Chapter 16: 16 The Hero

A pair of green eyes stared at Lin Jun.

Thirteen werewolves, lowest LV26 (underage), highest LV42.

These stupid dogs looked ready to take out their frustration on him for letting the prey escape just now.

The damn dogs all had the skill 【Acceleration】; turning and running would likely mean they couldn't escape.

Fortunately, Lin Jun hadn't planned to run anyway.

Super Pooji, Transform!

It shrank into a ball.

【Rolling Charge LV5】

This was a byproduct of when he obtained the 【Chitinous Shell】 skill; day after day extracting it from rolling beetles, the level actually reached LV5 before the shell did.

This skill, which had almost no presence in the Mushroom Garden, finally had its moment to shine.

Lin Jun rolled straight toward the entrance of the nine-story staircase.

The forty Poojis behind him weren't idle either; the mushroom cannons unleashed a barrage of bombardment ahead.

The dogs were agile; such linear attacks were easily dodged, with only one unlucky dog getting hit by a shell that blew off a paw.

But Lin Jun had already achieved his goal; the mushroom cannons successfully cleared the path.

One gray-furred werewolf, refusing to believe in bad luck, charged in on all fours amidst the cannon fire and used Claw Strike on Lin Jun.

【Evasion LV6】

The Pooji ball made a small jump, rolling squarely over the dog's face, leaped over him, and charged into the staircase.

Safe at home!

The werewolf that got smashed down fell hard, and before he could get up, he was hit simultaneously by seven or eight mushroom cannons, turning into a pile of rotten meat.

He passed the level smoothly, but unfortunately, only this Super Pooji could pass.

The combat Poojis left behind hadn't a single one equipped with Rolling Charge.

Seeing Lin Jun enter the passage, the werewolves all turned their targets onto the remaining Poojis.

It proved that a frontal confrontation with merely forty Poojis was indeed no match for twelve werewolves.

After injuring only three werewolves, the Poojis were wiped out.

To say Lin Jun felt regret would be an exaggeration.

These Poojis were brought out to cover his true form in the first place; if necessary, they were even meant to be used as bait.

He just hadn't expected them to be wiped out after clearing only one floor.

He hoped the rest of the journey wouldn't be this unlucky...

————

Without the following Poojis, Lin Jun's fungal network could no longer provide vision at all.

He could only rely on 【Air Current Perception】 and 【Magic Perception】 to observe his surroundings.

It was much more inconvenient.

The ninth floor was the most disgusting place Lin Jun had ever seen.

Everywhere were flesh tumors, and the monsters were all flesh-and-blood creatures resembling failed genetic engineering products.

Fortunately, as a mushroom he had no sense of smell; just looking at it, he could guess what the place probably smelled like.

However, the journey through the ninth floor was actually quite smooth.

After the adventurers rested there for a while, they successfully ascended to the eighth floor.

It was just that when Lin Jun also intended to go up, a small accident occurred.

【Native Monster Level Exceeded, Access Denied】

The panel that popped up out of nowhere startled Lin Jun; worse still—the air wall appeared!

There was nothing visible, but the closer he got to the staircase leading to the eighth floor, the greater the pressure ahead became, as if it were going to crush him to pieces.

Is this the dungeon's "rule"!?

Native Monster; so he was counted as a member of the dungeon family too?

Unfortunately, this family wasn't warm at all.

No!

I still wanted to see the sun one more time!

How could there be such a miserable reincarnator as me?

【Hero, Restrictions Lifted】

Huh?

He was just about to try forcing his way down with Rolling Charge when the air wall that had been squeezing him suddenly vanished.

What is this?

A hero's privilege?

He took two more steps forward; the resistance had indeed disappeared.

【53】 What kind of old running program is this, with such a long interval between two judgments?

What kind of archaic operating procedure is this, with such a long interval between two judgments?

It scared him.

He thought he'd have to stay in the dungeon forever playing a family game of "you eat me, I eat you" with the monsters.

Fortunately, it was just a false alarm.

But why could he suddenly no longer sense Inanna's location?

————

On the eighth floor, Lin Jun stared blankly at the four magic arrays on the ground.

Unlike the two floors below, the eighth floor actually had stone bricks — a man-made building material — as if he had entered some ancient structure.

But the problem was that aside from four magic circles on the ground, the eighth floor didn't even have a path!

These couldn't be teleportation magic circles, could they?

If so, that would explain why he couldn't sense Inanna.

So what should he do now?

Which one to pick?

Well, of course—

Don't pick any of them!

How could he possibly risk stepping on these magic circles with his real body when they obviously looked like nothing but traps!

Disgusting as it was, he'd just settle on the ninth floor for now, grow some Puji, and use 【Minion Control】 to scout the way.

Just as he was thinking this and preparing to head back, Lin Jun sensed a fluctuation of magical energy behind him.

The second magic circle on the left lit up.

Three humans walked out of the magic circle.

……

【One-Line Slash】

【Wind Blade Art】

【Precise Shot】

Damn!

After a brief moment of shock, the three adventurers decisively launched attacks at the monster before them.

At the same time, they were loudly chattering away in a language Lin Jun couldn't understand.

Dodge! Dodge! Dodge!

Lin Jun dodged while trying to fire back with his mushroom cannon — he didn't have the bad habit of not retaliating when attacked first!

But being willing to fight back was one thing; whether he could actually win was another matter entirely.

All three adventurers were above level 40, and they clearly knew how to coordinate…

Lin Jun tried to retreat to the lower floor, but a wall of ice blocked his escape.

He could shatter the ice wall, but the adventurers' relentless attacks kept him constantly on the run.

【Skill Level Up: Dodge LV6 → LV7】

Dodging skills hard enough to level up his Dodge — not bad, but unfortunately this didn't help his current situation much.

The mushroom cannon fire he sent back would be dodged or blocked.

The digestive mucus was blown away by a gust of wind.

The moment the hallucinogenic spores were released, all three immediately drank an antidote potion.

Though they weren't on the level of that Diamond-rank group that took Inanna away, anyone who could reach the ninth floor was clearly no pushover either.

All three of his trump moves were instantly countered!

Lin Jun knew his own limits — even his so-called strongest Puji would definitely count as weak among level-40-plus opponents.

Let alone taking on three professional adventurers of equal level.

But he hadn't expected that he couldn't even escape!

No, wait — he still could!

Lin Jun curled into a ball, dodged past the warrior in front of him with one swift move, and charged toward the archer in the back row.

The mage on the flank cast a spell to block him between himself and the archer.

Now was the moment — taking advantage of the gap in the mage's casting, Lin Jun made a sharp turn and plunged headfirst into the magic circle on the right.

As the light from the magic circle gradually rose, the surrounding scenery shifted, and Lin Jun appeared somewhere else.

Once again!

He had escaped danger!

If only that arrow hadn't hit him…

The warrior couldn't catch up in time, and the mage was in casting cooldown, but the archer's arrow ultimately caught up to Lin Jun.

An iron arrow pierced straight through the strongest Puji's rear end.

Just that one hit shaved off half of the Puji's HP. Fortunately, Lin Jun's real body wasn't in the rear end, so it wasn't affected.

Those adventurers wouldn't follow him over, would they?

They hadn't shown up even now, so they probably wouldn't come.

That made sense — after he teleported over, there was no corresponding magic circle beneath him, clearly a one-way teleportation array.

Presumably, regardless of whether those adventurers knew it was a one-way teleportation array or not, they wouldn't casually step into it.

Man, that was close — he almost let those guys earn the achievement of slaying a Hero.

So, what to do now?

Looking at the stone-brick corridors stretching out in all directions before him, Lin Jun fell into thought.

(End of Chapter)