Chapter 84: 84 The Incident Escalates

"Come, your x."

"Luckily I xed a xxxx snake, otherwise I'd have xed all the xx mushrooms and xed myself."

"By the way, xxxx shredded into strips, xxx is very good."

A certain mushroom was conducting its daily peeping activity.

Some time ago, it hung 22 humans in the swamp at once, plus a bit it learned following Dylan.

【Human Common Language lv5】

Lin Jun always felt that the words this skill upgrade taught you weren't in order of frequency, but random.

That is to say, it's not impossible that even at Common Language lv9, you wouldn't recognize the character "walk."

It's quite a pitfall.

Fortunately, the self-taught part remains unaffected.

Now that Dylan has met his "good senior," their daily conversation volume has skyrocketed, benefiting Lin Jun immensely.

It can be foreseen that language will soon cease to be a weakness.

Similarly, due to the impact of the massive human losses last time, the number of adventurers descending to the fifth floor has noticeably decreased recently.

Facing high-level adventurers who might appear at any time, Lin Jun has made considerable preparations.

Besides the usual increase in Cannon Mushrooms and Whip Mushrooms, two new defensive Pujis have been developed.

On the dome of the fifth floor, a special self-destruct Pujis has now been nurtured.

The Pujis wriggled its body, kicked with its short legs, successfully detached from the mycelial mat, and began freefall.

Then it... opened its wings!

More accurately, it looked like a flying squirrel suit.

For a Pujis to fly is too difficult; it would need a skeleton to create a wing prototype, a way to obtain feathers, the strength to flap those wings, and...

Although it can't fly, adding a "wing" for gliding is relatively much easier.

Dive straight into the enemy's face and then self-destruct!

However, reality differed slightly from expectations.

The Pujis struggled to wriggle its body in mid-air but failed to master its balance.

Finally, amidst the chaos, it directly used 【Dive lv3】, crashing headfirst into the cap of a mushroom tree and exploding...

Lin Jun did not control the entire process; after all, in actual combat, he certainly wouldn't have time to control every single one.

But now it seems that relying on the Pujis's own intelligence is insufficient to complete this aerial attack.

Thinking about it, there certainly aren't any flight-related instincts inside a Pujis's body.

What a pity; Lin Jun had thought he could have countless self-destruct Pujis swarm flying toward invaders, how amazing that would be...

Fortunately, the second type of Pujis doesn't have such high requirements.

【Self-Destruct lv5】 + 【Mimicry lv4】 + 【Rush Ejection lv5】

Mimicry was added because these Pujis are usually buried in the soil, leaving only their color-changed caps visible on the surface.

A layer of mycelial mat is spread on top, making them completely invisible.

But stepping on them triggers an explosion!

Even if not stepped on, once they enter the ambush zone, they can all eject from the ground to self-destruct together.

Moreover, since only three skills are needed, the mana consumption is quite low.

Lin Jun plans to lay down more of them.

There is also something that can only be considered a hobby.

A Pujis was spinning in place, its four mycelial tentacles dancing into a circle.

【Blade Storm lv1】

No one knows which human it fell from.

Currently, it has no practical value, but spinning around looks quite intimidating!

Finally, and most importantly, the arrangement—the escape route.

Beneath the swamp, in Lin Jun's main body's room.

Countless webways have been woven from mycelium, extending all the way to five staircases.

Upon reaching the swamp's edge, they connect to the dug underground tunnels. This ensures that even if the army is annihilated and Seeing Xiao Hei is defeated, the Knight can use a rolling charge to carry the main body to escape in any direction.

As for fighting to the death?

That is impossible.

From the Deep Zone to the fifth floor, he has already fought as hard as one should in a lifetime.

Humans now find it very difficult to completely eradicate the mycelial mats of the first five floors; as long as he doesn't die, even if he fails temporarily, he can quickly make a comeback.

This is merely a contingency plan for the worst-case scenario; in reality, Lin Jun has yet to encounter anything capable of threatening himself plus Seeing Xiao Hei at full strength.

Even that Diamond-rank adventurer party that took down the Flame Demon in the Deep Zone back then couldn't do it.

Of course, if this matter could be downplayed from a big issue to a small one, and humans acted as if nothing happened, that would be ideal! —

The scent of ale wafted through the hall of the Golden Sun Tree Tavern; since the Rotten Willow Tavern closed, business here has nearly doubled.

"This butter oyster is truly delicious, Vera, you should have some too!"

The trio, having earned money on their last trip, finally felt willing to spend a bit more on food and lodging.

Feilin, enjoying the meal too much, met with misfortune from joy—something got stuck between his teeth.

Seeing this, Vera lowered her head, refusing to look at Feilin's awkward struggle to clear his teeth.

After the Raiders knocked out one of Feilin's teeth, due to the group's financial situation, it was simply left unrepaired.

Vera silently made up her mind: after the next dungeon run, she would first return to the city and find a professional master to repair Feilin's tooth.

Boom—

The door of the Golden Sun Wood Tavern was shoved open with a violent thrust, drawing everyone's gaze. The innkeeper looked at the wooden door smashed against the wall, his eyes filled with displeasure.

The stumbling figure cast a long, thin shadow under the oil lamp.

"Begon!" he roared, his voice like stone being scraped, "Begon's Steel Heart Squad is wiped out!"

Just like dropping a red-hot iron ball into a cup of water, the Golden Sun Wood Tavern instantly erupted into chaos.

"Bullshit!" a feline adventurer smashed the wooden wine cup in his hand, the scar on his painted face twisting with agitation, "That was a Gold-rank team! They brought over ten Silver-rank members too, and you're telling me they're all wiped out?"

As soon as these words were spoken, someone immediately agreed: "Yes, an adventuring party of over twenty people, and they weren't even going to some deepest layer; how could they possibly be wiped out?"

The messenger still wanted to say something, but he was panting heavily. A nearby drinker voluntarily handed him a cup of ale.

That man didn't stand on ceremony; he tilted his head back and downed it in one gulp, and it was unclear whether more went down or spilled out.

Having moistened his throat, he immediately relayed the rest of the information:

"Some adventurers exchanged for equipment belonging to Begon's squad members at the Mushroom Merchant on the Fifth Layer. When they took it to the trading hall to sell, someone recognized it.

There's still a crowd gathered there right now; if you don't believe me, go see for yourselves!"

With that, most of the crowd instantly believed it, and even the few who doubted it immediately stood up and rushed out, intending to see with their own eyes.

All other topics in the tavern vanished at that moment; everyone was discussing Begon's squad and their target, the Great Black Mushroom.

Consumption at the Golden Sun Wood Tavern was not low; those who could be regulars here had generally reached Silver-rank or above.

And the Great Black Mushroom's range of activity happened to be exactly the Fifth and Sixth Layers.

There was no choice but for them to pay attention.

After all, if Begon's Gold-rank squad was wiped out, that meant nine out of ten adventurers would face certain death if they encountered the Great Black Mushroom.

Of course, some felt that Begon and his team died because they had actively challenged it.

According to these people, they had also encountered the Great Black Mushroom, dropped a few glass bottles, and then left safely.

The rumor that the Great Black Mushroom liked shiny things had existed for a long time, and everyone still believed it to a certain extent.

But since one's own life was at stake, no amount of caution was too much.

"I never thought Mr. Begon and his team would be wiped out."

Feiling gulped down several mouthfuls of wine in a row, only then suppressing the fear in her heart.

"Yes, truly unexpected. There were four Gold-rank members alone, yet they were wiped out on the Fifth Layer..."

Vera's expression was also grim; Feiyin, who stood nearby without speaking, was even paler.

Among those present, if one had to say who was most shocked, it was definitely the trio; they had genuinely, almost ended up on the list of the wiped out!

At this moment, all the adventurers present, including Vera, simultaneously thought of that Adventurer's Guild, which had been receiving rather unreliable reviews recently.

The next chapter will be released at 9 o'clock.

(End of this chapter)