Chapter 48: 48 Infiltration

At the bottom of the stairs connecting to the sixth layer.

Several large cow-horse Pujis, their mycelial tentacles busy, were packing up the last bits of monster corpses.

Once this trip is done, the Pujis' spoils from the Demon Tide Period will all have been moved back to the Mushroom Garden.

Thanks to the massive amount of fertilizer, with sufficient mana, in just over a week, the mushroom fields of various sizes across the entire layer had already begun to take shape.

In another week or so, it could even become more prosperous than before the Demon Tide.

Even Lin Jun himself had to admire the growth speed of the mushroom race.

Of course, this excludes the Venom Lake.

The contamination of the Venom Lake was even worse than before.

At first, only the area surrounding the lake had become dead ground; now it had expanded to within 500 meters.

Lin Jun felt a bit of regret for not carefully examining the skills of those three snakes.

What kind of poison could be so vicious?

Fortunately, the spreading trend finally stopped over the past two days; it was just unknown how long it would take for the ecosystem to return to normal.

As for the Mirages inside the lake—

A two-meter-tall large cow-horse Pujis, its belly full of gathered mushrooms.

It entered the poison zone, walking step by step toward the lake.

It walked step by step because with every step, the Pujis' foot that touched the ground would be corroded away by a layer of venom.

It was only because this Pujis was large that, by the time it reached the lakeside, its feet could barely retain a little bit.

Afterwards, the whole mushroom rolled down the slope, rolling into the lake with its belly full of mushrooms.

The Mirages waiting inside the lake for a long time swarmed up, beginning their feast, which occurred once every two days.

Lin Jun ultimately decided to farm them; after all, this lake could do nothing else now except raise them.

These creatures had low aggression; at most, they would spit out some venom, and their range of movement was confined to the lake; they wouldn't run around wildly.

Moreover, since they lived in the Venom Lake, even if adventurers passed by later, it would be difficult for them to have designs on them.

And raising them was naturally for the harvest.

Mirages averaged only around level ten, were small in size, and the mana and experience they could provide were negligible.

The only valuable things were water adaptation and the scale armor, especially this scale armor.

After decomposing a large number of dragon beasts possessing scale armor skills, Lin Jun had naturally obtained this skill.

Then he discovered that this thing was truly more convenient than the shell Lin Jun was currently using!

Compared to an outer shell, the scale armor possessed not weak defensive power while also being lighter and more agile.

Now that these Mirages existed, serving as a stable source of acquisition.

In the future, it was estimated that only when digging up Pujis would an outer shell still be used to knock on stones.

While the Mushroom Garden was flourishing, Lin Jun also turned his attention to other layers.

Although he didn't know why, even though so much time had passed since the Demon Tide, human adventurers had not yet resumed their activities.

But for the current Lin Jun, this was not a bad thing.

Taking advantage of this time, the Lin Jun Sect sent out many Pujis.

They did nothing else but scatter spores in the corners of the first four layers, or in positions difficult for monsters to reach, to generate a few mushrooms as peripheral monitoring.

Although when the mycelium in one place was too sparse, it could not generate images, only sensing mana fluctuations.

But these small points could also serve as relay stations connecting the large mycelial mats outside back to the fifth layer.

As for why large mycelial mats needed to be set up outside?

That was naturally because Lin Jun couldn't bear to see the monster corpses from those other layers go to waste!

At that time, Lin Jun would decompose the corpses to obtain mana and skills.

Then generate some mushrooms to serve as food, supplementing the ecological cycle of the layers; everyone could have a bright future.

Unfortunately, the Mushroom Garden was recently in a state of rebuilding from scratch, and the number of Pujis was still insufficient.

They could only first head to the upper layers where the danger level was not high.

As for the lower layers?

If too few Pujis were sent, they would be eaten clean by the local monsters before completing their mission.

—

At the dungeon entrance, two guards responsible for watching the gate were sitting by a bonfire.

The campfire swayed slightly in the night wind; Aiden thrust his iron sword into the fire and poked it twice, sending a few sparks splashing onto his chainmail.

"It's so cold; I really want to go back right now and drink a bowl of meat soup," the newcomer beside him complained while rubbing his shoulders: "Senior, what's the point of the Guild making us guard this place? If those adventurers want to go down, could we even stop them?"

Aiden glanced at him, took the leather flask containing wine from his waist, took a sip himself first, and then handed it to the newcomer.

"You kid worry too much; isn't standing guard anywhere the same? What, if you went to stand guard in the town over there, would you be able to drink meat soup?"

The newcomer took the flask and gulped down two mouthfuls.

The alcohol flowing into his stomach made him instantly feel much warmer.

"How is it the same, Senior? Look at that," the newcomer pointed at a dark red stain on a rock, "I heard that a lot of people died here that day; maybe a vengeful spirit will be born!"

Aiden just watched the newcomer, staring until the newcomer felt somewhat embarrassed, then burst out laughing.

"Listen less to the bards' stories; a vengeful spirit? If dying a few people could really birth vengeful spirits, after so many years, the dungeon should already be packed with vengeful spirits!"

"I... I was just speaking off the cuff; I didn't really think that..."

Rustle—

Both simultaneously stopped their conversation and looked toward the direction the sound came from.

Aiden even placed a whistle to his lips.

From the side came the new recruit's slightly timid voice: "Could it really be a vengeful spirit..."

"What are you thinking!"

Aiden took out a simple torch, lit it from the bonfire, and slowly walked to the tree where the sound had come from.

After swinging the iron sword back and forth through the bushes and grass piles several times, he found nothing.

Only then did Aiden return to the bonfire and mock the new recruit harshly:

"Just some small animal, look how scared you are. With this little courage, you'll never make it."

The new recruit, who had indeed been scared just now, could only sit down dejectedly, muttering to himself things like "I didn't react in time" or "I was just drunk."

Neither of them noticed that two rows of faint footprints had appeared behind them at some point, stretching all the way into the dungeon.

—

First floor of the dungeon.

The light beside the stone wall blurred for a moment, revealing two young men crouching by the wall.

"Hee hee hee... I'm so scared!" The young man in the robe trembled uncontrollably. "Greg, you don't know, that sword was just a tiny bit away from hitting me! Really just a tiny bit!"

Greg, dressed as a warrior, looked speechlessly at his partner and friend—Calvin.

"Isn't it because you insisted on getting close to listen to what they were saying, only to get scared by some vengeful spirit..."

"Aren't you a mage? You study those increasingly strange magical materials every day; how can you still be afraid of vengeful spirits?"

Speaking of vengeful spirits, Calvin, who had just calmed down, started trembling again: "You... you don't understand! I only got scared because I saw one when I was with my master! If you met one, you'd be scared too!"

"Yes, yes," Greg said, looking as if he couldn't be bothered to respond to him. "You're this scared; do we still go down? Or should you cast an invisibility spell and we head back?"

Hearing this, Calvin grabbed Greg's arm:

"How can we do that?

If I don't get the parasitic tree seed, how can I brew the Truth Potion?

If I can't brew the potion, how can I hand in my assignment?

If I fail to hand in the assignment again this time, the master will surely punish me by making me a spellcasting subject for that Young Lady with her peculiar tastes, and then watch me turn into a squish!"

"Greg, you must help me this time. Don't forget, last time when you were constipated, it was me who brewed the laxative potion for you!"

"That time was just letting me have a stomachache for a whole day; does that count as helping?"

"Just say whether you were relieved or not!"

(End of this chapter)