The battle on the sixth floor was still progressing slowly. Although he hadn't yet gained control of the sixth floor, Lin Jun was already beginning to reap some rewards.
[Sin of Greed Triggered]
[Plundered Skill: Neural Toxin LV3→LV4]
[Plundered Skill: Digestive Slime LV6→LV7]
[Plundered Skill: Physical Resistance LV5→LV6]
...
Truth be told, the slime skills from this floor were quite useful.
Neural Toxin was essentially a liquid version of Hallucinogenic Spores—at the same level, its effects were stronger, but it was relatively less convenient to use.
According to Lin Jun's thinking, perhaps it could be used together with Mimicry. When enemies passed by, he could suddenly squirt it in their faces?
Digestive Slime provided a type of corrosive damage, which was excellent for waste disposal.
Things like skeletal remains that the mycelium couldn't decompose, or completely damaged equipment that had lost all value—Lin Jun would toss them all into the slime for breakdown.
Physical Resistance went without saying, though for the most ordinary puffshrooms, it probably wouldn't be much use.
After all, with such low health, even with damage reduction, they'd still die in one hit.
But for elite puffshrooms, it was a different story entirely.
Since Lin Jun had more mana recently, it was time to create a batch of elites that transcended the definition of cannon fodder.
However, this plan was temporarily scheduled for after completing the sixth floor conquest. Conquering the sixth floor was also a major project that consumed mana like flowing water. Even with Lin Jun's current mana production rate, it barely achieved income-expenditure balance.
And besides these skills that relied on Greed upgrades, another skill that depended entirely on Lin Jun's own effort and sweat had finally improved!
[Skill Upgrade: Mycelial Network LV6→LV7]
Truth be told, as one of Lin Jun's core skills, Mycelial Network truly had no shortcuts for improvement—it was all grinding work.
From leaving the deep zone until now, after such a long time, it had finally improved by another level!
What surprised Lin Jun was that after the upgrade, the skill's description in the panel had an additional line: *Can create relay nodes within the mycelial network.*
It seemed to be a derivative function, but what exactly were relay nodes?
When in doubt, experiment!
Lin Jun randomly selected four puffshrooms that were mining, and following his instincts, turned one of them into a relay node.
The puffshroom continued its work, its shelled mushroom cap striking the stone rhythmically, but the rhythm of these four puffshrooms... synchronized?
The other three puffshrooms all synchronized their actions with the one that had become the relay point.
When that puffshroom took a step forward, the other puffshrooms also stepped forward, even if there was a wall ahead.
When that puffshroom struck the stone once, the others also struck, even if there was nothing in front of them.
How did this feel like just a synchronizer?
Completely useless.
Lin Jun thought for a moment, then woke up Little Black, who was sleeping soundly while hugging a glass bead.
Little Black stretched with a yawn and rubbed her eyes, looking listless as she was led out of the mushroom house by a puffshroom's tendrils.
The puffshroom brought her to a small clearing in the mushroom forest, where a large group of puffshrooms stood.
Lin Jun made Little Black a relay point in the mycelial network and assigned a puffshroom under her command.
The effect was immediate.
The puffshroom imitated Little Black, extending its mycelial tendrils forward and rubbing at nonexistent eyes.
Still a synchronizer—this wasn't the result Lin Jun wanted.
"Little Black, stop being confused. Do you feel anything different about yourself?"
"Different?"
Hearing Lin Jun's voice, Little Black managed to muster a bit more energy.
She turned her head and noticed the puffshroom that was copying her.
"What is this?"
Little Black stepped forward two paces, wanting to pick up the puffshroom.
However, the puffshroom, copying her, also walked forward two steps.
...
Little Black broke into a run to chase it, the puffshroom broke into a run to flee, and they synchronized their forward movement one after the other.
In the end, Little Black relied on her advantage of longer legs to catch up with the puffshroom, scooping it up in her arms to study this little creature that had some special connection with her.
Lin Jun watched her research for quite a while, but the puffshroom simply copied Little Black's movements.
Just when Lin Jun thought this really was just a synchronizer, Little Black seemed to find the trick!
Little Black's hands were still holding the puffshroom, but the puffshroom's four mycelial tendrils extended out and twisted together, forming a braid.
What was this?
Little Black then put the puffshroom down. After landing, the puffshroom began swinging its still-unraveled braided appendage and running around Little Black in circles.
Lin Jun was certain he hadn't issued such a command.
"Little Black, are you commanding this puffshroom now?"
"Seems like it!"
Little Black's eyes lit up, sparkling with the excited glow of discovering a new toy.
And Lin Jun finally confirmed the function of this derivative ability.
Simply put, it was outsourcing the work of controlling puffshrooms—the so-called relay nodes were like squad leaders he had appointed.
However, these squad leaders needed a certain level of intelligence.
Having ordinary puffshrooms as squad leaders would turn them into mere synchronizers.
From this perspective, this derivative ability should be quite suitable for Dylan.
Unfortunately, Dylan wasn't currently in the mushroom garden, and scout command authority couldn't be transferred to Dylan either.
The scouts were already so far away that Lin Jun could still control them entirely thanks to the [Minion Control] skill maintaining the connection.
Once control was transferred, [Minion Control] would be severed.
And after it was severed, trying to reconnect?
Sorry, target not within server range, please try again later...
At that point, Dylan would truly have to rely entirely on himself.
While Lin Jun pondered the skill's applications, Little Black had already begun controlling the puffshroom to actively run into her mouth.
Little Black sat motionless while the puffshroom actively rotated to feed her its mushroom cap.
But after eating only one-third of the edge, the puffshroom went "plop" and collapsed on the ground—dead.
Little Black suddenly realized she had lost her remote-control toy, and her mood actually became downcast.
What was all this about? How could she play with something and end up making herself depressed?
Lin Jun assigned two more puffshrooms under Little Black's command. Sensing the connection change, Little Black's attention immediately focused on the new puffshrooms.
The dead one on the ground was instantly forgotten.
But this wasn't over yet—Lin Jun continued transferring more puffshroom command authority to Little Black.
4... 8... 15...
Finally, control authority over all 21 puffshrooms present was given to Little Black.
Lin Jun wanted to see where the limit of transferred control authority lay.
However, Lin Jun's limit for transferring authority was far from being tested, but Little Black's limit emerged first.
After gaining control over numerous puffshrooms, when Little Black tried to stand up, her left foot stepped on her right foot, causing her to fall directly onto a puffshroom and flatten it. Then she bounced on the ground like a fish out of water.
The other puffshrooms either ran about chaotically, rolling all over the ground, or stood motionless in place.
The entire scene became a complete mess.
It only calmed down after Lin Jun reclaimed all control authority.
Little Black shook her head, and as soon as she recovered, she dragged her tail and ran back to hide in the mushroom house on all fours.
It seemed that sensation hadn't been very pleasant.
How could this happen?
Lin Jun could understand that the ability to control puffshrooms was related to intelligence, and that Little Black, being rather dim-witted, couldn't control many.
But this was only about twenty!
Even if she couldn't command them as if they were extensions of her own limbs, she should at least be able to exercise simple control.
How did it end up with her unable to even control her own hands and feet properly?
After thinking about it, perhaps Little Black was too special—after all, she had congenital deficiencies.
It would be good to have someone with normal intelligence to test this.
At times like this, Lin Jun would particularly miss having Dylan by his side. That ordinary man was quite useful...
Speaking of which... what level of intelligence did tree spirits possess?
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