Chapter 19

Level 5 of the Purple Crystal Underground City, Swamp Zone.

Mud mixed with blood seeped into the swamp from between his fingers; Dilan bent low, pressing against the slippery rock wall, his abdominal through-wound making every step agonizing.

He failed—he failed right at the start.

He hadn't managed to control the lone parasitic tree with Sleep Powder before being discovered.

Now he was not only Severely Wounded, his weapon had been knocked away, and other parasitic trees in the distance had received the signal and were closing in.

"Bella."

Whispering his daughter's name, Dilan's eyes burned with the thirst for survival—he couldn't die yet.

Bella was the only child he and his late wife had left: intelligent, well-behaved, and remarkably gifted.

At such a young age, she'd already reached Silver Rank; in the future, she would surely become far greater than this worthless father of hers.

She still had a bright future ahead—she shouldn't die now, and certainly shouldn't be forced to live as some grotesque Blood-Eater.

So he couldn't die—he still had four packets of Sleep Powder, he still had a chance, if only he could escape the swamp…

"Dead end…"

At some point, the path ahead had been blocked by a stone wall.

Dilan tried to retreat, but five parasitic trees had already surrounded his escape route; their pale roots twitched, waiting to seize him.

If his body were intact, he might have tried to break through before they closed in—but now, with his severe abdominal wound, it was impossible.

He grabbed the climbing vine hanging from the wall, attempting to scale it—but the vine tore loose in his grip, revealing a stone door hidden beneath it.

"Ha… cough… ha ha… hidden room…"

After all these years, this was the first hidden room he'd ever stumbled upon; under any other circumstance, he'd have been ecstatic, for such rooms usually contained valuable treasures.

But now…

The parasitic trees were less than twenty meters behind him; Dilan didn't care anymore—he fumbled for a protruding mechanism and pressed it in.

All he could do now was pray that inside lay a legendary artifact to save him.

As gray dust rained down, the heavy stone door swung inward.

Boom—boom—boom—

Several magic cannonballs shot from the shadows, striking a parasitic tree whose roots had already reached for Dilan, slicing it cleanly in half.

Glowing mushroom caps flickered to life one by one; rows of plump, strange Pukjis appeared before Dilan.

I have been imprisoned for ten thousand years,

and now you dare invade my domain?

What the hell—what kind of tree-thing is this, so disgusting!

————

Life in the Treasure Room was never short of food or drink—truly… dreadfully boring…

Not even as good as the Mushroom Garden, where I could fight monsters every day.

Life here was so dull that Lin Jun ate all the glowing grass in the room and gained a nearly mana-free glowing skill.

Of course, leveling up here was fast.

With a full pool of high-concentration mana, Lin Jun harvested it nearly dry and leveled straight to LV47.

He pulled out the one-tenth Lava Heart he'd scavenged.

No wonder it was the core of an Inferno Demon—it still radiated incredible heat even after shattering.

If Lin Jun's high-temperature resistance hadn't already reached LV7, the mycelium wouldn't have even stuck to it.

After decomposing the Lava Heart, Lin Jun leveled up again, gaining a new skill: 【Self-Detonate LV3】

Now he wouldn't need magic crystals to activate his Self-Detonate Pukjis…

Luckily the Inferno Demon died suddenly—if he'd left even a drop of blood for Lin Jun to use Self-Detonate, whether Lin Jun's position would've survived is uncertain, but the three adventurers right in front of him would've been dead for sure.

The question now was: how to get out?

He had already produced forty Pukjis.

Due to limited space, he couldn't rely on quantity—he had to focus on quality, equipping each Pukji with five to seven skills.

He'd already tried a collective barrage against the stone door—it wouldn't break.

The Treasure Room must have special reinforcement; otherwise, with this firepower, shattering stone would've been effortless?

As for using Self-Detonate to blow the door open—Lin Jun dared not risk it, fearing the explosion's power and the confined space might kill him too.

After being sealed for who-knew-how-long, something interesting happened—the Treasure Chest respawned!

After a pulse of magic, the stone lid of the chest slid back into place; when opened, it revealed a ring.

Too bad—it was an offensive magic ring with no stat bonuses, only able to cast Ice Spike three times per day.

Its power was roughly equal to a Mushroom Cannon's—useless to Lin Jun.

For the days that followed, Lin Jun could only stare hopefully at the chest, waiting for it to respawn something useful to help him escape.

If only it would spawn a classic Teleport Scroll or something like that.

But before Lin Jun could wait for the chest to respawn a second time, the stone door was opened from the outside…

————

Outside light streamed in, falling upon Lin Jun's main body beside the pool.

This… this is the scent of freedom!

But the next second, the Pukjis sealed the doorway perfectly, blocking the light to prevent any possible attack from harming the main body.

After carefully hiding the main body within the shell of his strongest repaired Pukji, Lin Jun finally had time to observe the outside.

A Severely Wounded adventurer lay motionless beside the stone door.

Was this man the one who released me? Not bad.

Further out stood a few trees... people... disgusting demonic creatures.

Pulling up the panel and seeing the 【Fusion Parasitism】 skill on it, Lin Jun finally figured out what this thing was.

Immediately, he unleashed a barrage of firepower. Several parasitic trees used skills to counterattack, with one even casting Fireball.

Yet against Lin Jun's firepower, it was all futile; the Fireball was blown apart before it could fully coalesce, burning the caster instead.

After easily dispatching the parasitic trees, only this weakened adventurer remained.

Don't misunderstand; Lin Jun didn't intend to kill him to silence him.

In fact, as long as the existence of the main body wasn't exposed, he didn't care about leaks of information on the level of "a group of strange Pujis appeared in the dungeon."

This person released Lin Jun; Lin Jun casually saved his life in return. That settled the score.

The problem was that he looked like he was about to die in his current state, with his HP on the panel slowly and steadily dropping.

Letting nature take its course and letting him die like this didn't align with Lin Jun's mushroom principles; at the very least, he should try to save him.

The current difficulty was that Lin Jun didn't know any healing skills...

The Pujis were all consumables; if they broke, just throw them away. If repair was truly needed, plugging them with mycelium would suffice. One couldn't just plug a human with mycelium, could one...

Should he call other adventurers to help?

Leaving aside the fact that he didn't know where this was, even if he found other adventurers, they would likely start fighting first.

Lin Jun recalled the introduction to 【Fusion Parasitism】 he had just seen. Looking at the parasitic trees still soaking in the swamp, it seemed this was the only option.

The Pujis dragged the already unconscious Dylan and the remains of the parasitic trees into the Treasure Room.

Lin Jun controlled the mycelium to accelerate the decomposition of the parasitic trees.

This was a very losing move; the mana consumed to accelerate the process far exceeded the mana gained from decomposition.

But Lin Jun got what he wanted.

【Seven Sins: Greed Triggered】

【Plundered Skill: Fusion Parasitism LV1】

The main body personally scattered spores onto the fatal wound on Dylan's abdomen. Under the boost of mana, the mycelium gradually fused with the flesh and blood, sealing the wound.

It even replenished Dylan's vitality to a certain extent.

In the end, he really did plug a human with mycelium...

Sensing this non-human, non-mushroom existence appearing within the mycelial network, Lin Jun felt something was off.

Had the purity of his own organization decreased?

(End of Chapter)