"Fungus Lord, I was wrong! I was wrong! Little Green, help — doo doo doo doo—"
Some time later, a few Puchis released their tentacles and set down the half of No. 1 who had forgotten to bring a recording crystal to the secret room. The other half of No. 1 was distributed across Little Green's bark, here and there.
Little Green sunned herself in the light, completely still, like an ordinary enormous tree.
Done dealing with the useless No. 1, Lin Jun turned his attention to the treants.
With the help of the Sacred Tree's secret cultivation formula, the treants had shed whatever growth limits had held them back before. The shortest among them now stood at least thirty to forty meters tall, and the well-grown ones reached over sixty meters.
Of course, they also had the universal flaw of giant creatures — they were slow.
So far, the only enormous beings who were also agile were the great dragons.
Compared to the giant Puchis, the treants had an advantage in raw strength. Giant Puchis were mainly good as self-destructing meat shields, and when they did brawl, they relied on swinging their tentacles — dealing damage through mass and momentum — whereas these giant treants could actually pulverize the ground with a single blow.
They had their weaknesses too, of course.
The relationship between mycelium and treants was genuine symbiosis — and while they were connected to the mycelial network, the fact that they weren't flesh-and-blood creatures meant skills couldn't be imparted to them.
So the treants were left with only their native abilities.
Their biggest weakness was [Mana Storage].
Moving a body that enormous required enormous mana, the same way the migrant trees in the Sacred Tree Dungeon moved periodically rather than running around at all times. Their low-level [Mana Storage] meant they needed long rest periods before they could move again. The mycelium living on the treants helped shorten their recharge time to some extent — but still not to the level of the giant Puchis, who had maxed-out [Mana Storage] plus the fungal mat's fast-charge and could move without restriction.
Still, Lin Jun had never planned on using these giant treants as combat units. He had a different role in mind for them: mobile signal relay stations.
The treants had a dense layer of mycelium symbiont living beneath their bark. Peeled off and laid flat, it would function as a working fungal mat. Lin Jun's fungal mats could maintain a signal even when not connected to each other — just with increasing delay as the gap widened. If he positioned one treant every kilometer to stand by in place, he could lay a temporary signal channel through any area with no fungal mat coverage.
The latency would be alarming, but still better than complete silence.
If they ever advanced on the Empire, the Demon King — with his evil slimes consuming fungal mats — would never let Lin Jun blanket unoccupied territory with mycelium. Fighting without mat coverage would be an unavoidable challenge for the Mushroom Fortress, and that's when these giant treants would earn their keep.
After reviewing the treants' growth, Lin Jun squeezed out another batch of A-rank magic crystals from the stockroom and handed them to Little Green — even amid the current shortage from purchasing dragons from the dwarves.
---
Meanwhile, in the Elf Parliament.
The parliament's dome was woven from the vines of thousand-year-old ancient trees. Dappled light filtered through the leaves and fell across the ring of stone seats like scattered gold. Delegates settled in one by one, robes rustling, a few exchanging quiet words with familiar faces.
Eko walked in through the side door, his long hair loosely tied back with a vine, his head conspicuously free of its usual round permanent resident.
"Lord Eko," Salian, seated beside him, leaned slightly toward him and swept a glance across his empty head. "How come you didn't bring the mushroom folk today?"
"No idea — No. 1 might have gone off to play with the treants again. Honestly fine by me." Eko said, touching his own head. "Letting it sit there all the time, I feel like I've been losing hair."
A few elves nearby reacted — some with a quiet laugh, some with a gentle shake of the head.
But the noise died down quickly. Elf Queen Galadriel had arrived.
She wore the traditional deep-green robes of the Elf Queen, the high collar framing her long neck elegantly. A thin, gossamer cape in pale jade was draped over her shoulders, rippling with a wavelike shimmer as she moved.
Even so, that whole dignified, stately ensemble failed to keep every eye from drifting downward.
Down to the strap tied around her wrist.
It was a slender, resilient band, faintly silver-grey, runes shifting faintly across its surface. One end was fastened tight against the queen's pale wrist; the other disappeared out through the door.
Eko narrowed his eyes. He recognized it — the same type of restraint tool issued to his forest rangers, just a considerably higher-grade version.
A binding tool meant for prisoners had no business appearing here. The other elves in the chamber noticed it too, aside from Eko. Some leaned toward neighbors to whisper. Some frowned slightly. Most eyes drifted to the doorway, curious what the strap was connected to.
Then they saw a Puchi being dragged inside.
Puchis were everywhere in the Elven Forest these days.
The elves had encountered all sorts of mutant Puchis. But one this unusual — they had genuinely never seen before.
---
The Puchi's silhouette was lumpy and uneven. The pattern on its mushroom cap was a jumbled mess.
Eko even noticed that one of the Puchi's two little feet was pointing the wrong direction. A Puchi's feet were round — if Eko hadn't been carrying No. 1 on his head so often, he probably wouldn't have caught it.
It looked exactly as though it had been sliced apart and then forcibly glued back together with slime.
If it hadn't twitched occasionally, the elves would have thought it was dead.
Galadriel held the strap and dragged the Picasso Puchi all the way to her feet, then proceeded to discuss the topic of establishing formal relations with the Mushroom Fortress as if nothing unusual was happening. Several elves were so preoccupied that some seemed barely focused during the discussion.
When the session ended, Galadriel dragged the strange Puchi away, never explaining herself to anyone from start to finish. After she left, the others began comparing notes.
The Sword Saint had underestimated the revival ability of the Puchi body. How did it still function no matter how randomly it was reassembled?!
Galadriel wasn't taking any chances. Terrified the Sword Saint would find an opening to escape, she dragged him everywhere — even to meetings — stopping just short of bringing him to the bathroom.
"Galadriel. Enough. This serves no purpose."
The Elf Queen held the Sword Saint Puchi up to eye level. "What serves no purpose?"
Airaven moved his two mismatched little feet. "I'm a mushroom now. There's no future for us."
"Who said I still want you as a partner?" Galadriel dropped him to the floor, tightened the strap, and looked down at him from above. "From now on you're my pet. That's the punishment a liar like you deserves."
A few seconds of silence. Then the Sword Saint wrenched free of the restraint and bolted.
[Moontread]!
One moonlight image surged forward, one backward — splitting apart in a full split.
There was no time for the Sword Saint to wonder what had happened. With a tearing sound, his already unstable mushroom body was ripped apart.
Galadriel looked at the half-torn Sword Saint corpse on the floor. This time she wasn't in a rush to put him back together. She needed to go find a more reliable rope first.
(End of Chapter)
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