"Here, your X."
"Good thing X got a XXXX snake, otherwise XX light XX mushroom I XXX."
"Speaking of which, XXXX chirp cut into shreds, XXX very good."
A certain mushroom was conducting its daily surveillance activities.
Having hung 22 humans in the swamp in one go some days ago, plus what he'd learned following Dylan around.
【Human Common Language LV5】
Lin Jun always felt that the characters this skill upgrade taught you weren't arranged by frequency of use, but rather randomly.
In other words, it wasn't impossible that even at Common Language level 9, you still wouldn't recognize the character for "walk."
Quite a pitfall indeed.
Fortunately, the self-taught portions weren't affected.
Now that Dylan had encountered his "good senior," their daily conversation volume had skyrocketed, benefiting Lin Jun immensely.
It was foreseeable that language would soon no longer be a shortcoming.
Similarly, due to the massive losses humans suffered last time, the number of adventurers coming down to the fifth floor had noticeably decreased recently.
Facing high-level adventurers who might appear at any moment, Lin Jun had made considerable preparations.
Besides the routine increase in cannon mushrooms and whip mushrooms, he'd also developed two new defensive-type puffshrooms.
On the dome of the fifth floor, a special self-destructing puffshroom was now gestating.
The puffshroom twisted its body, kicked with its stubby legs, and successfully detached from the mycelium carpet, beginning free fall.
Then it... spread its wings!
More accurately, what looked like wings but was actually a flying squirrel suit.
Getting puffshrooms to truly fly was too difficult—he'd need to construct wing prototypes with bone frameworks, figure out how to obtain feathers, add the strength to flap wings, and also...
While actual flight was impossible, adding "wings" for gliding was relatively much easier.
Dive straight at enemies' faces, then self-destruct!
However, reality differed somewhat from expectations.
The puffshroom struggled to twist its body in midair but never managed to master balance.
Finally, in the chaos, it directly used 【Dive LV3】 and crashed head-first into a mushroom tree's cap, exploding...
Lin Jun hadn't controlled the entire process—after all, in actual combat he certainly wouldn't have the leisure to control each one individually.
But now it seemed that relying on the puffshrooms' own intelligence level wasn't sufficient to complete this descent-from-heaven attack pattern.
Come to think of it, puffshrooms' bodies certainly contained no flight-related instincts.
What a pity. Lin Jun had thought he could have countless self-destructing puffshrooms swarm toward invaders—how magnificent that would have been...
Fortunately, the second type of puffshroom didn't have such high requirements.
【Self-Destruct LV5】+【Mimicry LV4】+【Assault Ejection LV5】
The reason for adding mimicry was that these puffshrooms normally buried themselves in soil, leaving only their color-changed caps on the surface.
A layer of mycelium carpet would be spread on top, making them completely invisible.
But they'd explode as soon as stepped on!
Even if not stepped on directly, once enemies entered the ambush zone, they could all eject from the soil together and self-destruct.
And because only three skills were needed, the magic power consumption was quite low.
Lin Jun planned to deploy many more.
There was also something that could only be considered a hobby.
A puffshroom was spinning in place, its four mycelium tentacles dancing in a circle.
【Blade Storm LV1】
No idea which human had dropped this one.
Currently it had no practical value, but spinning it did look quite intimidating!
Finally, the most important arrangement—escape routes.
In Lin Jun's main body's chamber beneath the swamp.
Countless pathways had been woven from mycelium, extending all the way to five stairwells.
After reaching the swamp's edge, they connected with pre-dug underground tunnels.
This ensured that in case of army annihilation and Little Black's defeat, the knight could use rolling charge to carry the main body in any direction.
As for fighting to the death?
That was impossible.
On the journey from the deep layers to the fifth floor, he'd already done all the desperate fighting he needed to do in this lifetime.
Humans could no longer completely eliminate the mycelium carpet from the first five floors. As long as he didn't die, even temporary failure would allow for quick comeback.
This was just a contingency plan for the worst-case scenario. In reality, Lin Jun had yet to encounter anything that could threaten himself plus Little Black at full power.
Back in the deep layers, even that diamond-level adventurer team that had defeated the Flame Demon couldn't do it.
Of course, if this matter could be minimized, with humans acting as if nothing had happened, that would be best!
---
The aroma of ale lingered in the Golden Sunwood Tavern's main hall. Since the Rotten Willow Tavern had closed, business here had nearly doubled.
"This buttered oyster is really delicious! Vera, you should order some too!"
Having made money on their last trip, the trio finally felt generous enough to spend more on food and lodging.
Feilin was so happy eating that extreme joy led to sorrow—she got food stuck in her teeth.
Seeing this, Vera lowered her head, avoiding the sight of Feilin's embarrassing tooth-picking.
After the Plunderer had knocked out one of Feilin's teeth, due to their financial situation, they'd just left it unrepaired all this time.
Vera silently resolved that after their next dungeon run, she'd return to the city first and find a professional craftsman to help Feilin fix her tooth.
BANG—
The Golden Sunwood Tavern's door was violently pushed open, drawing everyone's attention. The owner looked at the wooden door that had been slammed into the wall, his eyes full of displeasure.
That stumbling figure cast a long shadow under the oil lamps.
"Begon!" His hoarse voice sounded like scraping against stone. "Begon's Steel Heart squad... completely wiped out!"
Like throwing a red-hot iron ball into a water cup, the Golden Sunwood Tavern immediately exploded into chaos.
"Bullshit!" A cat-folk adventurer smashed the wooden mug in his hand, the scar on his furred face twisting with agitation. "That's a damn gold-level team! With over ten silver-levels too, and you're telling me they're all dead?"
This immediately drew agreement: "Yeah, an adventure group of over twenty people, and they weren't even going to the deepest layers. How could they be completely wiped out?"
The messenger wanted to say more but was breathing heavily. A nearby patron proactively offered him a mug of ale.
The man wasn't polite—he tilted his head back and poured it all down, though it was hard to tell whether more went down his throat or spilled out.
Having moistened his throat, he immediately revealed the remaining intelligence:
"An adventurer traded equipment from Gon's squad members at the fifth-floor mushroom merchant, and when they took it to the trading post to sell, someone recognized it.
There's still a crowd gathered there now—go see for yourselves if you don't believe it!"
With this explanation, everyone was mostly convinced. The few who didn't believe all got up and rushed out, planning to see with their own eyes.
All other topics in the tavern vanished at that moment, with everyone discussing Gon's squad and their target, the Great Black Mushroom.
The Golden Sunwood Tavern's prices weren't low, and those who could be regulars here had generally reached silver level or above.
And the Great Black Mushroom's activity range was precisely the fifth and sixth floors.
They couldn't help but pay attention.
After all, if Begon's gold-level squad had been completely wiped out, that meant ninety-nine percent of adventurers would face certain death against the Great Black Mushroom.
Of course, some people thought Begon and his team had died because they'd actively challenged it.
According to these people, they'd also encountered the Great Black Mushroom, dropped a few glass bottles, and safely departed.
The theory about the Great Black Mushroom liking shiny things had been around for a while, and people believed it to a certain extent.
But since it concerned their own lives, no amount of caution was excessive.
"I never imagined Mr. Begon and his team would actually be wiped out."
Feilin "glug-glug-glugged" several mouthfuls of ale before suppressing the fear in her heart.
"Yeah, really unexpected. Four gold-levels alone, yet completely wiped out on the fifth floor..."
Vera's complexion also looked poor, while the silent Feiyin beside them had gone pale.
Among those present, if anyone had received the greatest shock, it was definitely the trio—they had genuinely almost joined that casualty list!
At this moment, all adventurers present, including Vera, unanimously recalled that Adventurers' Guild, whose recent reputation had been rather unreliable.
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