes could drop divine artifacts? Wasn't this monster drop system poorly designed?
Besides the name, there was no other description. Was it because it was just a fragment?
In any case, taking it back for research couldn't be wrong.
"Lin Jun?"
"Uh, how would I know? But it looks somewhat useful—we can take it back to keep the mushrooms warm."
A Pack Mule Puji wrapped the fragment in mud to form a large ball and carried it away. Inanna had no objections. She was originally here working for that A-grade magic crystal, so naturally all the spoils belonged to Lin Jun. She was just curious.
While Lin Jun and Inanna were happily conducting their grand expedition, another group of people on the surface were racking their brains over Inanna.
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