Chapter 144: 142 Breath

【Skill Upgrade: Pooji Creation Lv7→Lv8】

【Skill Upgrade: Mental Integration Lv6→Lv7】

【Skill Upgrade: Corrosion Resistance Lv6→Lv7】

!!!

These days are finally looking up!

Leaving aside 【Pooji Creation】, this skill upgrade only increases Pooji production speed without boosting their base stats; the upgrade effect is just so-so.

After Lv8, if one doesn't mind the mana consumption, roughly one standard turret Pooji can be produced every minute.

Corrosion Resistance was the success of days upon days of torture-style training in the six-layer Shi Laimu Room.

The truly critical part is Mental Integration!

This is the core within Lin Jun's core.

Previously, since 【Mental Integration】 was only Lv6, the number of Poojis Lin Jun could control via the Fungal Network was limited to around 1,500.

Not to mention that the scouts of 【Familiar Control】 consumed the attention equivalent of nearly 100 Poojis.

Although one could expand the numbers by arranging lower-tier nodes like Treants, the total number of Poojis never exceeded 2,000.

As for now...

Lin Jun sensed it; his mental capacity had roughly doubled!

This makes conquering the Thousand-Axis Mayfly even more certain.

Just as Lin Jun was immersed in the joy of becoming stronger, happily planning the future.

"Burp~"

Suddenly, one-third of the mushroom forest on the fifth layer vanished from his perception.

Huh!?

What's going on?

Did the fifth-layer Fracture explode?

It took Lin Jun only one second to find the culprit.

Sitting on the ground, holding an ice-pop Pooji that had been bitten into, staring blankly in place—some black creature!

A conical disaster zone spread out from Seeing Xiao Hei's front; black smoke was still rising from her open mouth.

It was just that she had no neck; otherwise, Lin Jun would have twisted his head 90 degrees to express confusion.

That one-third of the mushroom forest didn't vanish instantly; amidst the gradually dissipating black smoke, many mushroom-tree ruins, collapsed after being corroded, were still visible.

As for the fungal carpet, that indeed vanished directly...

【Name: Seeing Xiao Hei】

【Level: 60】

【Skill: Strong Acid Breath Lv1】

No way... how did some guy level up to 60 just by eating and sleeping?

Don't tell me the experience from gnawing that ice-pop Pooji in his arms was just enough?

And isn't the effect of this 【Strong Acid Breath】 a bit too overpowered?

At Lv1, it wiped out one-third of the mushroom forest in one go, far stronger than the 【Strong Acid Lv5】 Lin Jun farmed from the Slimes!

At Lv6, wouldn't he be able to spray away the entire fifth layer in one breath?

Is this the gap between species?

A Shi Laimu working hard for a lifetime isn't worth a dragon race's casually awakened Lv1 innate skill!

After sighing at the world's unfairness, Lin Jun focused his energy on saving the innocent victims.

Two Poojis dragged Norris, who was unharmed but severely frightened, from the edge of the cone.

They also fished out the Yellow Book, which had fallen into the conical area, was corroded, and was 【yowling】 while cursing Norris for his shaky hands.

And from the air, a bat-Pooji rescue team hoisted up a vampire who had been granted permission to rest in the mushroom forest but suddenly met with disaster, lifting him from the center of the breath.

Fortunately, this vampire had some resistance; although not high, he at least wasn't one-shotted by the area-of-effect breath.

He was level 50, after all; being one-shotted would be somewhat embarrassing.

The sixth layer urgently sent a freshly dead Stone-Skin Wild Boar. After guzzling several mouthfuls of monster blood, Luisa's complexion improved somewhat, and her rotting skin began to recover bit by bit.

Luisa said nothing and dared say nothing; she just took her pickaxe and returned to the cave after recovering.

Finally, the Poojis dragged the still-stunned Seeing Xiao Hei to the basement of the mushroom forest.

Used as a dungeon, it currently held no prisoners, but after recent expansions, it was now several times larger than when Luisa first moved in.

Bringing Seeing Xiao Hei here was to prevent her from spraying another mouthful and wiping out the remaining two-thirds of Lin Jun's mushroom forest.

This stupid dragon still hasn't figured out why she suddenly spat out black fog...

Seeing Xiao Hei this time clearly realized she had caused trouble; she sat obediently in the middle, allowing the circle of Poojis around her to poke and prod her.

Sometimes they pried her mouth open to study where the black smoke came from; sometimes they stomped on her belly to see if they could stomp out some breath.

They originally wanted to extend fungal threads into her throat to feel for a cause, but Seeing Xiao Hei felt uncomfortable and bit one off.

Until a Pooji used 【Trample Lv4】 to stomp on the area between Seeing Xiao Hei's throat and chest.

"Burp~" A small puff of black smoke erupted; two Poojis fell to the ground instantly, while the others quickly scattered, only regrouping once the black smoke vanished.

After studying it for a long while, Lin Jun finally figured out Seeing Xiao Hei's breath.

It's a charge-up skill!

There seems to be an organ storing the breath between her throat and chest, and its capacity is quite large.

When full, it can spray a massive area-of-effect breath capable of wiping out one-third of the mushroom forest in one go; when not full, it's like the previous time, spitting out something akin to secondhand smoke.

The key is, once it's full, Seeing Xiao Hei seems unable to hold it back...

Just now, a single burp let all the breath leak out.

Seeing Xiao Hei probably didn't just level up either; it's likely been a day or two.

Lin Jun usually has no reason to check Seeing Xiao Hei's panel, and Seeing Xiao Hei itself is too dim-witted to realize it has leveled up.

After thinking it over, Lin Jun first forced Seeing Xiao Hei to learn how to exhale on command.

Then he taught her to spit a mouthful at the Venom Lake every day; after all, Miraji isn't very afraid of corrosion damage.

It is foreseeable that cultivating this habit in Seeing Xiao Hei will be a long-term task...

Sigh—

Seeing Xiao Hei has grown stronger; clearly a good thing, so why does it make the mushroom so worried?

Come to think of it, what is the level cap for Dragonkin?

Werewolves and Vampires both have 90; Dragonkin should have 90 too, right?

At the very least, it should be 80; in that case, Seeing Xiao Hei is still far from max level.

This loss was undeniably great; many Pujis still in gestation turned to ash before they could be born.

Replanting the Mushroom Forest will take another half-month or so.

Fortunately, Seeing Xiao Hei didn't spit this mouthful into the sixth-floor Mushroom Forest; otherwise, seeing her own tender branches turn into black wooden sticks would probably drive Little Green mad.

The Ox-Horse Pujis carefully cleaned the debris in the disaster zone; while clearing the ruins, traces of breath remaining in sealed spaces might emerge, easily causing the Pujis to lose 10 HP.

Hmm?

What is this?

In the center of the disaster zone, inside a small pit, the Ox-Horse Pujis discovered a small pool of black liquid.

This pool of black liquid was constantly emitting corrosive fumes; any fungal thread tentacles touching it would be rapidly corroded away.

Judging by the size of this small pit, this pool of black liquid was originally much larger; it has only this little left after evaporating until now.

This was obviously spat out by Seeing Xiao Hei as well.

They got a glass bottle and filled it with the black liquid.

Could this count as some kind of natural poison?

Lin Jun could figure out the principle behind this pool of liquid's appearance; the storage organ in Seeing Xiao Hei's throat was clearly not some four-dimensional pocket, so space was limited.

The breath must exist inside in liquid form, converting to a wide-range gaseous state only when spat out.

And this time, spitting too much in such a short period, it probably spat it out before converting all the breath into gas.

In other words, does this count as "essence"?

Come to think of it... the Thousand-Thread Mayfly's corrosion resistance doesn't seem very high, right?

The Rift.

A specially bred test Bat-Puji flew down.

【Nightmare Avatar Lv3】 + 【Corrosion Resistance Lv7】 + 【Saliva Arrow Lv5】 + 【Fungal Thread Reassembly Lv4】 + 【Mana Storage Lv7】 + 【Precision Lv6】

The black liquid, stored in a bottle, was brought down by the Puji.

As it neared the destination, the Bat-Puji inhaled the black liquid into a nozzle grown through a skill.

The Lv7 【Corrosion Resistance】 could not completely negate the damage from the black liquid.

Fortunately, relying on 【Fungal Thread Reassembly】 bolstered by 【Mana Storage】, it barely extended the time before dying from poison, allowing the Bat-Puji to successfully fly to the destination—the Thousand-Thread Mayfly habitat.

Upon meeting, the Thousand-Thread Mayflies swam around to surround it, while the Puji fired a Saliva Arrow, shooting the venom out.

Unlike the Mushroom Cannon, the Saliva Arrow had almost no recoil; with the boost from 【Precision】, it successfully hit a Lv31 Thousand-Thread Mayfly.

Accompanied by a piercing cry, this Thousand-Thread Mayfly writhed its body and fell down in agony.

Instant kill! Overwhelming effect!

They didn't bother with the specially bred Puji that was pierced and snatched away by other rushing Thousand-Thread Mayflies.

Lin Jun now felt Seeing Xiao Hei was suddenly much cuter; as the saying goes, "eat what you need to supplement what you lack"; could eating more Strong Acid Pujis accelerate breath replenishment?

(End of Chapter)