Chapter 11: 112v401, Epic Great Victory

The demon core atop Inanna's head flared to life, and she panicked, casting the Mud Trap spell.

The solid ground beneath the earthworm instantly turned into a quagmire, and the crushed stones it had dug up became mudwater.

However, the thickness of the mud-converted ground was limited; deeper underground, at the tail end of the giant worm's body, the soil remained solid.

Relying on that small section beneath the earth, the earthworm continued to slowly burrow deeper.

Lin Jun certainly would not just watch it escape.

"Inanna, keep using the Mud Trap spell, do not stop!"

"Okay."

At the same time, the Pujis that had been taking damage all around finally began to counterattack, the "boop boop" sounds of the mushroom cannons firing never ceasing.

Lin Jun concentrated the firepower on the spots where the earthworm's rock armor had shattered.

On the panel, the earthworm's health kept draining; judging by its downward drilling speed, it couldn't escape!

It was about to happen!

The hope of charging out of the dungeon!

Afterwards, as long as he temporarily moved over, ate the earthworm clean to obtain the skill, he could dig his way up and see the sky again!

It had been such a long time since he had seen the sun.

But... why was the ground shaking again?

The direction the shaking came from was...

"Inanna, run back!"

"Huh?"

Inanna, who was still concentrating on maintaining the Mud Trap spell, didn't react at all, only instinctively stepping back two paces.

The next second, another giant worm burst out of the stone right in front of her!

The protruding rock armor swept past, and Inanna was knocked flying into the tunnel as if struck by an uppercut.

"Inanna? Inanna!"

There was no response; Lin Jun hurriedly opened the panel—she had lost 400 HP.

Fortunately, with over 3,000 HP, she was far from death, but she had obviously fainted.

The four nearby Pujis each picked up the unconscious Inanna and the fallen A-rank demon core, retreating deeper into the tunnel.

Inanna was temporarily safe, but the situation on the battlefield was not optimistic.

The second earthworm that had suddenly burst in was darting wildly around the cave, crushing a large number of Pujis.

The Mud Trap that had trapped the injured earthworm, no longer maintained by Inanna, was gradually hardening, and the earthworm's downward drilling speed had clearly begun to increase.

Why was there a second earthworm?

Had he placed too many demon cores, making the attraction too strong?

Or did these worms have a sense of comradeship and help each other?

There was no time to think it through; the second earthworm was definitely impossible to deal with, so Lin Jun could only concentrate the firepower and continue attacking the injured one.

Paying no attention to the constantly dying Pujis, Lin Jun unleashed his full firepower.

As long as he could reduce its health to 0 before it escaped...

————

"What? You're saying I was knocked flying by another earthworm?"

23 Pujis, and one Inanna who had already awakened but was still completely confused and even a bit excited.

This was the entire force that had retreated back to the Mushroom Garden.

The low-health earthworm ultimately escaped with the last sliver of its HP, and the remaining Pujis suffered heavy losses under the harassment of the other earthworm.

Worse still, many areas had collapsed, and many Pujis could not return to the tunnel they had come from, so they were helplessly abandoned in the end.

The only thing worth being grateful for was probably that the mana fluctuations from the battle here had scared away all the small monsters in the surrounding area.

No more attacks were encountered on the way back.

Otherwise, not a single one might have made it back.

Lin Jun now felt like a stock investor who had gone all-in on the A-shares and ended up coming out naked.

His savings were all gone.

Fortunately, there was no mortgage or lending in the dungeon, so he still had the Mushroom Garden left...

The joys and sorrows of mushrooms do not communicate with each other.

While Lin Jun was secretly grieving over his losses, Inanna was in a good mood. She did not know that Lin Jun had hunted the earthworm to escape the dungeon, nor did she know how much he had bet on this hunt.

In her view, they could just organize another hunt later; it couldn't be that there would be two earthworms every time, right?

She only knew that Lin Jun kept his promise, and this A-rank demon core, now re-tied to the mushroom cap, finally officially belonged to her.

Inanna decided to call Lin Jun "Boss" from now on!

As for almost getting bitten by the earthworm?

It felt completely unreal.

She suddenly fainted, and relying on her Lv. 4 Life Recovery, she woke up with her HP full.

She had no memory of being injured at all; it felt like she had earned the demon core just by lying down...

She was even thinking that maybe the next hunt could yield a new A-rank demon core?

In a corner of the Mushroom Garden, beneath a large mushroom, at the end of a tunnel made of mycelium extending 10 meters downward, there was a 3x3 underground space.

Lin Jun's true body, an ordinary green mushroom, was right there.

Sharing the same room was a special Pujis emitting a powerful aura.

Unlike those other cannon-fodder Pujis, this one had been nurtured from the very beginning of the Mushroom Garden's establishment, its skills and levels all raised to Lin Jun's absolute limit, making it the strongest Puji.

It was a private mount prepared by Lin Jun for himself.

The problem now before Lin Jun was:

Should he honestly spend a vast amount of time again to accumulate strength and hunt Earth Worms anew?

Or return to the original plan, wait for the next time the Flame Demon ventures out, and risk smuggling Lin Jun's own body up using the Super Puji?

————

Meanwhile, at the passage entrance between the Deep Layer and the 10th Floor, at the Flame Demon's nest.

"So hot! Is this the Deep Layer area of the Amethyst Dungeon? Could it be that it's all lava zones? Are you sure that Young Lady would be in a place like this?"

Night Owl uncomfortably tugged at the collar of her tight-fitting clothes.

She had no heat resistance whatsoever and could only barely stand here after drinking a bottle of Flame Protection Potion.

Even so, it was extremely uncomfortable, and she only wanted to leave quickly.

A Coolness Spell fell upon the group, and Night Owl's expression finally relaxed.

"You truly saved my life."

The light on the staff faded, and Ivan nodded with a smile.

When not suffering from mana withdrawal, the Half-Giant Archmage was actually quite reliable.

Captain Nova held the positioning crystal in his hand and sensed it.

"Correct, the guiding direction is nearly horizontal; it should be in the upper part of the Deep Layer."

"But this is the Deep Layer! For nearly a month, I might not even survive."

Unlike the first ten floors which had clear levels.

Every previous floor had its own characteristics, monster level ranges, exploitable rules, and so on.

Night Owl reckoned that as long as there was a guide, she could easily survive on her own.

But the Deep Layer was different; what stood out here was chaos, with monsters of every level present.

More crucially, the monsters inside would roam around, so every time adventurers came down, they might encounter completely different situations.

Just like the information in their hands from three years ago, which stated that a Lv. 59 Flame Demon would appear upon exiting the passage here.

The result was that now, besides a patch of lava, there were no monsters at all.

Of course, this counted as good news.

It also simply meant that the Deep Layer had undergone changes again, and that information had expired and lost its reference value.

"Alright, once we find her, we'll know how she survived."

The tone of the Half-Dragon Gar was no longer as dejected as it had been before departure.

The two worst possibilities—the Parasitic Tree and the Tentacle Nest—had already been ruled out.

In his view, the possibility of the Duchess's Young Lady being mentally sound and alive was far greater than previously anticipated.

Hmm, probably raised from 2% to 20%.

The work's tone is still lighthearted; it won't truly make the protagonist suffer bitterly everywhere. This is just a small defeat required here for the logic of the subsequent plot.

(End of this chapter)