*Buzzzz——!!!*
Amid the ear-piercing roar, the drill spun wildly, ruthlessly plowing through the rock wall and sending countless stone fragments flying in all directions!
Facing Jida’s attack, Scout Puffshroom displayed astonishing agility! With a nimble roll, it precisely stepped onto Jida’s arm, which was violently vibrating from the drilling strike.
“Hiss hiss hiss!” The scorching carapace burned the Scout Puffshroom’s feet, singeing off a layer of surface mycelium, but this was merely a trivial wound.
Taking advantage of the moment, Scout Puffshroom’s blade whip lashed out. Enhanced by [Sharpness LV10], the whip blade left deep cuts across Jida’s hard shell.
Finally, Scout Puffshroom borrowed the momentum for a small leap into the air, its mushroom cannon locking onto Jida’s head!
At the critical moment, Norris controlled Jida to retreat a step. The mushroom cannon slammed hard into Jida’s chest, only to be blocked by Jida’s strongest defense—the yellow book cover adorned with blue patterns!
An explosion capable of shattering carapace failed to leave even the slightest mark on the yellow armor!
No one knew what the Yellow Book was thinking right now, since it currently had no pages to type with.
Not to be outdone, Norris had Jida’s shoulder-mounted mushroom cannons roar to life, but Lin Jun had anticipated this. Scout Puffshroom’s tail vents erupted with force, allowing it to dart away and dodge the attack.
Scout Puffshroom circled around Jida, darting up and down, not seeking a decisive blow but steadily accumulating damage.
“Norris, Jida was never agile to begin with. The mushroom cannons can only attack in straight lines, while blade whips can deliver wide-range attacks at medium distance! You replaced the blade whip with a drill—sure, your armor-piercing ability improved, but are you only planning to use it against equally clumsy big guys? What do you do when facing high-speed, agile enemies like this?”
As he spoke, another Scout Puffshroom joined the battle—this had been planned as a 2-on-1 fight from the start!
The coordinated attack of two Scout Puffshrooms instantly pushed Jida deeper into a passive state, leaving it struggling to defend on multiple fronts, utterly disheveled.
“Too weak! Norris! Is this the limit of your understanding of Jida’s combat methods?!”
Norris’s eye twitched—he felt like the boss had been talking more trash lately…
Jida, now covered in scratches, used its massive rock shield on the left arm to forcibly block an incoming mushroom cannon blast.
Ignoring the other Scout behind it, under Norris’s control, Jida suddenly pushed its rock shield forward with full force, ramming toward the Scout that had just fired!
“Like I said, too slow. You can’t catch up like this…”
*BOOM!!!*
A deafening explosion erupted as the Rock Armor Puffshroom on Jida’s left arm boldly self-destructed!
The solid rock shield instantly disintegrated into countless high-speed stone fragments, creating a deadly barrage. Several sharp pieces struck the Scout Puffshroom mid-air, unable to dodge in time, with one precisely severing one of its little legs!
The close-range self-destruction impact was devastating!
Jida’s left arm along with the shoulder was completely destroyed. The two Cannon Puffshrooms on the relatively vulnerable shoulder were also sacrificed on the spot, and the entire carapace was covered with spider-web cracks!
Only the indestructible yellow armor on the chest remained intact, emanating a faint blue glow.
But Norris still seized this opportunity bought with such a heavy price. The moment the one-legged Scout Puffshroom lost balance and began falling, Jida’s right arm thrust out with full force!
The drill, carrying terrifying rotational penetrating power, instantly tore the Scout Puffshroom into countless flying mycelium fragments!
“Not bad, some real fighting spirit. But what now?”
The other Scout Puffshroom attacked from behind, its blade whip whistling through the air as it sliced through Jida’s left leg joint, already covered in cracks! The already fractured carapace shattered on impact!
Losing balance, Jida toppled to one side. Before falling, Norris still tried to control the remaining right arm, swinging the drill in attack.
However, Scout Puffshroom simply executed a nimble roll to easily avoid it, then backhanded with a whip strike. Jida’s Scout Puffshroom serving as “eyes” was split in two by the sharp blade whip!
Without vision, Jida was completely finished!
It was time to declare victory: “It’s over, Norris. You’re just—”
“Not yet!”
Just as the Scout Puffshroom was destroyed, Norris suddenly burst through the wreckage, leaping out from within Jida! The mushroom cannon port on his chest was frantically gathering magic power, locked onto the Scout that had just passed over Jida!
So tenacious!
But…
Scout Puffshroom’s tail vents instantly erupted, its form shooting upward rapidly, escaping the narrow attack cone of the mushroom cannon!
Seeing his target slip away, Norris didn’t adjust his angle. Instead, he stomped hard in mid-air!
[Air Step LV3]
As if he had actually stepped on something solid, Norris borrowed the momentum for a second leap, forcibly catching up to the ascending Scout!
*Bang!*
After the mushroom cannon blast, amid the drifting mycelium, Norris was pushed back by the recoil in mid-air, spinning before landing with a “splat” in an undignified face-plant.
But he didn’t care at all. After spitting out some dirt, he shouted excitedly: “I won!!”
“Tch… Indeed, but what does this victory have to do with your new drill?”
The drill wasn’t used throughout the fight. Defeating the first Scout relied on self-destruction—replacing the drill with anything else would have made no difference.
Hearing this, the excited smile on Norris’s face instantly froze.
After deflating Norris, pack mule Puffshrooms came over to clean up the aftermath.
…
Actually… lost to Norris!
Should have waited longer before declaring victory!
Ugh! Mortifying!
In the fifth-layer swamp, a certain blue mushroom was frantically twisting left and right.
Thank goodness it was just Norris this time! If this happened in some public setting in the future—declaring victory only to be defeated afterward—I’d definitely die of embarrassment and self-destruct! Need to be more careful with the trash talk!
To be fair, Norris’s performance had actually exceeded Lin Jun’s expectations. He had originally estimated that Norris being able to defeat one Scout would be considered passing.
As for that crucial [Air Step LV3] at the end, that was a new skill Norris gained after advancing to level 30 Silver Rank.
Simply put, it was a double jump. Leveling up could shorten the cooldown, and at higher levels, it might even allow triple jumps.
Lin Jun had known about it long ago but hadn’t paid much attention. In his view, this ability was pretty useless—why bother when you could just fly directly…
When Norris made his final counterattack, Lin Jun could have had Scout Puffshroom deliver a retaliatory blade whip before being hit, resulting in mutual destruction.
But this was just sparring to test Norris’s combat power. Going all-out would be admitting defeat in another sense.
Though he lost, it was only due to falling for the tailless lizardman’s surprise attack—it didn’t reflect true strength.
Scout Puffshrooms weren’t born for combat anyway. Lin Jun was quite satisfied they could fight to this extent.
Next came exploration time!
Lin Jun initially set his target on the forest ravine, which clearly had extremely abundant resources.
However, before Scout Puffshroom could set out, there was movement from the other side of the ravine first!
At the fifth layer, from a rift suspended in mid-air that seeped with faint cursed aura, two dwarves came tumbling out with screams, disturbing Old Dylan who had been dozing amid the lingering incense.
