It was perfectly normal for tree demons to occasionally get killed. Even though tree demons were considered strong on this floor, the dungeon never lacked for accidents.
But the culprit responsible for killing this particular tree demon made Lin Jun exclaim in shock!
What a huge flower bud!
What a huge flower demon!
So big!
Of course, Lin Jun had long transcended worldly desires and harbored no such vulgar thoughts—he was simply marveling at the sight.
Come to think of it, flower demons growing their pistils to resemble human upper bodies was originally meant to lure humans, right? But this kind of mimicry was outdated now. Which modern adventurer would still fall for such tricks?
Moreover, though flower demons looked like humans, they actually lacked higher intelligence. Whether they made sounds resembling speech or performed various human-like expressions and movements, it was all just hunting behavior—essentially no different from a Venus flytrap secreting nectar to attract flies.
Still... this flower demon was really huge!
The deep purple corolla base filled the entire small basin, looking as if it was so heavy it had pressed the surrounding earth down. The tree demon, which was taller than humans, looked like a toy in front of it.
Who knew how that tree demon had provoked it—now it had been flattened by the flower demon's stems and leaves, reduced to waste lumber.
If the tree demon's corpse could still be considered intact after being smacked, the puffshrooms that had gone with it were in a much worse state. They were splattered across the ground, barely scrapeable, with only one that had stood far away surviving as the lone witness.
Lin Jun had no intention of seeking revenge. Though this oversized flower demon was quite a curiosity, it held no special value for him. After all, Lin Jun wasn't coveting its materials—it made for a nice feature of the sixth floor.
The tree demon's corpse was more valuable—the Plant Affinity skill!
Rarely did one find a naturally deceased tree demon. He needed to bring it back to the fifth floor for proper burial.
But for this kind of task, he couldn't ask other tree demons for help—he could only rely on puffshrooms.
Soon, a motley crew of puffshrooms came rushing down from the fifth floor. Since this was a hastily assembled group, there were all types of puffshrooms present.
Cannon-shrooms, whip-shrooms, pack-mule-shrooms, bomb-shrooms, big black mushrooms...
???
"Little Black? What are you doing here?"
"Following the puffshrooms!"
So she was just here to watch the excitement.
Well, if she wants to follow, let her follow.
To be safe, Lin Jun still gave her a warning: "Just watch from the sidelines, don't cause trouble!"
"Mm!"
The puffshrooms marched toward the giant flower demon in great numbers. Without the tree demon to clear the path, quite a few puffshrooms were attacked by various plants along the way.
Lin Jun didn't intervene. Plant-types had the issue of slow digestion—feeding them some puffshrooms along the way would keep them busy digesting for most of the day, naturally neutralizing all threats.
At first, Little Black would tear apart any plants that grabbed puffshrooms, but she quickly realized she'd fall behind the main force, so she stopped bothering.
By the time they reached the edge of the small basin, over forty puffshrooms remained. Now only the final challenge remained—retrieving the tree demon's corpse.
Lin Jun planned to use his old method: create a diversion.
First send down a few decoys, and when it attacks the bait, the pack-mule puffshrooms would drag the tree demon's body up.
Simple tactics always worked well against these brainless monsters.
Suddenly surrounded by a bunch of puffshrooms from afar, the flower demon seemed somewhat agitated.
Roots suddenly burst from underground, impaling a puffshroom standing outside the basin.
What the hell?
Wasn't that outside its attack range?
Soon, more root stems emerged, skewering puffshrooms one by one.
Damn!
This flower demon knew how to hide its true capabilities?
The surviving puffshroom from before had been standing at the basin's edge without incident, making Lin Jun mistakenly think the flower demon's attack range was limited to within the basin!
In just a few seconds, over ten puffshrooms were killed.
Lin Jun commanded the remaining puffshrooms to retreat—he needed to regroup!
Only one slow-to-react fellow was left behind—Little Black.
*Ding ding ding—*
The flower demon's root stems kept stabbing up from the ground, striking the big black mushroom's scales with crisp sounds.
The scales showed not a single mark, while all the root stems snapped from the impact.
Little Black stared at the small holes left by these root stems in the ground, then looked at the flower demon in the center of the basin.
After thinking for a long time, she finally seemed to understand that the flower demon had attacked her.
Lin Jun had just finished regrouping his forces when a tremendous crash echoed from the small basin.
When the puffshrooms went over, they saw the flower demon smashed so deep into the ground it couldn't be dug out.
"Wait... how did it just die?"
Such a rare large specimen!
"It poked me!" Little Black pointed at the flower demon mush on the ground.
"But it couldn't even hurt you..."
*Sigh—*
"Forget it, let's clean up and go. Little Black, bring the flower demon along—don't waste it."
The puffshrooms lifted the tree demon while Little Black grabbed the flower demon's core and yanked it out in one pull, then dragged the flower demon that was three times her size behind the puffshrooms.
Lin Jun looked at the flower bud left in place, wondering if another flower demon could grow from it.
The flower demon had already been smashed to pieces, and dragging it made it drop bits here and there. By the time they reached the stairway entrance, barely half of it remained...
"Boss?"
The voice through the fungal network made Lin Jun jump.
Little Green stood not far away, looking puzzledly at the humanoid rotten wood the puffshrooms were carrying.
...
"Little Green... why did you come out?"
"I sensed many puffshrooms coming down... so I came to see if I could help..."
Then came a period of silence, with only Little Black looking around, confused about why they'd stopped.
The tree demon had realized what the situation was by now, but how to put it... it was just awkward.
After a long moment.
Little Green: "Accidental death?"
Lin Jun: "Accidental death. Even got revenge for it."
Little Green glanced at the flower demon remains, then at the big black mushroom dragging the remains, and some less-than-pleasant memories surfaced.
Nodding, the tree demon retreated back the way it came.
Lin Jun also breathed a sigh of relief. Though he hadn't done anything wrong, being misunderstood would be troublesome.
He'd worked hard to build up the tree demons' favorable impression—creating seeds of doubt now would be problematic.
Fortunately, it was the reasonable Little Green... He'd send it an A-grade magic crystal later!
---
While Lin Jun was busy dealing with the two demons' corpses, thousands of miles away, Dylan was doing the same thing.
Heavy rain fell on Dylan's face, wetting his eyelashes, but he had no time to wipe it away because both his hands were occupied.
"Brother Dylan, be careful not to slip!"
In the small grove, two people braved the heavy rain, carrying a corpse between them.
"Do you still remember the location?" Dylan asked.
Hearing this, Chloe looked up at their surroundings and pointed in a direction.
"Over there!"
Before long, they'd carried the corpse to their destination, where another body they'd transported earlier was already waiting.
Dylan stepped back two paces and plopped down on the ground.
He wasn't tired, just panicked.
They were already at the outskirts of the port city of Clark. He never expected that instead of him screwing things up, it would be the experienced Chloe who'd cause problems!
Looking at the two corpses on the ground, Dylan felt speechless.
How had things turned out this way?
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