Chapter 4: 4 Magic Crystals

The mushroom garden was flanked by rock walls, their dark gray layers pitted with honeycomb-like erosion holes, as if gnawed by giant beasts.

Dark purple crystal clusters congealed in certain depressions, scattered sparsely across the entire wall, and the magic concentration around these purple crystals was always slightly higher than elsewhere.

The so-called mining area harvested these purple crystals.

Though planting this purple crystal in the soil wouldn't directly turn it into fertilizer, it could attract free-floating magic from the surrounding air, increasing the efficiency of mycelium in collecting magic.

The mining area was filled with Pukis equipped with the Chitinous Shell skill; they grew thick armored shells on their caps and used them to chip the crystals out of the rock walls.

Honestly, a Level 4 skill's shell was too soft—the mining efficiency was low, and Pukis often killed themselves from the vibrations—but given the limited conditions, getting anything out at all was already good enough.

Inanna fixated on a purple crystal the size of a fist, pinching it tightly with her short little legs.

"What are you doing?"

"Lin? Lin Jun?"

The pink Puki jolted violently, tripped over the purple crystal beneath its feet, and tumbled hard.

"Don't suddenly talk inside my head…"

"Do we have any other way to communicate? Get used to it."

Inanna thought about it—she really didn't—and yet she still felt she'd never adapt to someone constantly speaking inside her mind…

"You've got so many magic crystals here," Inanna said, picking up the purple crystal again, her voice brimming with excitement.

"Magic crystals? You mean these purple crystals used to fertilize the soil?"

"Fertilize… the soil?"

A green-cap Puki leapt out, lifting a giant mushroom's cap with its short legs—beneath it lay half a purple crystal embedded in the earth.

"Y-you're using magic crystals to fertilize the soil?!"

"What else would I use them for?"

"These are magic crystals! They can be turned into magical items, used as array foundations, and even small fragments serve as spell components! How can you waste them on fertilizer?!"

Inanna looked heartbroken, as if Lin Jun were squandering divine treasures.

"You forgot this is a dungeon? Besides fertilizing, they do have other uses."

A tendril woven from mycelium emerged from beneath the mushroom, activated the skill 【Entangle LV3】, wrapped around a purple crystal the size of half a palm, and bound the Puki and the crystal together.

Then, a continuous stream of magic flooded into the crystal; it shifted from dull to glossy, then from glossy to sparkling, its magic overloaded to the point of instability.

When cracks appeared on the crystal and it emitted a mournful cry under the strain, the Puki hopped wildly to an open patch of ground with the crystal still bound to it.

Boom—

It exploded.

The shockwave sent Inanna tumbling again.

"Pretty powerful, right? This thing's great against monsters."

Inanna, sprawled on the ground, had no words left.

A C-rank quality magic crystal—easily refined into the main material for a Silver-rank adventurer's staff—had just been used as a disposable item, releasing an explosion equivalent to a Level 4 Fireball spell.

Even the most ignorant nouveau riche in the Federation wouldn't waste such precious magical materials like this!

She herself only had a B-rank quality magic crystal embedded in her personal staff.

"By the way, you still haven't said why you need magic crystals."

The sudden return to the topic jolted Inanna out of her silent curses against Lin Jun's wastefulness, and she blurted out her purpose:

"I-I want to cast spells using them."

As soon as she spoke, she felt guilty—she didn't know if Lin Jun would see spellcasting as a threat, and if he thought she was dangerous, her life might be…

"Oh? Didn't you say you couldn't cast spells after turning into a Puki?"

Lin Jun showed no concern about threats—his tone held only pure curiosity.

Inanna exhaled in relief and quickly explained: "Just a test—maybe using a magic crystal could bypass the Puki body's limitations."

"Then try."

Another tendril emerged from beneath the mushroom, curled around the magic crystal beside Inanna, and extended toward her.

Instinctively, Inanna stepped back two paces—but the tendril still wrapped around her, binding the crystal to the top of her mushroom cap.

"Be careful—these tendrils are fragile. Don't break them."

After all, it was a stolen skill, forcibly used through mycelium—don't expect it to hold firmly.

Hearing that, Inanna dared not move, focusing all her energy on casting—Light Spell, a spell even an apprentice could cast easily.

An orange-yellow orb appeared above Inanna's head, flickering dimly, as if the magic sustaining it was unstable.

After flickering for a while, Inanna seemed to find the rhythm, and the brightness finally stabilized.

"Got it! It really works!"

Overjoyed, Inanna bounced up and down on her short little legs.

Snap—

The binding tendril instantly snapped; the magic crystal fell to the ground, and the Light Spell vanished—the mycelium tendrils were truly that fragile.

"S-sorry…"

Lin Jun paid no attention to the wasted mycelium—his entire focus was on Inanna's spellcasting.

"Try casting it again."

"I can't cast without the magic crystal."

"Failure doesn't matter—cast it. I want to see what's different."

See?

Inanna didn't understand what Lin Jun meant, but she tried casting the Light Spell on her own.

And, as expected, she failed—just like countless times before.

But Lin Jun, who had been observing her all along, saw more.

【Magic Perception LV4】

This was taken from a magical vine called Noctis' Whiskers, native to this mushroom garden area; they detect prey via magic perception and strangle it with their tendrils. Notably, the entanglement skill was also acquired from them.

Although these magical plants were not low in level, since they couldn't move, to Lin Jun they were no different from dishes on a plate—now they're extinct in this region.

Lin Jun somewhat regretted this; both skills of Noctis' Whiskers were highly practical, but at the time he was solely focused on securing territory and didn't think ahead—if he'd kept some to cultivate, like the Rolling Carapace Beetles and Slimes in the breeding zone, he could have raised them and slaughtered them regularly to extract skill proficiency.

In Lin Jun's Magic Sight, he observed that Inanna's magic flow during the initial casting stage was indeed smooth, yet the energy stalled at every node, never forming a complete loop, as if her casting method were wrong.

Inanna had just cast Glint Spell using a magic crystal—this couldn't possibly be due to her casting method being incorrect.

To Lin Jun, this seemed more like a result of the difference between human and Puki body structures—in short, hardware and system incompatibility preventing operation.

And a magic crystal is an independent environment that better matches the operation of these spells.

It felt similar to how he had to modify the Pukis before they could use corresponding skills.

"So can you use other spells now?"

Lin Jun knew she was a dual-element Level 4 mage, and he wanted to see more of her spells.

"Uh, I probably need more practice—I'm not yet familiar with channeling magic through a Puki body, and this magic crystal hasn't been polished; its internal cloudy regions interfere with casting. I need to get used to it."

"Cloudy? The purer the magic crystal, the better?"

Lin Jun had no concept of this—he only knew that sticking them in the ground could gather magic, and he'd assumed different effects were due to size differences. As for using them for self-explosion… purity didn't seem to matter.

"Of course! Supposedly, Grand Mage Zorya's staff is embedded with a completely pure S-class magic crystal—any spell cast through that staff triples in power!"

"S-class? They're even ranked… wait a moment."

Soon, before Inanna's puzzled gaze, two Pukis together carried a large, translucent magic crystal to her.

"A… A-class magic crystal? And as big as an arm!?"

(End of Chapter)