After a deep, satisfying sleep, the pink Puji finally remembered—before her transformation expired, she had her knight grab her clothes and duck into a corner. Only after putting them on did she reappear in human form.
Aydin stretched his limbs. The experience of lying on the mycelium carpet had indeed been novel and comfortable, the gentle flow of energy soothing his body.
But as a well-traveled, iron-willed middle-aged man, he wasn’t about to get lost in such comfort—certainly not compared to the weighty allure of the two glowing A-rank mana crystals resting in his arms.
Once both had recovered, Lin Jun took the chance to test their ability to command Pujis.
The results surprised him. Without even being given [Mental Integration], Aydin could still control as many as forty Pujis steadily with just his mental strength!
Inanna’s performance was within expectations—she could command twenty-two.
At her request afterward, Lin Jun gifted her twenty Pujis, including two elites. To outsiders, she could simply claim they were controlled through her knight.
But Inanna couldn’t stay in the dungeon for long.
If Aydin vanished, Guildmaster Fahl might send out a token search and leave it at that.
But if the duke’s daughter went missing again? Fahl would lose his mind—and so might the duke himself!Before she left, Lin Jun selected a few mana crystals and trinkets from his treasury for Inanna, to serve as “treasures found during her adventure.”
That way, no one would start obsessing over the idea of a “Puji treasure” the way fools pursued “One Piece.”
On their way through the fifth layer, Lin Jun called Gray over.
“Gray, remember these two mana auras. They’re allies.”
Gray sniffed Inanna closely, wrinkling her nose in puzzlement.
For Inanna and Aydin, however, this was the first time they’d seen Gray in her true form, without disguise!
“A dragonkin?!” Aydin gasped, his voice cracking with disbelief. “The great black mushroom on the fifth layer is actually a dragonkin?!”
He had personally accepted the scouting mission back then. Never in his wildest imagination had he thought a dragonkin would be hidden among the Pujis!
Inanna, on the other hand, was simply curious.
She cautiously extended a finger and touched Gray’s thick scales… sharp and rough under her hand.
…
Half a day later, the two returned safely to the Adventurers’ Guild.
Surrounded by Pujis, Inanna wore a radiant smile she had never shown before. She turned to Fahl and asked brightly:
“Guildmaster Fahl, is there anything else I could help with, using my knight’s Pujis?”
The sudden enthusiasm shocked Fahl, who was used to her cold and distant demeanor.
He immediately put on a warm smile. “Lady Inanna, you’ve already done our guild a tremendous service! As for the rest, please don’t trouble yourself—we’ll handle it. Truly, your help means the world to us.”
And this wasn’t just polite flattery.
First, with the dungeon’s collapse looming, the Puji problem was no longer urgent.
Second, from what he’d observed, controlling Pujis indirectly through the knight seemed limited to line of sight—practically, not very useful.
But the moment he said this, Inanna’s radiant smile collapsed in an instant, as though all sunlight had been snuffed out.
She pressed her lips together, eyes filled with undisguised disappointment, displeasure—and even a trace of resentment—as she glared at Fahl for several seconds.
Only after her guard whispered a careful reminder did she reluctantly turn away and depart.
Fahl: “???”
To carry her twenty “precious” Pujis, Inanna promptly bought two sturdy wooden wagons in town.
“Milady, won’t these Pujis suddenly attack and smash the wagons?” one guard asked nervously, eyeing the mushroom cannons and blade-tipped tendrils they carried.
“How could they!” Inanna said earnestly, hugging her knight Puji. “Pujis are the gentlest, sweetest, most peace-loving creatures! As long as you don’t provoke them, they’d never attack!”
—
Deep in the dungeon.
A giant lizard was munching on plants when it suddenly froze.
Its night-seeing eyes scanned the darkness warily. Something… had shifted.
But it saw nothing.
It shook its head, grumbled low in its throat, and bent down again to feed.
Shhhh!
The air split with a razor-sharp whistle!
“ROAR—!!” The lizard’s scream exploded.
Its massive head flung back, both eyes punctured by invisible blades, boiling blood spraying everywhere!
The splattered blood outlined a Puji’s silhouette midair.
And that was only the beginning.
Almost instantly, slashes ripped into its neck, flanks, and joints.
Agony stabbed like molten needles through its nerves. The beast thrashed in madness, rolling and crushing the cavern floor.
BOOM! A Puji was flattened beneath it, reduced to mush.
But it was too late.
Unseen Pujis had surrounded it.
They cut it again and again until, with one last cry, the lizard collapsed lifeless.
The cavern shimmered and warped like disturbed water—then revealed not one or two, but ten… twenty… a hundred… five hundred Pujis!
Of course, only a few had struck directly.
[Optical Invisibility LV7].
Against mindless beasts with no detection skills, it was a one-sided slaughter.
Of course, here in the depths, some predators hunted by vibration, heat, or raw perception—so invisibility wasn’t invincible.
Even so, [Optical Invisibility] had halved Lin Jun’s difficulty in advancing!
Thanks to the Sword Saint, the worst threats had already been slain along the path. Lin Jun didn’t need to bring overwhelming force.
This time, he sent only five hundred Pujis to lay down the mycelium carpet toward the core—no Piggy escort required.
Not that he was in a rush to repair the core. First, his main body needed a safe refuge.
And the refuge would be…
Nearly eighteen hundred Pujis had gathered at the Chiss Rift cavern, with Piggy among them.
They were the vanguard to cross.
Once Lin Jun secured the far side with mycelium spread and scouting, Norris—and even Gray—would follow as the second wave.
When it came time to handle the dungeon core, nothing important would be left behind here.
And, being a polite and civilized mushroom, Lin Jun knew—if he was going to lodge in someone else’s territory, he had to greet the neighbors.
A twisted speech-Puji was carried to the rift.
From it grated a voice, jagged like rusted metal scraping stone, layered and echoing across the blackness beyond:
“Chiss… I… am coming… in…”