Chapter 104: 112 Promotion System

What kind of mutated Puji is this?

These raised scales look just like dragon scales...

Facing the Great Black Mushroom, with nowhere left to retreat, Lacus once again drew blood from within his body.

This damned floor; the entire level is mushrooms. He couldn't find a single monster to draw blood from, so he had no choice but to use his own.

If a blood awl can't break the Great Black Mushroom's scales, then he'd just have to go around them!

He, Lacus, was a genius, after all!

Instead of condensing the blood into a blood awl, he subdivided it—and subdivided it again!

He condensed the blood into threads and controlled the movement of every single blood thread...

The requirement for such precise control made Lacus’s head feel like it was splitting, but between life and death, he gritted his teeth and endured the pain that nearly caused him to faint.

【Skill Upgrade: Blood Manipulation lv6 → lv7】

"Urgh—ah!"

Countless blood threads shot out, charging straight at the Great Black Mushroom in front of him.

The blood threads didn't collide with the scales; instead, they changed their angle as they approached, piercing through the gaps between the scales before detonating the magic power and life force contained within the blood simultaneously.

For a moment, the Great Black Mushroom trembled all over and took two steps back.

There was no time to be smug. Taking advantage of the Great Black Mushroom’s interrupted movement, Lacus transformed directly into a bat, grabbed the Grimoire, and flew into the air.

Along the way, the fungal threads hanging from the mushroom trees actually reached out toward him. Thanks to the bat’s small size, he managed to dodge them with nimble maneuvers and charged out of the mushroom forest.

Only after flying into mid-air did Lacus let out a small sigh of relief.

Good thing he could fly!

He hadn't dropped the Grimoire either. Now, he just needed to find a way to fly out of the fifth floor...

Suddenly, he felt something approaching rapidly... A Puji?

A Puji that had spread its wings and was gliding over from the dome?

What the hell is this thing!?

His bat form wasn't convenient for counterattacking, so Lacus could only flap his wings as hard as he could to get away, but he wasn't as fast as that Puji.

It was fine, though; Lacus could see that this Puji could only glide, not fly. Once it got close, he just needed to quickly swerve around it...

Boom—

After the close-range explosion, the bat Lacus had transformed into was sent spinning away, and it took him a long while to regain his balance.

He didn't have time to care about the injuries on his body; his empty claws left him in a state of shock.

"The Grimoire? Where is the Grimoire?"

The Grimoire he had been clutching had vanished in the explosion. He wanted to ignore the danger and go back to look for it, but he felt something blocking the space above him?

Pitch-black scales, golden vertical pupils, huge wings, and a claw swiping toward him...

Lin Jun, still immersed in the joy of having played a round of dive-bombing, immediately felt a headache coming on when he saw the half-vampire being swatted down like a cannonball.

He didn't swat him to death, did he?

As the first member of the demon race to enter his dungeon, Lin Jun naturally gave him twelve points of attention.

He hadn't expected him to be here for the Huang Pishu.

He had originally wanted to interrogate him; it wouldn't be good if he were swatted to death just like that.

Lin Jun didn't dislike guys who could break through in the heat of battle—who doesn't like a bit more skill proficiency?

But how could you hurt Xiao Hei...

It had to be said, this guy was quite impressive. At only level 40, having just stepped into the Gold rank, he was actually able to deal effective damage while facing Xiao Hei alone, even if it was only a little bit.

One had to know, the last time Xiao Hei was injured, it was the result of four Gold-rankers and nearly twenty Silver-rankers working together.

Fortunately, the panel hadn't disappeared yet...

Soon, the Puji responsible for cleaning up the mess had tied up both the escaped Huang Pishu and its accomplice, the half-vampire.

The Huang Pishu was fine; apart from the edges of its pages being a bit scorched, it looked quite spirited, the text on it refreshing non-stop like a scrolling screen.

Through study, Lin Jun’s 【Human Common Language】 was now level six, and he could understand some of it by guessing. Most of it was just nonsense about clearing its name and begging for mercy.

It was worth mentioning that when Lin Jun looked at the words on the Huang Pishu, he kept his panel open at all times.

If he discovered any charm effects, he would let the Huang Pishu know that its previous days had already been quite good.

As for this half-vampire who barely retained a human shape... let's sprinkle some spores and start the interrogation!

"So you came by yourself?"

The interrogation went very smoothly. With Xiao Hei sitting in front of him, showing the thief a scene of Puji feeding brutally, combined with Lin Jun’s parasitic spores and hallucinogenic spores, Lacus told him almost everything he knew.

Everything from searching for the Grimoire, to the Vampire Duke, and his own guess that he was just a pathfinder—Lacus spilled it all.

It was just that Lin Jun didn't quite understand one thing.

"Since you were being mistreated, why not choose to leave?"

Lacus, who hadn't had blood to drink and couldn't recover from his injuries, lay on the ground and replied in a slurred voice:

"Bloodline contract... If one betrays their lord, even if they survive, they will never be able to promote."

"What is promotion?"

"Titles are power... and also shackles," Lacus suddenly coughed violently, dark red bloodstains soaking into the ground. "Unable to promote to Viscount... means my level cannot exceed 40, and my maximum lifespan... is no more than 120 years..."

It sounded like a system with strict hierarchy and extremely strong control.

It made Lin Jun a little envious.

His own parasitic ability was still a bit weak in terms of compulsion once the target was out of range.

Looking at Lacus, who had already fainted on the ground, a Puji nearby carried him off to the sinking swamp.

He did indeed have a death playback status on him; letting him die slowly in the swamp meant no information would leak out from his side.

He had no intention of taking him in as a dog.

The interrogation had revealed that this wasn't a stable guy, not to mention he was stuck by the promotion system; no matter how he looked at it, he wasn't suitable to be a subordinate.

What Lin Jun was more concerned about was the importance the demon race placed on the Huang Pishu. No matter how he thought about it, this Huang Pishu was a disaster...

Should he throw this book away?

Lin Jun rejected this thought in just one second.

This thing had stayed here for so long; it couldn't just be let out like this.

Instead of throwing it away, it would be better to let Xiao Hei tear it apart!

For some reason, the speed at which the Grimoire on the ground was typing out pleas for mercy suddenly increased by thirty percent...

As for the demon teams that might come looking later, Lin Jun didn't really care.

Demons dying in the Amethyst Dungeon wouldn't have any negative impact on Lin Jun.

They couldn't possibly send a Duke to sneak in just to find trouble for him, could they?

It wasn't that Lin Jun had any prejudice against the demon race; one could tell from the shapeshifter Kelolo that the so-called racial differences in this world were probably just that.

Lin Jun was actually quite interested in interacting more with races other than humans, such as elves, dwarves, demons, and so on.

But the prerequisite was that you had to be friendly.

For robbers who came to snatch things, there was no need to be polite.

He checked his panel again; no charm. Very good.

A Puji walked up and rolled up the Grimoire, which was still babbling about being an "honest book." Lin Jun wanted to forge a new seal for it.

He would set up at least dozens of landmine Puji around it!

By the way, there was also his elite Puji plan; the first batch would be out soon. He hoped to have it ready before other demons arrived, just in time to ask them to help test its practicality.