Ah, this…
Suddenly becoming invincible like this—he wasn’t mentally prepared at all… but damn, it felt good!
Of course, “invincible” was a bit of an exaggeration. More accurately, the fatal weakness he’d always had was finally patched.
If he had to put it into words… it was like his iron body technique had finally reached the “retracting the vulnerable bits” stage!
Looking at it that way, the Qis’ escape wasn’t unacceptable. After all, this skill was absurdly strong…
Too bad the Heart had still held [Division LV3]. If only he’d captured that version…
So was it originally [Division LV10], and degraded down? How did it even obtain it?
A racial talent gained at evolution?
Lin Jun couldn’t be sure. But it was the first time he’d encountered a skill that downgraded with use, and his thoughts wandered.
He set aside the skill harvest for now and refocused on the aftermath in the middle layers.Piggy had run off. His own fault—too soft, too trusting. Never again!
Fine, let her go. But the Sunstone fragment might still be here, and he had to search with everything he had!
With the Qis Heart’s disgraceful escape, taking over their territory was laughably easy.
The few Qis encountered had regressed to the level of ordinary monsters—or worse.
They’d just stand there stupidly, gawking after being struck, not even trying to dodge. Pathetic!
Within three days, Lin Jun controlled most of the middle layer. The time sink was laying down Mycelium Carpet.
But… no sign of the fragment.
Though the search continued, he was already bracing for the worst.
On the fourth day, no fragment turned up—but he did find an entrance to a lower layer.
Whether it was the only passage, he didn’t know. But on the stone bricks nearby, he found smears of purple blood.
Could it have been the six-clawed with the fragment?
With a shred of hope, Lin Jun sent the Pujis deeper.
The tunnel was damp. He expected water ahead, and he was right… though not how he imagined.
The passage ended in a cliff.
Across from it roared a massive waterfall.
But… the waterfall flowed upward!
Water thundered skyward, defying gravity, vanishing into the endless dark above.
Upside down?
A Pujis unfurled its wings to test it. The moment it left the cliff edge, its body shifted—appearing instead on the sheer wall nearby, standing firm on a narrow path embedded in the rock.
Both sides dropped away into abyss. Yet the Pujis didn’t fall—it stood as if gravity pulled sideways.
Lin Jun recalled the pink Pujis’ notebook on dungeon lore: dungeons were likely structured around warped space.
So this wasn’t an inversion, but a patchwork of disjointed spatial blocks.
Seriously? This was far too advanced compared to the upper and middle layers!
Buzz—
A tremor came, not physical but spatial.
Ripples spread. Suddenly, the slanted rock beside the waterfall—embedded with stair-like structures—separated from its surroundings.
It drifted silently backward… and vanished.
In its place, a new clump of earth materialized, slotting in seamlessly.
Looking around—many such clumps were floating in the area!
Damn it!
Was this lower layer collapsing?
Like the Amethyst Dungeon’s breakdown, but in a different form?
At least it hadn’t spread to the middle layer yet. That structure was still stable, apart from the Amethyst’s rift.
Well, Pujis feared no sacrifice. And such a spectacle—better explore it now than regret later.
Lin Jun pushed the Pujis onward, leaping across fragments of space.
After crossing ten zones, nothing appeared except a few stubborn plants and some terrified insects fleeing for their lives.
No wonder—walking here meant risking sudden collapse into void. Survival was absurd.
“Boss!”
A voice rang in the fungal network—familiar, filled with excitement and fear.
“Piggy!”
He followed the sense… a clump of earth?
No—space was fractured.
Switching everything off but [Light Perception], he swept—and spotted her below.
On a lower platform, Piggy stood gazing up at the Pujis. Her crimson eyes shimmered—with tears?
Lin Jun looked closely. She was in miserable shape—dirty, ragged, a beggar’s shadow.
Dust-covered, clothes in tatters, lips stained with purple blood. One hand clutched half a bug leg, the other clenched, glowing between her fingers…
Wait—!
“Piggy, in your hand… could it be?”
“Yes, Boss!” She perked up, cradling her palm open like a precious offering.
【Artifact: Sunstone (Fragment)】
It was!
The fragment smoked faintly in her hand.
Checking her panel, Lin Jun saw debuffs: 【Sunlight Weakness】 and 【Malnutrition】.
She hadn’t defected. She’d completed the mission—and gotten trapped here!
“Piggy! I knew I could trust you. You’re the most reliable of all!” Lin Jun’s voice was full of emotion. “Stay there—I’ll come get you!”
The Pujis leapt toward her platform.
Whoosh—!
The moment it left its zone, darkness swallowed everything.
Weightlessness engulfed it—connection severed.
Damn it, I knew it!
He had to save her.
The Sunstone fragment!
…And Piggy.
In the fortress middle layer, every Pujis halted—whether laying Carpet, digging, or patrolling. Over a thousand mushrooms turned as one, surging toward the lower-layer entrance!
“What—what’s going on?!” Norris was baffled by the sudden mass mobilization. “Enemy attack?”
Gray wedged herself in a doorway, clutching two struggling burrower Pujis, growling low.
Hold on, Piggy—Pujis Rescue Corps is on the way!