Chapter 151: 148 Failed Recruitment

In the swamp area, four Pujis were trapped in cocoons made of mycelium, entering a 【Stunned】 state.

The specific effect of this skill is unclear; Lin Jun can only test it personally and wait for the results.

The reason the cocoons were placed in the swamp rather than the Mushroom Forest was mainly to fear that Seeing Xiao Hei might pass by one day, see them, and chew them up immediately.

The swamp area smells bad; Seeing Xiao Hei does not like coming here, so incubation can proceed safely.

Who knows what will hatch from them?

On the other side, the Great Expedition is proceeding relatively smoothly for now.

Although high-level monsters like Fire Elementals or Giant Worms exist in the Deep Zone, they are not scattered everywhere on the ground.

Most caves are inhabited by vast numbers of ordinary monsters.

The Pujis army plus Louisa have the capability to conquer most caves, and the losses will not be too great.

However, problems do exist.

Given that almost every cave has numerous passages leading in all directions, every time a cave is occupied further down, Lin Jun needs to arrange some Pujis to guard the territory.

Otherwise, if monsters suddenly burst out and destroy the mycelial carpet behind, cutting off the front line's network, that would be fatal—for Louisa's life.

Depending on the situation, each cave requires dozens or even hundreds of Pujis to guard the mycelial carpet; Lin Jun's originally sufficient troop capacity is rapidly decreasing.

The normal operation of the Mushroom Garden requires a capacity of 800, with 400 of them on the fifth floor; reducing this number further would leave Lin Jun feeling insecure.

With the remaining capacity, at the current pace, after occupying another ten or so caves further down, the expedition would be forced to halt due to insufficient cannon fodder, even without encountering boss-level enemies.

So,

usable intelligent beings must be found as soon as possible to serve as intermediate nodes and expand the army.

This is also why Lin Jun gave Louisa a death order: intelligent humanoid life forms are to be captured, not killed.

However, up to now, only two Minotaurs have been captured.

The Cave Dwellers, on whom Lin Jun pinned high hopes, have not even left a shadow.

It is highly probable that the direction of the Great Expedition is not the same as the direction of the Cave Dwellers' nest.

To search for traces of the Cave Dwellers, Lin Jun has continuously dispatched reconnaissance Bat Pujis from the occupied caves to explore various connected passages, but so far there have been no results.

However, although there is no good news about finding the Cave Dwellers, there is bad news!

Rifts... more rifts!

Lin Jun has now occupied four caves and explored over a hundred passages, finding no fewer than six rifts.

Although none are large, and the other side is merely harmless void space, it inevitably makes Lin Jun feel as if he is living in a dangerous building.

Security, security!

Why is it so difficult to stay peacefully in one place?

Lin Jun has even considered the worst-case scenario: failing to seize the Core and the Dungeon shattering.

He would have no choice but to flee like a homeless dog, slinking out to develop again from scratch.

Just imagining that scene makes one's heart ache.

Of course, Lin Jun has also considered other methods—perhaps he could find a way to make humans aware of the situation in the Deep Zone?

Humans surely would not be willing to watch the Dungeon crumble with their own eyes?

Although this method is not as good as seizing the Core himself, it is still a hundred times better than being homeless.

It's just that there are too many uncertainties involved...

Returning thoughts to the present, the two Minotaur captives have awakened, but the recruitment is not proceeding smoothly.

Even though they have been 【Fused and Parasitized】, the thoughts transmitted through the Mycelial Network remain resistant and violent.

"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Facts prove that the affinity bonus brought by 【Fused and Parasitized】 has almost no effect on the berserk and stubborn Minotaurs.

These two Minotaurs are not without intelligence; they simply prefer death over compromise.

At first, Lin Jun wondered if these Minotaurs had some warrior's honor, requiring a one-on-one duel victory to subdue them, a plot like that.

It turned out that was not the case; the two Minotaurs were simply racially discriminatory, looking down on the Pujis.

They even looked down on Louisa, that vampire.

Lin Jun could not understand the source of this inexplicable sense of superiority; in any case, the Minotaurs showed no sign of yielding from beginning to end. In the end, Lin Jun ended up with two Minotaur puppets...

Recruitment failed; Lin Jun's mood worsened.

At a time like this, it would be great if the Huang Pishu could charm and control the Minotaurs into obedience.

Unfortunately, the Huang Pishu is too useless; it has no way to deal with Minotaurs, a culture that does not exist with written characters.

What use is such a useless book?

Wait, it seems there actually is some use!

Lin Jun remembers the Huang Pishu's detection range seems quite large?

Norris is actually quite diligent; after coming out, he threw himself wholeheartedly into improving his strength, almost every day training his combat abilities on the sixth floor.

The Huang Pishu used its detection ability to help him select suitable combat opponents; because he possessed a set of excellent skills, he fought opponents of higher levels every time.

Under the accumulation of experience points, his level has now reached LV27, not far from Silver Rank.

However, today, Norris, suddenly called to the side of the Rift Valley, looking down at the bottomless abyss below, had a vague bad premonition.

"Boss, what's up?"

"Norris, have you felt recently that the monsters on the sixth floor are a bit too weak?"

Hearing this, Norris nodded.

The sixth floor, after all, has a maximum level of only 30; for him now, it is indeed hard to say how much challenge it offers.

But the seventh floor is a waterway terrain; he has no water skills at all, making it unsuitable for training there.

Setting aside the difficulty of the eighth layer, the mycelial mat hasn't even been laid successfully, so it's not suitable to go there yet.

"Today I'm just taking you to a new place; there are more monsters there suitable for you to practice on."

"That boss... that new place isn't...?" Norris kept staring at the rift below his feet, obviously having guessed something.

Sigh, Norris has grown too; he's not so easily stirred up anymore.

Seeing this, Lin Jun didn't hide it and affirmed: "It's down below!"

"But boss, I can't fly..."

"No problem, Puji can!"

Just as he finished speaking, four bats named Puji grabbed Norris's four limbs and lifted him up.

Norris instinctively wanted to struggle, so Lin Jun kindly warned: "Don't move around, or you'll fall."

Now at the top of the rift, Norris instantly straightened his body, letting the bats named Puji carry him down slowly.

Half an hour later, Norris, finally flown to the bottom cave, vomited uncontrollably the moment he landed!

With his spirit highly tense and his body constantly stiff, the feeling of nausea after suddenly landing steadily could no longer be suppressed.

After he rested for another half an hour, Lin Jun assigned him a task—together with the Yellow-Booked One, search for traces of the cave dwellers.

Of course, the premise was not to leave the controllable range of the mycelial mat.

At the same time, Lin Jun also transferred control permissions of two Minotaur puppets and ten elite Puji to him.

With this, combined with the Yellow-Booked One's detection ability, Norris's safety could be guaranteed.

Norris looked at the two monsters before him, each more than twice his height, and swallowed hard.

This was still his first time seeing individual puppets, and they were Minotaurs far stronger than him!

The feeling of casually commanding monsters stronger than oneself was incomparable to controlling a few Puji, which made Norris feel a strange excitement in his heart.

And when he learned this was the deep zone, Norris added a measure of caution to his heart, but did not become cowardly because of it.

The boss arranged muscle, provided the mycelial net, and had the Yellow-Booked One to help.

If he still lacked the courage to explore nearby, then there was no need to consider becoming stronger!

As for the Yellow-Booked One, it showed far more enthusiasm than when it played around with Norris on the sixth layer.

【Boss, just leave this matter to us; we guarantee it will be completed easily!】

(End of this chapter)