Chapter 95: 94 First Hire

When the three Pujis arrived at the Treant Grove again, Lin Jun found that the number of Treants connected to the Mycelial Network had increased.

"Meeting again, my Treant neighbors. Is it five this time..."

Compared to the base of hundreds of Treants in the entire grove, it was very few, but a good start.

Several Treants had obviously sensed the Pujis through the Mycelial Network long ago and had been waiting for Lin Jun's arrival.

Lin Jun could feel that they were all a bit nervous.

However, after discovering that Seeing Xiao Hei hadn't followed, this tension decreased significantly.

As if worried Lin Jun would think there were too few, the same Treant with a mushroom growing on its head from last time stepped forward and said, "Mushroom Sovereign, the clan members need more time to accept the change; please understand."

A thought wave carrying a soothing emotion was transmitted from the Mycelial Network to the few Treants: "I am very happy to see five existences willing to step out and communicate. In fact, I came this time to ask everyone for a small favor. Is anyone willing to come? Of course, there will be compensation."

Lin Jun did not specify what the small favor was; explaining the matter of testing the relay nodes would take too long.

The few Treants looked at each other; they had prepared themselves mentally before connecting to the Mycelial Network, so naturally, there was no reason to refuse at such a moment, and they all stepped forward together.

It was just that no matter how Lin Jun looked at it, there was a sense of determination.

Indeed, thanks to Seeing Xiao Hei setting a good precedent, they might now think the "small favor" was being sent to Seeing Xiao Hei to be taken apart for fun...

Let's take it slow.

The Pujis led the few Treants out of the grove; the destination was beneath the rock wall covered by the Mycelial Carpet near the staircase.

The location of the Treant Grove was indeed very remote; the journey required passing through several territories of other monsters.

Actually, there were five Pujis when they set out, but without Seeing Xiao Hei clearing the way, only three remained when they finally arrived at the Treant Grove.

For instance, right now, the returning team encountered a situation again: a vine-type monster suddenly wrapped around a passing Puji, gradually tightening, and it looked like it was about to crush the Puji to death.

Lin Jun originally didn't pay attention to this; it was too late to save it anyway.

The Pujis span several layers; normally, hundreds of Pujis died every day, let alone now during the sixth-floor clearance, where even more died.

But a Treant behind stepped forward, reached out, and touched the vine; the vine actually voluntarily released its prey!

What is this thing?

Lin Jun opened the panel and searched for a while, barely spotting a skill 【Plant Affinity Lv4】.

He had known the Treants possessed this skill before, but always thought it was used for growing mushrooms and moss on their bodies.

So this was the effect?

If the Pujis had this skill, wouldn't that mean...

The few Treants inexplicably felt a chill, but found no source.

No, no, no!

There was no need for any extreme behavior.

He could just pick up some accidentally deceased Treant corpses later... They shouldn't have a cremation culture, right?

After being attacked by the vine once, the Treants bypassed the Pujis and voluntarily took on the role of vanguard.

Whenever they encountered aggressive plants, they would first use 【Plant Affinity】 to soothe the opponent, then let the team pass.

This also allowed Lin Jun to understand the skill more clearly—it wasn't as useful as he initially thought.

At first, Lin Jun thought that with this skill, they wouldn't be attacked, but after watching the Treants use it a few times, he realized it was an active skill, not a passive one.

When using it, one had to touch the plant, but one must know that when a Puji was touched, it would likely die instantly...

Moreover, the skill's effect seemed closer to a plant version of a Charm spell.

If used successfully, it made the opponent give up the attack; if it failed... a vine forcibly snapped by the Treant's brute force was the result.

When the five Treants finally arrived at the destination, they saw the Mycelial Carpet spreading across the entire rock wall and over sixty Pujis beneath the rock wall.

A sense of unease regarding the unknown loomed over every Treant's heart; a bolder Treant asked directly:

"Mushroom Sovereign, may you now tell us what needs to be done?"

Lin Jun did not intentionally leave them hanging and explained directly:

"The favor I want to ask you for this time is to test the Mycelial Network; the Mycelial Network is what we are using to communicate now, you just need to know roughly."

Speaking, Lin Jun transferred control of two Pujis to the speaking Treant.

The Treant realized the change almost instantly. It first watched the two Pujis mimicking its movements, and half a minute later, without any further reminder from Lin Jun, it understood how to issue commands to the Pujis.

"How does it feel?" Lin Jun asked.

"It feels..." The Treant controlled the two Pujis to perform different movements in front of it, "a bit like root veins, but different."

Lin Jun knew about root veins, the method Treants used to communicate, but it could only transmit emotions; the specific meaning relied entirely on guessing, far less convenient than the Mycelial Network.

And what Lin Jun wanted to ask was not this.

"How is it mentally? Is there pressure?"

The Treant shook its head, indicating there wasn't.

Lin Jun decisively assigned four more Pujis to it.

Seeing it still seemed fine, Lin Jun continued to increase the number.

"Speak if you feel pressure!"

The number kept increasing until it reached twenty-four, at which point the Treant waved its hand, indicating it felt uncomfortable.

"Dizzy..."

Lin Jun hurriedly took back all control and let the Treant rest aside.

Next, Lin Jun had the other Treants test one by one.

He discovered that Treants could generally control more than twelve Pujis, and the Treant with the mushroom on its head could even master a quantity of twenty.

Looking at this, giving Seeing Xiao Hei over twenty Pujis at once before was indeed a bit too much...

These Treants felt very suitable for being his assistants!

However, Lin Jun did not rush to let them lead the Pujis to start rampaging on the sixth floor; this matter couldn't be rushed.

Just five tree demons weren't enough to get the job done.

After finishing the test, Lin Jun took out the payment he had prepared long ago.

Five finger-sized C-rank magic crystals.

It didn't look like much, but this mission itself was nothing more than a casual stroll for the tree demons, so the reward could be considered quite generous.

Moreover, Lin Jun had observed that although magic crystals did exist on the sixth floor, they were mostly cracked and mixed with impurities, their quality was terrible, barely above scrap.

The quality was so poor that some magic crystals were exposed right on the surface of the earthen walls, and passing adventurers couldn't be bothered to pick them up.

C-rank magic crystals were absolutely a rare resource for sixth-floor magical creatures.

And for tree demons, magic crystals should be no different from mushrooms — they could be used to fertilize the fields.

Sure enough, after receiving the magic crystals, the few tree spirits visibly perked up, as if they hadn't expected such a pleasant surprise!

Lin Jun didn't delay any longer either; after handing out the day's wages, he let them head back on their own.

Seeing them like this, Lin Jun knew his second objective for this trip had also been achieved.

After a few more visits, once a foundation of trust was established, Lin Jun would pick out some tree demons willing to fully side with him and give them better treatment.

With role models in place, the Mogu Sect faction among the tree demons would slowly grow, and eventually they would be fully absorbed in!

Lin Jun had already mapped out a future for the tree demons.

By then, relying on the relay nodes of the mycelium network, perhaps the management and maintenance of the sixth floor could be handled entirely without his own worry?

It would be great if the other floors also had tree demons.

Thinking it over, Lin Jun recalled that the werewolves on the tenth floor might fit the bill?

But for one, the tenth floor was still a bit far; he hadn't even figured out how to break through that teleportation labyrinth on the eighth floor.

For another, werewolves probably wouldn't be easy to get along with — in his memory, he didn't have any good impressions of werewolves…

Everyone, going forward it'll probably be two updates a day at 6 o'clock.

(End of chapter)