Chapter 28: 28 The Deep Caves Are Still Better

Dilan went to spread the "guide," while Lin Jun himself was far from idle.

The research on 【Fusion Parasitism】 is nearly complete; it is time to consume these jackal-people with such poor cost-performance.

Due to the friction with adventurers over this period, almost no adventurers below Silver Rank venture to the Fifth Layer carelessly.

Only a few high-level adventurers come, and their sole purpose is simply to reach the deeper layers below.

For these people, unless they intend to cross the swamp area, Lin Jun has the Pujis hide.

Since Lin Jun has let the mycelium and mushrooms grow everywhere gradually, they can detect them in advance and avoid them.

With Silver Rank adventurers not coming to the Fifth Layer, the cave area naturally emptied out.

The Crystalized Bats and Rock Lizards living inside during this time were the happiest; without those annoying adventurers, they could search for food all over the cave.

However, they rejoiced too early; Lin Jun arrived with the jackal-people and the Pujis.

The Rock Lizard aside, its rock armor is too heavy; if a Pujis wore it, it would likely only serve as a fixed turret.

The Crystalized Bat's 【Crystal Symbiosis】 skill is a good thing.

It can eat magic crystals, transform them within its body, and finally become part of the Crystalized Bat, helping it strengthen its skill power.

If it were just a simple skill of equipping magic crystals to the body, there would be nothing remarkable about it.

Lin Jun is not short on firepower either; after all, if one Mushroom Cannon shot cannot solve it, just fire ten; there are as many Pujis as needed.

But its hidden effect turns out to be the ability to purify!

Lin Jun only realized this after seeing that the quality of the magic crystals on the wings of many Crystalized Bats was a notch higher than those dug out in the cave.

Of course, it is only the degree of purifying from D to C.

But this is merely because these Crystalized Bats themselves have low skill levels, generally only level 3 to 4, completely unable to display the true power of this skill.

If the skill level were high enough, could Lin Jun pile up a large number of low-tier magic crystals that are of little use to create a large S-rank magic crystal?

Lin Jun is unsure if it will work, but it is worth a try!

The jackal-people and Pujis surged into the cave in great numbers; the monsters clearly felt the threat and became agitated.

They were merely monsters at the level of fire mosquitoes; Lin Jun did not take them seriously at all.

The Pujis fired a round of cannon shots cleanly and decisively; after the vibrations that could not cease for a long time, nothing remained.

The Crystalized Bats were gone, the Rock Lizards were gone, and even this cave entrance was gone...

Huh?

So fragile?

Back when I was in the Deep Zone... no...

The caves and tunnels in the Deep Zone were dug by Earth Worms; when Earth Worms dig holes, they expel the stones they have eaten from around their bodies to reinforce the rock walls.

So the Pujis could bombard there without worrying too much about collapse issues.

It made Lin Jun forget that caves like this on the Fifth Layer are the normal ones...

Fortunately, the collapse was not total; after the jackal-people cleared for a long time, they finally dug this entrance out again.

What to do now?

The proud Mushroom Cannon cannot be used, and self-destruct is presumably unusable as well.

Although many skills have been taken from adventurers recently, their levels are still quite low and of no use.

Will I really have to rely on these few dozen jackal-people?

Without the Mushroom Cannon, these useless jackal-people find it hard to even chop through the Rock Lizard's outer shell; they cannot be counted on.

Great, the cave guide plan has fallen into a desperate situation just as it began.

No choice; Lin Jun could only open his panel and look for inspiration amidst the pile of miscellaneous skills.

Magic?

Thanks to the adventurers' contributions, mana control is now assembled, but spells need to be learned personally, and where can he go to learn them?

So that won't work.

Use carapace plus rolling charge?

Thinking of the Rock Lizard's stone shell, better forget it.

Slime digestive mucus or the strong acid skill obtained recently?

It would work on bats, but it should be useless against a stone shell.

After thinking it over, the hardest to deal with turned out to be turtle-style guys like the Rock Lizard.

Come to think of it, do they eat poison?

With names like "Crystalized" and "Rock," sounding like inorganic objects, Lin Jun subconsciously did not think of poison.

This is also because Lin Jun has not used poison in combat for too long.

Thinking of it, he did it; Lin Jun accelerated production to create several Hallucinogenic Pujis, which sprayed spores and went in.

Soon, the cave was dyed with a purple filter.

In the narrow cave, the spores were not easily blown away; Crystalized Bats fell one by one from the cave ceiling, and the Rock Lizards soon lay on the ground motionless.

They really do eat poison!

Using poison was even easier than my initial plan of a direct assault.

Dragged them out and made them into the first round of fertilizer.

【Seven Sins: Greed Triggered】

【Loot Skill: Crystal Symbiosis LV1】

【Loot Skill: Infrasonic Attack LV1】

【Loot Skill: Sonic Detection LV1】

【Loot Skill: Rock Eating LV1】

……

Pity the cave network extends in all directions; no one knows exactly how deep it goes.

A few hallucinogenic Pujis won't be enough to handle it.

Lin Jun can only wait until a large batch of hallucinogenic Pujis is produced before resuming his actions.

In the end, these jackal-wolves have nothing to do with it!

They're so useless it's hard even to consume them...

Lin Jun's urgency to consume them had its reasons.

Once these jackal-wolves are parasitized, their bodies are covered in mushrooms; who wouldn't associate them with Pujis?

Normally, a single Puji occupying a floor was enough to draw hatred; if it were discovered they could parasitize and control humans just like the Parasite Tree, what then?

So what Lin Jun is doing is actually destroying evidence of the crime.

If all else fails... just decompose them directly...

Pity only mana can be decomposed from them; just like those controlled by the Parasite Tree, creatures fully parasitized by Lin Jun yield no skills upon decomposition.

Lin Jun still hasn't figured out the principle behind this.

Lin Jun has grown accustomed to this; there are countless things in this dungeon he cannot understand.

For instance, who exactly set the "rules" on the dungeon floor staircases?

For instance, how does the dungeon move entire hidden rooms?

When that stone door in the swamp vanished, Lin Jun detected absolutely no anomaly.

He now strongly suspects that hidden rooms and treasure chest respawns occur in sync; last time, he probably transferred along with the hidden room.

Yet he noticed nothing inside.

Lin Jun feels he must find a way to learn a bit more about the "Dungeon."

When Dylan returns, he'll ask if there's any way to do so.

————

A gentle knock sounded on the guest room door, followed by the voice of a young adventurer named Vera, who had met the masked Dylan once before:

"Feiling, Feiyin, are you in there?"

The twin sisters, clad only in their undergarments, exchanged a glance, hurriedly dressed, and then let Vera in.

"It's so late; what is it?"

The elder sister, Feiling, wore an expression that said, "If you have nothing important to say, you're in for it."

Vera, seemingly oblivious, handed a sheet of notebook paper to Feiling with an excited face.

"The latest guide for the Fifth Floor?" Feiling glanced over it a few times, looking strange. "Isn't this a bit too detailed? Where did you get it?"

"I bought it from an adventurer named Dylan for fifty silver coins. He also said we were kindred spirits and gave me an extra piece of special intelligence at the end."

"Fifty silver coins!?" Feiling's voice shot up so high it distorted. Kindred spirits? It sounded like a scam to her. "That's so expensive! You haven't been scammed again, have you?"

Some not-so-beautiful memories of her childhood friend surfaced in Feiling's mind; she was already thinking of whipping Vera...

Vera knew what Feiling was talking about and hurriedly explained:

"I asked the tavern owner. He knows this Dylan; he's been an adventurer here for a long time.

His character is decent. He retired for a while, but it seems he's recently resumed his old trade.

Overall, he's somewhat credible.

The key is, look at the information in this guide. If it's true, fifty silver is absolutely worth it."

Feiling pouted, looking at the "guide" in her hands. It was already a fait accompli; what could she do?

If it turns out to be false information in the end, she would definitely hang Vera up and whip him.

While Vera and Feiling played out their bickering lovers' drama, the other twin, Feiyin, watched silently like a background extra.

Among the three, she never opposed anything; whatever the two said went.

(End of this chapter)