Chapter 91: 90 Someone Stole the Net (First Orders Requested)

At the sixth tier of stairs.

Under the infusion of mana, mycelium began to grow out bit by bit from within the stairs.

A green slime was stuck to the wall, moving along the edge of the exit and eating the mycelium that had grown out.

Boop—

Several mushroom cannons hit, blasting a large amount of slime mucus into the air, scattering it all over the ground around.

But despite losing a huge amount of bodily fluid and shrinking to two sizes smaller, the green slime was still stuck to the wall, intending to continue eating the mycelium.

The Pochis could only fire two more rounds of mushroom cannons before the core of this mucus slime was finally destroyed.

However, not long after, new slimes began to emerge...

Some slimes were very small; one mushroom cannon shot indeed killed them, but the mycelium growing around them was also blasted into a sky full of debris by their own attack.

What could be confirmed was that the botanical garden environment of the sixth tier was indeed very suitable for slime survival, with far more numbers than the previous tiers.

Among them, some mutated varieties had appeared, such as multi-nucleated slimes formed by the fusion of multiple slimes.

After the Pochis attacked it, it exploded into a pile of individual slimes, then rushed up from all directions to surround the Pochi in the middle; by the time other Pochis rescued it, it had already been half digested.

Although the slimes caused some losses, for Lin Jun it was merely a waste of a little mana; the spread of mycelium on the stone walls continued steadily.

Once it spread to the dome, just like the previous tiers, it would eat all the firefly grass above and replace it with fluorescent mushrooms.

What troubled Lin Jun more was the ground.

Unlike the previous tiers, the territorial divisions on the ground of the sixth-tier botanical garden were quite fine and crowded.

A flower spirit would claim an area of about ten meters around it as its territory; if other monsters broke in or grew into it, they would either be killed by it or driven away.

The pseudo-flower vines would strangle other creatures attracted by the honey scent, and passing Pochis would also fall victim to their hands.

The demon orchid would emit a bewitching blue light to surrounding creatures, luring prey into its traps; this, however, posed no threat to the Pochis, as the Pochis were controlled by Lin Jun and immune to charm.

In short, various types of plant-type monsters, along with a small number of animal-type monsters, had divided the sixth tier into many small territorial patches.

Unless Lin Jun adopted the extermination-style sweep used on the fifth tier, the Pochis would find it very difficult to advance far on the ground.

And without the Pochis on the ground providing escort, areas far from the stairs would see the mycelium become a free lunch for the slimes.

The reason for the extermination campaign on the fifth tier was that Lin Jun needed a stable base, whereas for other tiers, he needed the skills of the monsters within the ecosystem, not the tiers themselves.

For the first to fourth tiers, Lin Jun had chosen to occupy spaces that local creatures did not need, supplemented by attacks on slimes, thereby completing the mycelium mat coverage.

But the local plants of the sixth tier... had no unnecessary spaces on the ground.

Even if Lin Jun did not mind damaging part of the ecosystem and forcibly opened a safe passage through the botanical garden, one could imagine that in the future he would have to face an endless tug-of-war with the local plants just to maintain that safe passage.

It was effort with no reward; this was not what Lin Jun wanted.

Regarding this, Lin Jun had actually thought of some solutions.

If the ground couldn't accommodate the Pochis, then let the Pochis climb the stone walls along with the mycelium!

There were three selectable skills.

【Suction Cup Lv. 3】

Obtained from a small lizard during the Demon Tide Period, it allows one to adhere to walls.

However, since the Pochis have no hands, to move, they would probably still need to combine the suction cups with mycelium tentacles.

To be honest, just imagining the scene of a Pochi climbing a wall using tentacles made Lin Jun feel a bit uncanny.

The other option was to be like these green slimes.

【Digestive Mucus Lv. 6】

The way these green slimes climbed walls was essentially no different from snails.

Their mucus could serve both as digestive fluid and to help stick their bodies to the wall.

In theory, if a Pochi added 【Corrosion Resistance】, it should also be able to use this to climb walls.

But the problem was that the Pochis not only needed to get on the wall, they also needed to attack slimes while on the wall.

The recoil of the mushroom cannon would probably be too much for mucus adhesion alone to stabilize; after one shot, it would fall off the rock wall.

As for the last option.

【Stone-Eater Lv. 4】 obtained from the rock lizards already extinct on the fifth tier; its effect is to eat surrounding stones and then cover the body with a layer of rock armor.

If there are no footholds on the rock wall, just create them yourself!

Directly spawn Pochis on the rock wall; once born, they would immediately start eating the stone beneath them, then fuse the rock armor with the stone wall, finally becoming something resembling a fixed turret.

This thing was aesthetic and practical, but its drawback was also obvious—poor cost-effectiveness.

With the same consumption, Pochis that could roam and maneuver everywhere would definitely be more useful.

Fortunately, he currently had a Solar Mana Generator, so mana was not lacking for the time being.

If the first two options were unsatisfactory, choose this one as a fallback.

While Lin Jun was still molding the appearance of the newly designed Pochi, a Big Black Mushroom also descended from the fifth tier to the sixth.

"Xiao Hei? What are you going to play today? Fighting turtles on the seventh tier?"

"Fight green people!"

"Xiao Hei, those are treants; you can't just randomly attack green people, you know that, right?"

"Mm!"

Mm my foot!

Seeing her agree so quickly, Lin Jun knew she absolutely didn't understand!

Since Xiao Hei often couldn't understand, Lin Jun would explain it to her repeatedly.

Over time, this thing actually learned to pretend to understand, brushing it off with "Mm, mm, mm."

Truly damn heart-wrenching!

But speaking of which, last time at the Treant's place, Lin Jun released spores again, trying to see if mushrooms could seize the ecological niche of moss.

Now that Seeing Xiao Hei is clearing the way, might as well go take a look as well.

Skillfully splitting off four Pujis to follow Seeing Xiao Hei, the majority of Lin Jun's consciousness once again immersed itself in molding Pujis.

This is a delicate task; without molding the corresponding form correctly, equipping the skill is useless.

However, he couldn't immerse himself for long, as a strange voice in the mycelial network interrupted Lin Jun.

"Mushroom, Dominator, you have appeared again!"

???

Locating the source of the signal, it was... the Treant Forest?

Huh?

The Pujis followed behind Seeing Xiao Hei, violently traversing several plant-type monster territories, and arrived at the forest entrance.

Only then did Lin Jun see the owner of the signal—a Treant with mushrooms growing on its body!

It looked somewhat familiar; after straining to recall, wasn't this the Treant whose limbs Seeing Xiao Hei had dismantled back then?

It seems they have grown back now!

Plant-type monsters' regeneration abilities are just superior.

No, that's missing the point...

These Treants actually possess high intelligence!?

Judging by what was said earlier, it's at least more fluent than Seeing Xiao Hei!

Speaking of Seeing Xiao Hei, this guy has already rolled up his sleeves, ready to start fighting.

"Seeing Xiao Hei, wait! Wait a moment, let's not play for now, okay?"

"Want to beat the Green People!"

Indeed, it's still the damn Green People!

But now is not the time to argue with her.

Decisively deploying the trump card that has been most effective against Seeing Xiao Hei recently!

"Be good, I'll give you glass marbles in a moment!"

Sure enough, upon hearing about glass marbles, Seeing Xiao Hei instantly turned into a good baby.

Ran to the side and started playing with tree roots pulled from the ground.

Meanwhile, a fifth-layer Puji ran to Seeing Xiao Hei's mushroom house, dug two intact glass marbles out of a room full of glass shards, to be used for giving to Seeing Xiao Hei later.

Having dealt with the brat, Lin Jun finally had the time to attend to this Treant, who had been left aside and had walked through the brink of life and death once more.

"Um... well..."

Pulling up the panel, there was no name; confirmed to be a Barbarian.

"Mr. Treant, connecting to my local area network, what is your business?"

Thanks to "Qing Deng Zui Ren Jian" Dalaode Alliance Leader

(End of Chapter)