【Seven Sins – Greed Triggered】
【Looted Skill: Cold Resistance LV7 → LV8】
【Looted Skill: Bite LV3 → LV4】
…
On the Mycelium Carpet, the Flesh Worm’s body had been completely decomposed, leaving only its thick hide and its ring of blunt teeth.
The hide was useful—tough and durable, often used by fiends to make clothing against the cold.
Lin Jun didn’t need it immediately, but he dried it and stored it in the material vault for later use.
As for the teeth, they were too ordinary. Even polished to a shine, they would never catch Gray’s eye. In the end, he simply tossed them into a Corrosive Slime Puji’s belly to be digested as waste.
Even though his resistances were already sufficient, Lin Jun didn’t stop cultivating Flesh Worms.
Resistances were passive traits—you could never have too many.Besides, in the barren far north, apart from raising these thick-skinned worms, there really weren’t many other productive options.
On another front, now that his resistance had reached the standard, Lin Jun immediately dispatched a squad of Burrowing Pujis to tunnel toward the fiend tribe.
But digging in the far north was far more difficult than expected.
The heat radiated by the Burrowing Pujis melted the ice crystals in the soil, leaving the tunnels wet and muddy, while draining enormous amounts of energy. Their digging speed was much slower than in the Amethyst Dungeon.
Worse, the deeper layers weren’t just permafrost—huge slabs of solid ice often blocked the way. When that happened, the Pujis could only detour.
After all, no matter how amazing the mycelium was, it couldn’t grow directly on pure ice.
By estimation, fully connecting the fiend tribe and the surrounding areas into a fungal network would take at least half a month.
Fortunately, the tribe didn’t send people south—instead, they were the first to initiate contact.
…
“Pujis! I’m back again!”
From a distance, Qiong waved his intact arm toward the Pujis feeding Flesh Worms.
This time, he brought two others with him.
Shou, still with crippled arms, and a new fiend named Ze.
Regardless of whether they migrated south, food from the dungeon was essential for survival.
Out of caution, Shou decided to see with his own eyes what kind of “work” Qiong had been talking about.
A Bat Puji swooped down from a cliff and landed precisely on Shou’s head.
His eye twitched slightly, but he said nothing.
“Qiong, Shou, welcome back. And this is…?” Lin Jun’s voice echoed in their minds through the fungal network.
“This is Ze! He came with us to work!” Qiong shouted loudly, still talking as if to empty air.
“What?” Ze froze when named, hearing nothing, looking around in confusion.
“Eh?” Qiong blinked, puzzled. Did the Pujis get shy and refuse to “speak” with strangers? He thought they were just using telepathy.
Shou, however, lowered his head thoughtfully, glancing at the mycelium still twined around his arm.
As before, Lin Jun led them into the mushroom grove.
By now, it had begun to take shape—glowing blue mushroom trees grew tall, releasing luminous spores that drifted like fine snow, creating the forest’s otherworldly atmosphere.
Ze’s eyes darted everywhere, marveling at the busy Pujis, the spreading mycelium carpet, and the radiant mushrooms of all shapes and sizes.
Then they stumbled upon the sight of Jida sparring with the vampire.
Shou and Ze instinctively tensed, ready to fight. Ze even reached for his bone blade.
“Relax. It’s just training,” Lin Jun intervened quickly.
In truth, Norris had paid in blood to ask Louisa to spar with him, but there was no need to explain that.
When three bowls of glowing “Mushroom Soup” were placed before them, Lin Jun got to the point:
“Qiong, Shou, you’re always welcome to work here. But as for Ze…”
“Is there a problem?” Shou asked.
“Yes. My communication with you relies on the symbiotic mycelium inside you. Ze doesn’t have it—I can’t even talk to him.”
Of course, Lin Jun had a Language Puji available, but he wasn’t about to reveal that.
“So you’re saying, to work here, he has to… merge with the fungus first?”
“Exactly. Consciousness-link is the foundation of Puji operations. But let me be clear—once symbiosis begins, it can’t easily be undone. And you’ll need regular magic replenishment. When I met Qiong, he couldn’t even communicate, and you, Shou, were on the verge of death. I had no choice. Please understand.”
“No problem! Being alive is already a blessing, why would we blame you…” Qiong waved hurriedly.
Shou remained cautious.
He had brought Ze here precisely to investigate the truth behind this “symbiosis.” For the tribe, they were all expendable, and Ze understood this before coming.
But Lin Jun wasn’t hiding much—he even admitted that separation would be difficult afterward. There seemed no malice or hidden trap.
In truth, Shou wanted to trust the one who saved his life, but as chief, he couldn’t afford to be careless.
When Ze nodded his agreement, Lin Jun summoned Louisa.
Qiong guessed what was coming, while Shou frowned. “You mean… First Embrace?”
“Of course not. Just making some room inside his body for the mycelium.” Lin Jun improvised.
After all, telling them “half-dead is best for parasitism” would sound far too sinister.
Louisa, delighted with the task, gave the resigned Ze a “passionate” embrace.
Afterward, she gallantly carried the drained Ze into a mushroom hut to rest.
By the next day, a weakened but alive Ze emerged—now officially a “half-mushroom man.”
Guided by the Pujis, the trio crossed the fissure.
This time, Lin Jun didn’t send them to collect Glow Grass.
Instead, he placed them in a cave defended by Troglodytes, to fight monsters together.
The trogs were far from friendly. Cold and hostile toward the newcomers, their glares made Qiong uneasy. Compared to digging grass with Pujis, this felt oppressive.
But Shou observed more deeply. These low-intelligence creatures, also fused with mycelium, didn’t live badly.
They had plenty of food, and when fighting, they fought alongside Pujis, not as disposable cannon fodder.
That touch of hostility from their coworkers only made the scene feel more real—and more reassuring.
In just two days, the three earned piles of mushrooms, so many it took two Fatty Pujis to haul them away.
This time, Lin Jun symbolically charged them two contribution points for transport, advising: “Next time, bring your own cart. Save your points for something else.”
Watching the three leave, Lin Jun knew the fiend tribe was as good as secured.
During their parting, through the fungal link, he could sense Shou’s wariness had relaxed considerably.
Sure enough, only two days later, Mushroom Garden No. 3 welcomed even more fiend arrivals.
Louisa, seeing the endless stream of “clients,” was caught in rare sweet troubles.
Gray, however, grew strangely wary. At her insistence, Lin Jun had to move her mushroom hut and her shiny treasures to a secluded corner, where no one passed, before she felt safe again.
——
In the far north, Lin Jun steadily assimilated the fiend village, while in the core chamber he never stopped harassing the war puppets.
At fixed intervals, Pujis dashed across the platform line, only to be slaughtered instantly. The puppets would return to their posts, only for another sacrifice to rush in…
And with time, the dungeon’s collapse grew more and more obvious—
a change that soon spread to the unsuspecting adventurers…