Chapter 44

The cross-section of the Tentacle Mushroom Cannon slowly squirmed, and by this time, the end had already re-woven a complete conical structure.

The knight's six mycelium tentacles, under the effect of [Mycelium Reorganization LV2], had now basically returned to their original state.

It was just that compared to other parts, the color was slightly lighter.

On the contrary, the claw marks on the outer shell were still clearly visible.

The shell was considered a product of a skill and was not within the scope of what could be reorganized; it could only be regenerated later by replacing the old with the new.

The magic tide outside finally reached its end, and the monsters all began to return to their respective levels; those dragon beasts also crawled back into the rifts one by one.

The state where monsters would attack each other also returned to normal.

Lin Jun saw a Rending-Tooth Beast suddenly bite the tail fin of a small dragon beast before leaving, taking the struggling prey into the stairs.

Some monsters that had gotten lost and wandered in the fifth level, unable to find their way back, all gained a negative effect if they were over LV25.

[Fixed Status: Soul Siphon (Gradually lose attributes and skill proficiency)]

Clearly, this was the dungeon's method of restoring order between levels after the magic tide.

If they couldn't go back, they would probably be drained dry in the end.

But... having one's soul siphoned...

Just thinking about it made Lin Jun shudder.

Fortunately, Lin Jun himself didn't have it.

Not only did Lin Jun not have it, but the Dragon-Person didn't have it either.

This actually matched Lin Jun's guess—neither he nor the Dragon-Person belonged to the magic tide.

There was no need to mention Lin Jun himself; the dungeon family had never truly accepted him.

As for the Dragon-Person, one could tell a thing or two from her behavioral patterns.

During the magic tide, when monsters were in "great harmony," she would attack other monsters to protect her food; she wasn't like other monsters, rushing to get out of the dungeon, but instead spent her time on the fifth level looking for Lin Jun's Puji to eat.

Lin Jun's own special status was due to his Hero title.

As for the Dragon-Person?

Perhaps it was her identity as an Ancient Dragon descendant.

Speaking of the Dragon-Person...

"Hungry..."

Inside the cave, which had collapsed until only less than 20 square meters remained.

The Dragon-Person squatted in the corner, her claws resting on her knees, her eyes fixed on the few battery Puji on the other side, almost drooling.

Sigh—

A battery Puji crossed the rubble in the middle and "pu-pu" walked to the Dragon-Person's side.

She hugged the Puji, affectionately rubbing her cheek against it; the Puji was soon cut by the scales on the Dragon-Person's face.

Just like Dylan, after being parasitized, the Dragon-Person also developed a sense of closeness to the Puji.

At least she didn't fight Lin Jun's knight to the death the moment she woke up, and was instead willing to listen to him a little.

Of course, Puji still had to be eaten...

The battery Puji, which only had 10 HP, was scraped to death by the scales and was soon gnawed on along the edge of its mushroom cap by the Dragon-Person, who had had enough of being affectionate.

This Dragon-Person was not very smart.

After connecting to the mycelium network earlier and communicating slightly, Lin Jun discovered that her intelligence was about that of a child.

This intelligence level actually matched her performance on the fifth level.

But logically speaking, since one parent was human and the other an Ancient Dragon, neither of which were low-intelligence beings, there was no reason for her to be stupid.

Like the half-dragon people seen before, their intelligence seemed no different from ordinary people.

The answer was still on the Dragon-Person's panel:

[Fixed Status: Congenital Deficiency. Intelligence (Intelligence attribute reduced by 80%)]

Although the intelligence attribute was related to spellcasting ability and could not be equated to IQ.

But since this was a congenital deficiency, she was likely born mentally disabled, and reflected in the attributes, it was just a low intelligence attribute.

Furthermore, she actually had more than one congenital deficiency.

[Fixed Status: Congenital Deficiency. Mana Leak (Mana in the body will naturally decrease over time)]

Lin Jun even suspected that she had offended the Heavens in her past life.

Mana was the foundation for the vast majority of skills.

Magic went without saying, and many other skills that didn't look like magic, such as [Assault Ejection], actually required mana consumption as well, just in very small amounts.

Empty mana not only made skills unusable, but also caused dizziness and nausea, and could even lead to fainting.

Lin Jun had a lot to say about this; when he first came to this world, he didn't understand anything and had stepped into quite a few pitfalls.

So, it was no wonder she didn't eat hallucinogenic Puji.

The Puji she ate were all ones with the [Mana Storage] skill.

Eating Puji like this should be replenishing her own mana.

Just like now, as the Dragon-Person ate the Puji in her arms, on the panel Lin Jun saw, the one-third of her mana that was empty was slowly replenishing.

Of course, the Puji tasting good was probably also one of the reasons.

After all, [Mana Storage] wasn't a skill unique to him.

Stuffing the last little short leg of the Puji into her mouth, the Dragon-Person licked her lips, still wanting more.

"Are you full?" Lin Jun asked.

Hearing this, the Dragon-Person's golden pupils shifted slightly, moving her gaze from the remaining few battery Puji to the knight.

In her cognition, the Knight Puji was the guy who was talking to her—a delicious but very strong guy.

"Still want to eat!"

Lin Jun glanced at the panel.

Her mana was already full and she still wanted to eat!

"You come help me with a favor first, and after you're done, I'll let you eat, okay?"

Looking back at the remaining three battery Puji, the Dragon-Person nodded fiercely.

What Lin Jun wanted her to do was nothing else, but to dig out the same way she had dug in.

Their previous battle had caused most of the cave to collapse, and the few Puji responsible for digging had unfortunately all been crushed to death.

The knight did have a digging skill, but its efficiency couldn't compare to the Dragon-Person's pair of claws.

That was [Sharpness LV9]!

However, the truth was that Lin Jun had thought a bit wrong.

Lin Jun thought she relied on her sharp claws to drill holes, but in reality, the sharp claws only served to crush the rocks; for the rest of the part, she relied on her physical strength to squeeze through!

After she squeezed through, the rubble and soil would close back up, making it completely unsuitable for bringing the Puji along.

The knight had to follow closely behind her feet, and after being kicked by her N times unintentionally, it barely managed to squeeze up.

This was still thanks to its hard outer shell.

As for the three shell-less battery Puji... they hadn't been able to keep up from the start...

So, when the Dragon-Person came to ask for Puji with an expectant look, Lin Jun was already sweating profusely...

Lin Jun was truly afraid that if they didn't see eye to eye, she would plan to eat the knight again.

It wasn't that he was worried about actually being eaten; when it was truly dangerous, he could finish the last step of parasitism, and she would become a puppet.

But what then?

Becoming a puppet would count as brain death, right? Would it trigger a Vengeance Mark?

Lin Jun didn't know, and he didn't want to gamble at all.

So, he still had to trick this simpleton who only knew how to eat.

"Ah... over there," one of the Knight Puji's tentacles pointed toward the forest, "food is over there. Go over and you can eat."

At the same time, Lin Jun hurriedly searched for a small patch of mycelium carpet in the forest that was still relatively intact, right by the ruins of Dylan's cabin; this was one of the few mycelium carpets that had been preserved during the trampling of the monster horde.

On the mycelium carpet, he accelerated at full power to ripen two battery Puji!

The fifth level was not yet safe, and many monsters were still wandering around looking for the way back.

However, with such a Dragon-Person following Lin Jun, they either ignored them or simply walked around them.

Of course, there were also those with poor brains.

Lin Jun sincerely thanked them for buying him a little more time.

Beside the ruins of Dylan's cabin.

The Dragon-Person couldn't wait to pick up the Puji that hadn't been fully charged with mana and began to eat it in large mouthfuls—she was hungry again after exercising just now.

Before long, the Dragon-Person's questioning came through the mycelium network:

"This one... doesn't taste very good..."

(End of chapter)