“Big mushroom, was it you who saved me?”
Inside the tree hollow, the elf finally awoke. Her face was pale and weak from her brush with death, but she couldn’t hide her excitement.
She kept running her fingers across the Pujis scout’s smooth cap, her eyes full of delight.
The moment she opened her eyes, she had seen the two Wind Wolf corpses cleanly severed at the entrance, and beside her was this Pujis, its bladed tendrils still stained with dark red blood. The conclusion was obvious!
It had to be this new friend who had driven away the wolf pack and protected her unconscious body!
Getting eaten by wolves wouldn’t have been the worst end, but surviving to make a new friend was clearly better!
Only… a Pujis killing Wind Wolves was simply unbelievable!
She didn’t question why the Pujis would help her. With her [Friend of Animals] title, forest creatures treating her with kindness and aid was nothing new.
Maybe Pujis counted as half-animals?
She didn’t fuss over such details. All she wanted was to get closer to her lifesaving “mushroom.”The memory of that warm, soft sensation before she fainted was still vivid, and now she couldn’t resist pressing closer to express her gratitude.
Faced with this crazed pervert trying to rub against it, the Pujis scout decisively lifted a foot and pressed it against her cheek.
【Name: Elawen Whitestone】
Lin Jun didn’t want to recklessly parasitize someone he didn’t understand, nor did he want to finish her off. So when he realized this elf wasn’t going to die, he had considered simply letting the Pujis leave to continue exploring.
The only reason he didn’t was simple: her “Friend of Animals” title.
Not because Lin Jun himself was influenced by it, but because someone with that title should logically have many animal friends.
And slipping a Pujis “friend” into that circle would be perfectly natural! Maybe it could even sneak into the elves’ city.
As for monsters entering or leaving the dungeon—that wasn’t a problem in the Divine Tree Dungeon.
This was the only dungeon without restricted monster activity, and without the so-called monster tides. Though, well, “only” wasn’t so accurate anymore.
You could tell how unusual this place was just from the fact that sunlight reached into it.
Why it was so special, however, wasn’t recorded in any of the data Lin Jun had.
That was normal. His information came from Inanna and Aedin, but humans didn’t have much deep knowledge of a dungeon located on elven territory.
After all, the entire elven domain rejected outsiders. Only a few recognized individuals were allowed to move freely through the forest without risking arrows flying from nowhere. That range also included the Divine Tree Dungeon.
It was said that in his youth, the Sword Saint had briefly earned such recognition, but it was later revoked for unknown reasons.
In short, Lin Jun changed this Pujis scout’s mission to infiltrating the elf city. Other scouts could handle dungeon exploration.
Since Lin Jun could control more Pujis now, maintaining an extra [Minion Control] or two wasn’t a problem.
Reality matched his expectations well. This elf named Elawen really did treat the Pujis as one of her “animal friends.” The only problem… she was a bit too enthusiastic.
…
“Just once more! Let me press my face against your belly again!” Elawen pleaded, throwing herself at the Pujis with open arms.
Her answer was [Assault Launch LV7]!
The Pujis planted both feet on her incoming face, kicked off, and launched itself to the far side of the hollow.
Elawen staggered back, clutching her nose as she crouched down. Two round, dirt-stained footprints were stamped across her face. She rubbed her aching nose, and soon her fingertips came away red—blood from a stomped-out nosebleed.
“Hss…” She wiped the blood, muttering under her breath. “Stingy… How odd, Furball and the others always loved being cuddled like this…”
Grumbling aside, she didn’t push it further.
Standing up, she briskly dragged the two Wind Wolf corpses at the entrance and carried them out. Lin Jun thought she would roast them for food, but instead she dug a hole and buried them beneath a tree.
When it was done, she stretched, flexed her joints, and felt her strength gradually returning.
Then her eyes turned to the giant tree beside her, so wide it would take several people to encircle.
She inhaled deeply, then sprinted, scrambling up the straight trunk with hands and feet, “swish swish swish” like an insect darting upward.
Her speed was remarkable, her movements vigorous—but there was nothing elegant about them.
Clinging to the bark with all four limbs, body pressed flat as she clawed her way up, she looked for all the world like a giant cockroach…
It didn’t take her long to reach a branch heavy with fruit. She plucked a few firm, red-tinged ones, tucked them into her pouch, then just as quickly scuttled back down the trunk cockroach-style.
Chomping into a fruit, she held another out toward the Pujis. “Can you eat this?”
The Pujis ignored her. She shrugged, withdrew her hand, and stuffed the fruit into her own mouth, mumbling through her chewing: “Hm… that’s strange, how do Pujis usually eat again?”
It was possible to run into Pujis in some forest caves, but she had never studied them much. And this one…
A little mouthlike slit on its cap, a pair of tiny wings on its back, and four bladed tendrils—it was obviously some kind of mutated variety.
After finishing the fruit and regaining her strength, she prepared to head back.
But first…
Elawen knelt before the Pujis, her expression solemn.
Her palms glowed with green light as she gently clasped one of its mycelium tendrils.
This time she didn’t speak in the elven tongue Lin Jun couldn’t understand.
Instead, a vague but friendly thought flowed with that green glow, reaching directly to him: —Come with me!
So this was the elves’ racial gift, Natural Affinity?
It wasn’t language, more like a universal “gesture,” the way you knew someone was greeting you when they waved.
It felt very much like how dryads communicated.
Did that mean he really counted as part of “nature”…?
The Pujis fluttered its wings, flew up, and plopped itself down on her head.
Unfortunately, her head didn’t come with built-in “handles” like the hunter’s, so it squeezed its feet tight, clamping down to secure itself.
At last, she had it pressed against her… though not in the heartwarming way she had imagined.
Still, the Pujis was willing to go with her, and that made Elawen very happy.
“So you like staying on my head, just like Feifei!” She giggled, shaking her head to feel its weight. “I hope you two don’t fight over territory when you meet! Speaking of which… where’s Feifei?”
She suddenly remembered her companion, cupped her hands around her mouth, took a deep breath, and whistled a clear, ringing note.
A deep bird call answered—coming from the Pujis’ belly…