Chapter 4

The mushroom garden is backed by rock walls on two sides. These rock walls look like bones gnawed by giant beasts, with the dark gray rock surface covered in honeycomb-like erosion holes.

Dark purple crystal clusters condense in some depressions, scattered sporadically across the entire rock wall, and around these amethysts, the mana concentration is always higher than in other locations.

The so-called mining area is where these amethysts are collected.

Inserting this kind of purple crystal into the soil won't directly turn into nutrients, but it can attract the free mana in the surrounding air to gather, increasing the efficiency of mycelium mana collection.

There are many Puji in the mining area equipped with the Chitin Shell skill. They generate a thick layer of shell on their mushroom caps and then use it to chisel the crystals out of the rock wall.

To be honest, the hardness of the level 4 skill shell is insufficient, the mining efficiency is quite low, and the Puji are easily shaken to death by themselves, but conditions are limited, and being able to mine them out is already considered not bad.

Inanna has set her sights on a fist-sized amethyst that was mined out, trying hard to clamp it with her short legs.

"What are you doing?"

"Lin, Lin Jun?"

The pink Puji trembles violently and trips over the amethyst under her feet, taking a big tumble.

"Don't talk in my head so suddenly..."

"Do we have any other way to communicate? Get used to it sooner."

Inanna thinks about it and realizes that's true, but she always feels that she probably won't be able to adapt to someone being able to talk in her head anytime, anywhere...

"You have so many magic crystals here." Picking up the amethyst again, Inanna can't help but feel excited in her tone.

"Magic crystals? Do you mean these amethysts used to fertilize the fields?"

"Fertilize... fertilize the fields?"

A cyan-capped Puji jumps out, uses its short legs to lift the cap of a large mushroom nearby, and underneath is indeed half an amethyst inserted into the soil.

"You, you, you, you actually use magic crystals to fertilize the fields?"

"Otherwise?"

"These are magic crystals! These are magic crystals that can be used to make magic items, serve as bases for magic arrays, and even small, broken ones can be used as spellcasting materials! How can you use them to fertilize fields?"

Inanna looks heartbroken, making it seem like Lin Jun is wasting heavenly treasures.

"Did you forget this is a dungeon? But besides fertilizing the fields, it does have other uses."

A tentacle woven from mycelium extends from under the mushroom, activates the skill [Entanglement LV3], picks up an amethyst the size of half a palm, and binds the Puji and the magic crystal together.

Then, a continuous stream of mana pours into the magic crystal. The crystal changes from dim to glossy, and from glossy to flickering. The overly abundant mana inside keeps the entire crystal in an overloaded state.

When the magic crystal shows cracks and emits a groan of unbearable pressure, the Puji jumps wildly with the magic crystal to an open space.

Bang—

It explodes.

The aftermath of the explosion makes Inanna trip again.

"The power is quite great, right? This thing is very useful for dealing with monsters."

Rolling on the ground, Inanna no longer knows what to say.

A C-grade quality magic crystal, which could be used as the main material for a silver-ranked adventurer's staff with slight processing, is used as a disposable item before her eyes, releasing an explosion equivalent to a level 4 Flame Burst spell.

Even the most ignorant nouveau riche in the Federation wouldn't waste these precious magic materials like this!

You know, even the magic crystal embedded in her own exclusive staff is only of B-grade quality.

"By the way, you still haven't said why you need magic crystals."

Suddenly returning to the main topic makes Inanna, who is still cursing Lin Jun for being a spendthrift in her heart, unable to turn her thoughts around, and she directly states her purpose:

"I, I want to rely on it to cast spells."

After saying this, Inanna feels guilty again, because she doesn't know if Lin Jun will see being able to cast spells as a threat. If Lin Jun thinks she is a threat, her little life might be...

"Oh? Didn't you say you couldn't cast spells after turning into a Puji?"

Lin Jun doesn't seem to consider it a threat at all; his words are full of curiosity.

Inanna, who secretly breathes a sigh of relief, hurriedly explains: "I'm just trying. Casting through a magic crystal might bypass the limitations of the Puji body."

"Then give it a try."

Another tentacle extends from under the mushroom, picks up the magic crystal beside Inanna, and reaches toward her.

Facing the suddenly approaching tentacle, Inanna instinctively retreats two steps, but she is still entangled, and the magic crystal is tied to the top of her mushroom cap.

"Be careful, these tentacles are very fragile, don't break them."

After all, it's a plundered skill, and using it forcibly with mycelium, he can't expect it to really hold tight.

Hearing this, Inanna doesn't dare to move around anymore and focuses her energy on casting—Glimmer, a spell that even an apprentice can easily cast.

An orange-yellow ball of light appears above Inanna's head, flickering, as if the mana maintaining it is very unstable.

After flickering for a while, Inanna seems to have found the trick, and the brightness finally stabilizes.

"It worked! It really works!"

Inanna is so excited that she actually jumps up on the spot with her short legs.

Snap—

The tied tentacle breaks instantly, the magic crystal falls to the ground, and the Glimmer spell extinguishes along with it—the mycelium tentacles are really very fragile.

"Sor, sorry..."

Lin Jun doesn't care about the wasted mycelium at all; all his attention is focused on Inanna's spellcasting.

"Try casting it again now."

"I can't cast it without a magic crystal."

"It doesn't matter if you fail. Cast it, I want to see what's different."

See?

Inanna doesn't quite understand what Lin Jun means, but she still tries to cast Glimmer on her own.

Then, unsurprisingly, she fails, just like the countless times she has tried before.

However, Lin Jun, who has been observing her, sees more.

[Mana Perception LV4]

This was plundered from a magic vine called Noctis Whisker that originally lived in this area of the mushroom garden. They used mana perception to discover prey and then used vines to strangle them. It is worth mentioning that the Entanglement skill was also obtained from them.

Although these magic plants are not low-level, because they cannot move, they are no different from food on a plate in Lin Jun's eyes, and they are now extinct in this area.

Lin Jun regrets this a bit. Both skills of the Noctis Whisker are quite practical, but at the time he was focused on getting territory and didn't think too far ahead. Otherwise, if he had left some seeds, he could have kept them like the Rolling Beetles and Slimes in the breeding area, slaughtering them regularly to extract skill proficiency.

In the mana vision, Lin Jun observes that the mana flow when Inanna casts spells is indeed smooth in the initial stage, but the energy operation is blocked at every node, and it never forms a complete closed loop, as if her way of casting spells is wrong.

Inanna just cast Glimmer with the help of a magic crystal, so it's impossible for her way of casting to be wrong now.

In Lin Jun's view, this is more like a result of the different body structures of humans and Puji—simply put, the hardware and system don't match, so it can't run.

And the magic crystal is an independent environment that can better match the operation of these spells.

It feels a bit like how he has to modify the Puji before they can use corresponding skills.

"Then can you use other magic now?"

Lin Jun knows she is a dual-element level 4 mage, and he also wants to see more spells.

"Uh, I'm afraid I need to practice more. I'm not very familiar with using the Puji body to output mana, and this magic crystal hasn't been polished, so some turbid areas inside will also interfere with spellcasting. I need to get used to it."

"Turbid? The purer the magic crystal, the better?"

Lin Jun really has no concept of this. He only knows that inserting them into the soil can gather mana. He thought the different effects were just a matter of size, and as for using them for self-destruction... purity doesn't seem to have an effect.

"Of course! It is said that Archmage Zorya's staff is embedded with a completely pure S-grade magic crystal. Any spell cast through that staff has its power tripled!"

"S-grade? So there are grades... wait a moment."

Before long, amidst Inanna's confusion, two Puji come to her with a large, crystal-clear magic crystal on their heads.

"A... A-grade magic crystal? And it's the size of an arm!?"

(End of chapter)