Chapter 110: 109 Employees Should Maintain Their Own Mental Health

【Rending Wind Claw lv4】

The instant Norris brushed past the Stone-Skin Boar, his claws plowed several deep furrows into its thick, black-furred hide, flipping open the dark red muscle fibers beneath.

It looked gruesome, but in truth, such wounds were far from fatal to the Stone-Skin Boar; they could only enrage it.

Its hooves pounded the ground rapidly, and it turned to charge straight at Norris.

Norris understood this well; relying on the special vision provided by the Mycelium Network, he "saw" the boar's movements without even turning around.

Ever since connecting to the Mycelium Network as the Boss described, within the area controlled by the Boss, he had gained this special vision.

It saw farther than eyes could, offering a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view with no blind spots, though it simply wasn't as habitual as seeing with eyes.

When the tusks, carrying the boar's stench, attacked again, Norris suddenly leaped up from the spot.

The boar's charge lost its target but couldn't stop immediately, crashing straight through a thick tree trunk behind it.

Seizing this moment of pause, Norris fired the Mushroom Cannon from his right chest, which had long been filled with energy.

After the explosion, the boar, now missing its hind legs, still struggled in the pool of blood, but it could no longer pose a threat.

Stepping on the boar, Norris drove his claws into its head, ending the battle.

Norris panted, bowing his head to gaze at the fresh blood dripping from his claw tips, a gleam of excitement flickering in his eyes.

This sense of control, trampling a creature once thought powerful beneath his feet and standing above the upper echelons of the food chain, left him utterly intoxicated.

This was a joy that Norris, who could only hammer stones day after day in the mine, had never been able to experience!

【Level Up: lv22→lv23】

The slime culling over the past few days, combined with the monsters hunted alone these last two days, were all over-level kills.

Leveling up again in such a short time was, therefore, to be expected.

Feeling the surge of strength brought by the stat increase, Norris instinctively hugged his arms tight, not even noticing his claws grinding against his scales with a clattering sound.

Once everything was over, Norris leaned contentedly against the corpse of the Stone-Skin Boar, caring not a bit for the blood and stench upon it.

Glancing at his somewhat tattered clothes, Norris simply tossed them all aside.

Perhaps the Boss was right; having already become like this, there was no need to be bound by so-called shame!

He should be freer...

"Norris, hide! There are adventurers heading your way."

"Oh, oh!"

Picking up the clothes from the ground, Norris quickly pulled them back on and ducked into a dense thicket of bushes.

The Boss's perception was very strong, always providing early warnings that allowed him to hide.

After all, his current form was not something visible to humans.

Losing his human identity was not painful for Norris; on the contrary, with no debts to worry about, he felt a weight lifted.

The only thing slightly uncomfortable was the food; the Boss's seasoning consisted only of salt...

Footsteps approached, and Norris buried himself completely within the leaves.

A somewhat familiar voice came from ahead.

"The sixth floor is indeed dark too..." Feilin complained, somewhat annoyed.

It was that girl!

For a moment, Norris wanted to step forward and apologize for his escape last time.

If possible, he also wanted to ask the girl her name.

However, before he could rise, a glint of cold light caught the corner of Norris's eye: it was his own claws, the claws that could easily tear through boar hide...

Right, he was no longer human.

Whether debts or that fleeting encounter with the girl, all vanished along with his human identity.

In the darkness, Norris lowered his body even further... Vera, standing beside Feilin, looked up at the glowing dome: "There are still glowing mushrooms, so it's not completely dark, is it?"

Behind the two, Fei Yin maintained an orange-yellow illumination spell with her staff.

"The dome is so high; what use are those few glowing mushrooms? At least on the fifth floor, there were some mushrooms on the ground, but on the sixth floor, it's pitch black!

It's so dark that even finding the way is hard; don't let us fail to find that flower spirit from last time."

"Don't worry, don't worry, I remember the way." As Vera spoke, he shook the map in his hand, which bore his own markings.

"There's a smell of blood!" Fei Yin, who had been silent, suddenly warned.

The three immediately became alert.

The light on Fei Yin's staff grew brighter, even illuminating the bushes where Norris hid, but Norris had hidden well, not revealing a single scale.

Soon, Vera and the other two discovered the dead Stone-Skin Boar.

"Just died." Feilin judged at a glance.

Vera crouched down, inspected the boar, and said strangely, "It has both claw wounds and explosion damage; it must be an adventurer, but claw weapons are rare; I don't recall anyone in the town using such weapons. Also, if they killed it, why didn't they take the tusks?"

After two seconds of silence, Vera suddenly whispered, "Let's go!"

The twins saw Vera's reaction and immediately understood, quickly following Vera.

Feilin even drew out a special arrow, ready to nock it at any moment.

Since that attack by the raiders, the three had discussed a countermeasure for the next encounter.

Of course, whether it would work well depended on actual combat.

The three left very quickly.

After they disappeared from sight, Norris ran back to the fifth floor as if fleeing.

He hid back inside his mushroom house.

This was the first time since awakening that he felt lost about the future and depressed about being "non-human."

Not far away, Seeing Xiao Hei, who had witnessed him sprinting back to the mushroom house, lowered his head and took a huge bite out of Pujiji, which had already gone still in his arms, revealing a look of bliss.

Her schedule for today is packed full!

After waking up, count the sparkles, eat the puchi, then go back to counting the sparkles!

Lin Jun naturally noticed Norris's situation, though he didn't understand why he was so depressed after seeing those three.

But it's nothing more than some small emotions after turning non-human; didn't Dylan have a bit of that at the start?

To be honest, Lin Jun is completely unable to empathize; at least he still has hands, feet, and a mouth, and can still taste good food.

Look at himself, a mushroom!

How could Lin Jun empathize with him?

Lin Jun neither knows how to comfort him nor wants to waste effort comforting him; at most, he could give him some special nutrition?

Ultimately, his only request of Norris is to conduct some skill-addition experiments; beyond that, he asks for nothing else.

As for participating in missions to exterminate slimes, running to the sixth floor to fight monsters and level up, and so on, those are things Norris wanted to do himself; Lin Jun simply didn't object.

Even if Norris suddenly became despondent and spent all day holed up in the mushroom house, it wouldn't affect Lin Jun's experiments.

If he really couldn't think it through and ended his own life, one could only say it was slightly a pity.

After all, on his side, he is "non-human"; this is an unchangeable fact. If he can't adjust his mindset and accept it, Lin Jun can do nothing about it.

Everything depends on how Norris himself thinks in the end.

The location of the Great Flower Demon discovered on the sixth floor.

Vera and the other two looked at the only remaining giant flower bud in the small basin...

Where is the Flower Demon?

Where did that huge Flower Demon go?

An extra chapter

(End of this chapter)