Finding Loopholes
The mushroom path beneath his feet glowed with a faint, deep luminescence, blue-green, stretching all the way to the end of the darkness.
Norris lightened his footsteps, but fine echoes still bounced back from the walls on both sides, swaying back and forth in the empty corridor, dragging out very long.
Norris shrank his neck and subconsciously tucked his hands into his cuffs.
The Boss had called him over suddenly, only saying there was "good stuff."
But having stayed in the Mushroom Garden for so long, how could Norris not know?
The "good stuff" the Boss mentioned was sometimes indeed good stuff, but more often, it was "fun stuff" for the Boss.
As for whether it was friendly to the person receiving this stuff, that depended on luck.
This corridor beneath his feet led to the areas of the underground city that were usually closed off.
The last time he mistakenly wandered into the D-class Paradise and witnessed those... things inside, the memory was still very fresh.
Walking in the quiet corridor at this moment, that little bit of bad premonition in Norris's heart bubbled up faintly, just like the luminescence beneath his feet.
Splash, splash—
Nearing the end of the corridor, the sound of water came from ahead.
It wasn't dripping water; it was someone churning the surface of the water, stroke by stroke, with a very slow rhythm.
A cave with a small lake?
Taking a step forward, his field of vision widened.
Norris stood at the cave entrance, his feet feeling like they were nailed to the ground.
That was indeed a lake, a lake of blood.
Thick red liquid filled the low-lying areas of the entire cave, shimmering with rippling light under the illumination of the glowing mushrooms.
The stench of blood rushed to his face, so intense it was like a battlefield of life-and-death slaughter.
Norris subconsciously pinched his nose, but that smell still drilled into his throat and poured into his lungs, like someone shoving a rusty blade into his nasal cavity.
On the shore, a mountain of meat was piled up.
It wasn't a metaphor; it was a small mountain genuinely built up from giant blocks of meat, some still dripping with residual blood.
Several Mush-kin were splashing around in the blood lake, thoroughly soaked in blood from head to toe, their originally grayish-white fungal bodies now dark red.
They rolled and splashed in the bloody water, using their tentacles to splash the thick liquid at each other, kicking up scarlet blooms of water.
The mycelial network was full of their chirping laughter.
Norris stood with his mouth agape, unable to spit out a single word.
Just as he froze in place, his mind a complete blank, a tall figure stood up in the center of the blood lake.
Blood slid down Louisa's shoulders, arms, and back, trailing dark red tracks across her pale skin.
Her hair was completely soaked, plastered to the sides of her cheeks, with beads of blood still dripping from the tips.
She tilted her head back, her eyes blurred, as if she hadn't yet recovered from the intoxication brought on by that thick liquid.
She scooped up a handful of blood, brought it to her lips, and slowly drank it down, the sound of her swallowing echoing in the empty cave.
"Ah—" She let out a long breath, her voice carrying a certain satisfaction, "Blood full of power..."
Saying this, she filled a jar with some of it, planning to take it back to feed the statue at home.
Her scarlet eyes turned over, landing on that stiff figure at the cave entrance. The corners of her mouth slowly split open into a grin, revealing bloodstained fangs.
"You're here, Norris. What are you still standing there in a daze for? Come down and soak in the dragon blood."
[Bathe in Dragon Blood (All attributes increased by 10%)]
After Norris, core members like the werewolf Karen, the Mush-kin Shou, Spark, Qiong, and Idin also took turns soaking.
Only the little elf Riel and the Pink Puchi couldn't stand bathing in blood and refused. Lin Jun didn't force them either.
The dragon blood looked like a large lake, but acquiring the [Bathe in Dragon Blood] effect absorbed the power within it. Therefore, after one round of soaking, although the blood remained, the power within had still been mostly absorbed.
This time, "boosting" the [Path of the Ancient Dragon] was proven to be very inefficient, but Lin Jun hadn't worked for nothing.
Unlike last time when he blasted one into slag with a cannon, capturing a giant dragon alive this time meant that this entire body of treasures wasn't wasted at all!
Bathing in dragon blood could add buffs. Although the hardness of dragon scales and claws decreased after the giant dragon died, they were still top-tier forging materials. They could be sent to the forging factory; those dwarven master craftsmen would surely be quite interested in these legendary-tier materials.
Dragon horns were also good materials, but Lin Jun didn't plan to use them. Instead, he would add them to the Marshal Puchi statue in the plaza.
As for the dragon meat... the non-poisonous parts could be taken to the Mushroom Fortress's official canteens.
Dragon meat was a good gimmick; it would presumably recoup quite a few contribution points.
As for Little Black, after the [Path of the Ancient Dragon] increased by 1% again, her attributes indeed increased along with it.
If the progress was stacked full, it was unknown whether she could become an Ancient Dragon, but Little Black would absolutely possess the strongest attributes of the same tier.
Unfortunately, let alone whether there were another 89 silly dragons that would fall for the Peerless Flavor Mushroom trap, just the production efficiency of the Peerless Flavor Mushrooms made it unlikely to feed Little Black to 100% progress before the other dragons finished their slaughtering.
Looking at it now, to push the [Path of the Ancient Dragon] progress, he still had to rely on actual, solid combat!
However, this didn't mean Lin Jun was out of ideas for the [Path of the Ancient Dragon].
Since the foundation of this world was digitized, then according to Lin Jun's guess, behind the progress of the [Path of the Ancient Dragon], there should exist a calculation formula similar to a kill contribution percentage. The more effort put in, the more progress pushed forward.
In that case, could he have Little Black challenge a dragon multiple times until she killed it?
Although the dragonewt Little Black was inferior to those giant dragons in attributes, the gap between the two sides hadn't reached the level of heaven and earth. At the very least, she could break their defenses.
After a round of combat, Little Black would retreat to fully replenish her status. Meanwhile, the giant dragon would be suppressed by Giant Puchis—not injuring it, but also not allowing it to recover.
Afterward, Little Black would continue the battle from that progress. By repeating this until the dragon was killed, could they bypass the penalty for "boosting"?
For an Ancient Dragon of his own, this was clearly worth a try.
But this would require more preparation work.
A sealed gladiatorial arena that even a giant dragon couldn't easily escape; a Puchi team capable of suppressing the giant dragon while Little Black rested; and backup measures in case the giant dragon broke free...
After thinking about it, the underground ruins of the Northern Territory seemed quite suitable, as long as they were reinforced a bit more.
The dragon struggle waits for no mushroom. Under Lin Jun's will, the Mushroom Fortress craftsmen stopped their original work and joined the project of modifying the ruins.
While Lin Jun was breaking his heart worrying over Little Black, the other various factions also encountered different degrees of dragon disasters.
The dwarves had to temporarily halt their offensive, giving Levi a slight breathing space.
The first time humanity's new defensive line was put to use, the opponent wasn't the Demon-kin, but a giant dragon.
The Empire's Emperor still turned a deaf ear to places other than Dragon Cliff and Duskfall Keep, causing dissatisfaction to grow daily in the hearts of some Dukes.
And out on the ocean...
Countless Keith floated on the surface of the sea, dyeing the entire sea region purple.
However, in the center of this purple sea, that blue dragon which had slaughtered countless bugs was currently being tightly entangled by two massive Tentacle Tooth Beasts, half of its dragon body submerged into the ocean.
High in the sky, there were also three Evil Eyes continuously casting petrification on the blue dragon. Although the effect was minimal, it somewhat affected its movements.
The blue dragon futilely spewed out its final breath of Lightning Dragon Breath. After blasting two octopus tentacles of one Tentacle Tooth Beast into mush, it finally exhausted its strength and was dragged into the sea. Following a string of bubbles, there was no more sound.
(End of Chapter)
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