Chapter 49

"Little Black, things with two hands and two feet aren't monsters; you can't just kill them."

"Oh... but, can green ones?"

Green ones?

Are you talking about the flower spirits on the sixth floor?

After the monsters on the fifth floor were almost cleared, when Little Black wanted to vent her energy, Lin Jun would let her go down to play.

Lin Jun didn't know what she played, but the first few times she would get lost, and Lin Jun had to go down to pick her up.

After she got familiar with the path, every time she went to play, she would bring back one or two monster corpses; he remembered there had been green flower spirits.

But flower spirits don't have feet either; their lower bodies are connected to flower buds.

If it's not a flower spirit, what is it?

Forget it, anyway, green ones are definitely not human.

"Hmm... green ones are okay, but don't kill the ones like today next time."

Little Black pouted and nodded; only then did Lin Jun give her a special spicy Puji with only [Strong Acid LV3]—she had recently started liking things a bit sour.

Those two humans had also hurriedly left, looking like they were scared out of their wits.

Although he almost finished them off, they weren't dead yet, right!

And Lin Jun had already provided compensation.

That longsword was enchanted and much better than the broken one.

So they were even!

However, this also served as a reminder to Lin Jun; if Little Black frequently came into contact with different human adventurers, it was hard to guarantee that conflicts wouldn't arise.

Today it was Little Black who initiated the attack; tomorrow it might be some blind adventurer seeking death.

The result would likely be Little Black killing everyone, while he would have to bitterly clean up her mess.

This won't do!

He had to find a way, if not to eliminate, at least to reduce the chances of human adventurers coming into contact with her.

It was unrealistic to let her stay quietly.

With her energy overflowing all day long, being able to let her stay quietly for two days was all thanks to the favorability bonus after parasitism.

Unless he used force, it was impossible to keep her confined for a long time.

As for using force?

Her bedrock background made Lin Jun not even have such thoughts.

But then again, he couldn't forbid Little Black, but he could restrict the adventurers!

Picking the soft persimmon to squeeze is always right.

From now on, the forest... no, it's a mushroom forest now.

From now on, the mushroom forest will also be designated as a restricted area, so at least no one will disturb her while she's eating or sleeping.

As for other times...

Maybe he should upgrade the level of [Camouflage LV2]?

Although there were no monsters in the nearby floors that could produce this skill, skills could also be upgraded through practice.

He relied on Pujis to practice and then transmit the experience back.

Although the experience transmitted back this way was severely reduced, the number of Pujis was large, and plus Camouflage was only level 2, it was relatively easy to upgrade.

Maybe he could practice it to LV4 in the short term, and then see if this skill could cover up the scales all over Little Black's body.

Of course, the mana required to add skills to Little Black was also massive.

He would have to live frugally recently.

After the plan was set, a batch of Pujis loaded with the [Camouflage] skill began production.

On the other hand, what made Lin Jun a bit strange was: it seemed no other adventurers were entering the dungeon?

So those two were breaking the rules and sneaking in?

Anyway, this counted as good news; he had more time to prepare.

Come to think of it, because of the monster tide, Dylan had been missing since he was sent out.

He had told him not to get involved in the monster tide at the end; if he listened, he shouldn't be in danger.

But it had been a month or so.

He didn't know if he had brought enough money to drink blue bottles...

He hoped his first human subordinate wouldn't starve to death outside.

——

"Hoo... hoo..."

Dylan felt for the arrow shaft behind him and pulled it out violently.

The excruciating pain made him clench his teeth, and cold sweat instantly soaked his back.

Throwing the arrow stained with mycelium and blood aside, it took Dylan a long time to recover.

Praise the boss!

As expected, the blood from the wound only gushed out a few times before gradually clogging up.

Thanks to not being human anymore, many vital points were no longer vital points.

However, on second thought, if it weren't for earning that mana potion money, he wouldn't have taken this bitter job.

The leader of this trip was the tavern owner's own man, a bald, burly man with a fishy smell, plus three laborers like Dylan.

A group of four, each carrying a bulging deerskin cargo bag.

They needed to cross the forest on the west side of Ya-Feng Town to transport the stolen goods to Fishing Sail Port.

In Dylan's view, the most dangerous part of this trip was that they had a certain probability of encountering monsters still wandering outside after the monster tide.

But he never expected that even for such a one-time, small-scale smuggling job, they could encounter a double-cross!

The attacker's first hidden arrow was aimed at him.

The muffled sound of the arrowhead piercing the leather armor was lighter than he expected; this arrow accurately hit the center of his back.

After understanding what had happened, he deliberately pressed down on some dead branches when he fell, letting his body roll down the slope into the bushes.

Soon, the sound of swords clashing rang out all around.

At first, he was still guessing which of the other three was the mole?

It turned out he had overthought it.

This group of black-robed men attacking them had the posture of wanting to kill everyone.

His "death" gave the other three time to react.

Those who dared to do this couldn't be trash; seeing that there were eight attackers, they were no match, so they immediately retreated while fighting, and after running a distance, they directly fled in different directions.

And the black-robed men didn't seem to want to let anyone go, even if they dropped the bags, they wouldn't let them go.

Before the last black-robed man left, he didn't forget to pick up the cargo bag next to Dylan.

"Ughhh—"

Not long after everyone left, a familiar scream came from the front; it was the leader's voice.

It seemed they couldn't hold on for long either; he had to run away quickly.

Dylan wanted to just lie there and wait for everything to end, but the half-burned tree trunk on the side indicated that there was a fire mage among the black-robed men!

If they came to cremate and destroy the evidence in the end, he would definitely be dead.

Pulling out the arrow and crawling out of the bushes, the pain in his back made Dylan grimace; not being fatal didn't mean he was fine.

So this is what heart pain feels like!

With no time to deal with the leaves and branches stuck to his body, Dylan hugged the notebook in his arms and ran in the opposite direction.

Hmm?

No, when did I...

The warm foreign object in his palm finally caught Dylan's attention.

The cover, of unknown material, was wrinkled; rubbing his fingertips over it, he could feel the raised threads, and when held in his hand, he seemed to be able to feel a trace of warmth.

Dylan had some impression of this notebook; it should be one of the stolen goods in his bag.

But when exactly, and why, did he take it out and hold it specifically in his hand?

Could it be that it just happened to fall into his arms when he fell?

No clue, and no time to sort it out.

Screams of unknown origin came from the forest again; those three might have been wiped out.

If the attackers intended to destroy the evidence, they would definitely discover he wasn't dead yet.

He had to run faster, further!

(End of chapter)