Chapter 21: 21 Battle in the Swamp

The morning sunlight penetrated the wisteria curtain, weaving broken gold patterns on the oak floor.

The girl curled up on the velvet cushion was still sleeping soundly.

"Mm... so satisfied..."

Three rhythmic knocks woke the girl from her beautiful dream.

"Good morning, Miss." The voice of the butler, Eric, sounded outside the door, "The new magic teacher should be here soon, please prepare in advance, Miss."

Ever since Inanna was found, Eric had been ordered by the Duke to serve her exclusively, both to arrange her daily life and to ensure her safety.

As for the Duke himself, because of the small-scale military harassment constantly provoked by the Hermit Empire, he was forced to stay at the border and couldn't get away.

"Uncle Eric, I know, I'll be there in a moment."

After the footsteps faded, Inanna stretched and climbed out of bed, starting to dress herself.

According to custom, the Duke's mansion had a special maid responsible for helping the young lady dress, but ever since Inanna returned, she only wanted to take care of it herself.

Everyone speculated that this was a manifestation of the young lady becoming more cautious after experiencing betrayal, and the whole mansion felt deep sympathy for Inanna's encounter.

But in reality, it wasn't like that.

Inanna reached into her pink hair and touched the back of her head—there grew a very, very small pink mushroom cap the same color as her hair.

Inanna didn't tell anyone, whether it was the experience in the dungeon or this mushroom.

The former was because of Lin Jun's entrustment, and the latter, she herself didn't know why she wanted to hide it.

Probably because if she said it out, everyone would definitely find a way to wipe out this small mushroom cap, and she wanted to keep it.

After pinning up her hair, Inanna came to the window, feeling the warmth of the sunlight.

"The weather is so good, I wonder what Lin Jun is doing now; after I left, did he successfully slay an earthworm?"

————

Hahahaha!

Right, right, blast it for me, blast these disgusting things to pieces!

In the swamp area on the fifth floor, a war between Puji and Parasitic Trees was in full swing.

More than a hundred light-equipped Puji without shells but equipped with [Evasion LV7] were in fierce exchange of fire with groups of Parasitic Trees.

These days, the more Lin Jun fought them, the more suffocated he felt; the reason for the suffocation was ultimately the issue of return.

This skill [Fusion Parasitism] was not bad; it could parasitize any humanoid creature with flesh and blood.

In the Parasitic Tree team opposite, there were a small number of Parasitic Trees with gnolls as tree stumps (the easiest kind to solve).

The problem with this skill was that there was no difference between level 1 and level 10!

This skill could only parasitize dying creatures, and the only bonus for upgrading it was that it could complete parasitism when the creature was not so dying.

It could be said that adding it was the same as not adding it; the ones that needed to be parasitized were definitely caught by Lin Jun, so wasn't it just a matter of beating them to whatever health level he wanted, needing this little bonus?

So there was absolutely no return on this skill.

[Entanglement] also belonged to the category of having it is fine, but high-level is useless; he relied on elegant bombardment to fight, and didn't need primitive tactics like mycelial tentacles.

In the end, only [Resilience] was a bit useful, which could make the mycelia tougher, naturally increasing some defense for the Puji, and the mycelial tentacles were also stronger.

Useful, but really not much.

For such a little return, the loss paid was huge...

These past few days, Lin Jun had encountered high-level parasitized people several times, each time causing him no small loss.

Now these Parasitic Trees were like a group of cockroaches in Lin Jun's eyes, disgusting to look at, yet he had to slap them to death—after all, he still wanted to grab their swamp.

It had to be said that the swamp really suited mushrooms.

The humidity and temperature were very suitable, and more importantly, the swamp was rich in magic!

This swamp was simply created for the establishment of a mushroom garden, and it only needed a little cleaning.

After today's battle, he would occupy half of the swamp area, and the progress was gratifying.

Watching the Parasitic Trees vanish in the mushroom cannon fire, Lin Jun's main body deep in the occupied swamp couldn't help but shake with satisfaction.

The Parasitic Trees also seemed to shrink back under the fierce offensive of the Puji.

Just when Lin Jun thought this round of battle was about to end, a frantically rotating individual rushed out of the Parasitic Tree team.

Just its appearance, the rotating roots shredded two Parasitic Trees blocking the way.

[Blade Storm LV8]?!

The parasitized individual was actually a full level 45!

Not brother, you're already a gold-level adventurer, why are you still flipping over on the fifth floor?

Isn't it shameful?

In reality, most melee skills used by Parasitic Trees were severely deformed, and their power was greatly reduced.

But Blade Storm was clearly not in this category.

Like a tornado, it rushed into the Puji team, instantly twisting the surrounding Puji into mycelia filling the sky.

And the Puji's mushroom cannon shots were all intercepted by the high-speed rotating roots, only causing some minor, painless injuries.

This wasn't over; there was a burst of magic fluctuation in the Parasitic Tree team, and two water elements made of mud and water, looking dirty, were generated in the swamp.

Summoning magic!?

This was the second time Lin Jun had seen summoning magic; the last time was with the Flame Demon, seeing it summon a few puppets that seemed quite strong but didn't come in handy in the end.

The summoner was hidden in the Parasitic Tree group, and it was impossible to tell which one it was.

Damn it!

The two water elements were only LV35, but their water flow attacks could blow away a large area of Puji at once.

More importantly, this thing was a summoned object; if it died, it could be summoned again; did he have to use Puji to consume the summoner's mana?

The two great experts who suddenly killed their way out caught Lin Jun off guard, and other Parasitic Trees also began to fight back.

Tsk.

Retreat!

A few Puji attacked the water elements and the Blade Storm Parasitic Tree, attracting attention while running to both sides, leading them away.

The remaining Puji retreated at full speed.

Fortunately, Parasitic Trees were not very smart things; after eliminating the Puji used as bait, they found no other Puji around and restored to slow action mode.

After the battle, Lin Jun counted, and of the more than a hundred Puji sent out, only forty or so ran back, half of the losses of which were caused during the final sneak attack.

The worst part was that after losing the battle, he couldn't collect the remains of the Parasitic Trees to replenish consumption.

It was foreseeable that the next round of offensive would be forced to be postponed.

Damn Parasitic Trees, they still had some big cards to play!

But it didn't matter; the hidden ones were the trump cards. Since they had already been exposed, there were ways to target them.

But Lin Jun also found a problem; although his Puji had evasion skills that could easily dodge single-target attacks.

But they were useless against wide-range attacks like Blade Storm or water flow impact.

Short legs couldn't run fast, and they were easily caught up and killed.

If only there were acceleration skills, just like the [Acceleration] that the werewolves on the 10th floor knew, which was the most simple and practical.

His [Rolling Charge] didn't count; shrinking into a ball required preparation, and returning to the original form also took time, and it wasn't convenient to use other skills to attack while rolling.

I don't know if there are any good acceleration skills on this floor; I'll explore around during the time of replenishing the Puji inventory.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 22 =====