Chapter 98

At the collapsed cave entrance, twenty Excavation Poojis were diligently smashing the fallen boulders, while ten Ox-Horse Poojis behind them continuously used reinforced mycelial tentacles to move the rubble aside.

This was a minor miscalculation by Lin Jun; he had intended to place some automatic explosive Landmine Poojis at key points to effectively strike enemies.

However, he forgot the cave was too fragile, and the Poojis' self-destruct capability had increased significantly.

This time, the explosion didn't even happen directly inside the cave, but at a distance of over ten meters.

Whenever this happened, Lin Jun would miss the tunnels in the Deep Zone, where no matter how much they were bombed or blasted, the overall structure remained as stable as Mount Tai.

Come to think of it, doesn't normal mining require reinforcing the mine tunnels?

Lin Jun had no civil engineering knowledge; if he really had to think of a reinforcement method, it would be to build some scaffolding inside the tunnel, though how effective that would be was uncertain.

He didn't know if this world possessed such knowledge; it would be great to find some experts.

After all, if he could eventually control the dungeon, the places available for mining would surely be more than just this single fifth layer; if collapses happened every day back then, no one could stand it.

About a day later, the collapse at the cave exit was finally cleared away.

Some Excavation Poojis trapped inside ran out one by one, rolling onto the mycelial carpet outside to replenish their energy.

Only about half of the original working Excavation Poojis were still mobile; the rest, having failed to replenish nutrients in time, had fallen into standby mode, and a few had even starved to death.

The Ox-Horse Poojis entered and carried these Poojis out one by one.

Lin Jun checked the internal tunnels again; the good news was that almost none of the internal tunnels had collapsed, meaning the losses were not significant.

Among these, Lin Jun paid special attention to Tunnel Number 22; he sent a Pooji to probe all the way to the bottom, and only after confirming there were no problems did he relax.

The reason Lin Jun paid such close attention to Tunnel Number 22 was that it was not a tunnel dug for mining purposes.

Its purpose was to dig diagonally upward out of the dungeon!

Because the dungeon had only one exit, even if Lin Jun extended outward, enemies who understood his situation could destroy the mycelial carpet in large quantities at the main gate, cutting off his connection to the outside.

In the worst case, this method could cause significant delays in Lin Jun's control over the outside.

This was also why, when facing the issue of expanding outward versus downward, Lin Jun focused on going downward, while only spreading a small amount of mycelium outward to scout the way.

But if he could dig out a second exit, or even a third, fourth...

Then these worries would not exist.

Of course, this wasn't because Lin Jun thought the dungeon would have such a huge loophole; if such a loophole truly existed, the dungeon would have been riddled with holes long ago.

Most likely, when digging to the boundary, a restriction similar to an air wall would appear.

But didn't he have the Hero Privilege? If he could use the privilege to resolve the restriction, then there would be no problem!

Anyway, the cost of trying was just needing a dozen or so Poojis to take turns constructing daily.

The cave collapse wasn't entirely a loss; Lin Jun did gain something.

In one of the mushroom houses in the Mushroom Forest, Norris lay on a mycelial bed, his body wrapped completely in translucent mycelium.

His left arm and both legs had crushed bones, his spine was broken, and multiple organs were damaged.

Even with the mycelium repairing his body, Lin Jun had used several bottles of healing potions just to keep him alive.

However, while mycelium could repair flesh and organs, and broken bones could be barely reattached, shattered bones like his were beyond repair; so even if he woke up now, he would just be a useless cripple with hemiplegia.

Lin Jun knew that in the human world, there existed top-tier items like Limb Regeneration Potions that could fully heal someone with only a breath left.

But he didn't have any!

The items in his inventory were all contributions from adventurers coming and going; how could these guys possibly have potions of such a level?

Besides, even if he did have them, they would be classified as strategic resources, not something to be used casually to save a stranger.

The reason he said this youth named Norris was his gain...

was because this guy had the fewest skills among all the people Lin Jun had ever seen!

Normal humans, even low-level adventurers who entered the dungeon, didn't they all have a bunch of skills on them?

Although the skill levels were very low and most had no practical value, they still existed!

If it was someone older like Dylan, the number of skills would be even greater, causing the cost for Lin Jun to add skills each time to be astronomical.

So, trying to stack skills to push Dylan to Diamond Rank was simply impossible. Similarly, Lin Jun could only equip Seeing Xiao Hei with a few key skills, and he still had to save up enough mana in advance each time.

But this young man in front of him was different; his skills were pitifully few, and his panel could even be described as... clean!

Moreover, he was different from Dylan.

Although Dylan relied on Lin Jun, overall he didn't owe Lin Jun anything.

When they first met, Dylan let Lin Jun out, and Lin Jun saved his life; that settled the score.

Afterwards, their relationship only developed into that of a boss and an employee.

So Lin Jun dared not casually test many of his ideas on Dylan; after all, if one day he really changed him into having three heads and six arms, even Lin Jun would feel a bit embarrassed.

But this young man in front of him was different.

The debt of him almost dying should be counted against the two adventurers who had already sunk into the swamp.

And now, having saved his life and asking him to help explore the effects of combining human and monster skills, this was fair!

But before that, he still needed to investigate this youth's background thoroughly.

A Pooji stepped forward, and its mycelial tentacles slapped Norris's face repeatedly with a "pa-pa-pa" sound.

"Hmm—?"

Soon, Norris slowly woke up: "This is..."

He tried to sit up, but found only his right hand could move...

Quickly, Norris understood his situation; although he didn't know why he was saved, it seemed better to have died on the spot.

Feeling that nothing mattered anymore, he wasn't even curious why a Pooji was standing beside him.

"Do you still remember you told me you wanted to live?" Lin Jun's voice suddenly rang in Norris's mind.

Norris was startled at first, but soon returned to that look of a heart turned to ash, merely asking casually in response:

"Who are you? The Grim Reaper? But I heard the Grim Reaper is a goddess..."

"You don't look like someone who wants to live. Is it because you're disabled? Actually, it can be restored."

"Really?" A glimmer of light appeared in Norris's eyes.

"Really, really. There's just a small price to pay or something... but that doesn't matter. Let me confirm with you again: if you had a healthy body, would you still want to live? Answer me yes or no."

Norris: "..."

He actually wanted to ask what the "small price" was, but this mysterious voice seemed unwilling to waste any more words with him.

Norris thought of the life flashing before his eyes earlier, and of that girl he had only met once.

He wanted to get close to her, wanted to know her, wanted to speak with her, wanted to...

"I... want to live!"

"Very well. Now we enter the second round of the interview."

The second round?

Did the mysterious voice seem full of expectation?

Norris wanted to continue thinking, but for some reason, he suddenly couldn't focus his attention?

"Young man, now let's talk about your story!"

This voice came as if from the edge of the sky, carrying a magic he could not refuse...

(End of this chapter)