In the dim lower forest, an elf and a Puchi faced each other in silence.
The elf took two cautious steps back. The Puchi advanced four steps forward.
Mycelium writhed along the ground. A voice-like Puchi emerged, its body resembling a tattered rag bag.
“Sirian? Divine Tree old… boss?” Lin Jun asked tentatively.
Smack!
Sirian jolted. He stomped the voice-like Puchi flat, then grabbed another one nearby.
“Quiet!” The divine tree’s voice appeared directly in Lin Jun’s consciousness.
It really was the divine tree!
The confirmation sent a shock through Lin Jun.
This time, however, the divine tree’s voice lacked its usual airy lightness. Instead, it carried a trace of embarrassment and annoyance.
Sirian’s emerald eyes fixed on the Puchi in his hand. His mind voice came clearly. “Our deal is complete. Whatever you do next is your business. We don’t interfere with each other. Pretend we don’t know each other. Understood?”
He gently placed the Puchi down and turned to leave.
Yet four soft mycelium tentacles instantly wrapped around his right ankle.
Sirian tried to shake free, but more Puchis popped from the surrounding fungal mat. Their round mushroom bodies eagerly clung to his calves and thighs, firmly halting his progress.
“You…”
The forest suddenly came alive.
Several silent ancient trees trembled. Their roots burst forth from the soil like agile vines. They coiled around the Puchis, lifted them, and tossed them far away.
New Puchis tried to approach again, only to be ruthlessly blocked by more waving roots and suddenly sprouting branches.
Seeing that Sirian was about to depart peacefully under the forest’s protection, Lin Jun had no choice but to unleash his trump card.
“Divine Tree boss, you wouldn’t want that… what’s-her-name… Vela knowing your true identity, right?”
Sirian’s steps abruptly stopped. He slowly turned and walked back. The Puchi entangled by the roots tightened its grip under his gaze.
“Threatening me?” The divine tree’s mind voice grew icy. “Do you think provoking me will benefit you in any way?”
“You lied to me first!”
Lin Jun felt aggrieved, emotions surging.
“You said the world was doomed, that you’d sleep until it was destroyed. But what happened? You secretly ran off to enjoy yourself! You dumped the hard work of saving the world on me—this pitiful, weak, and helpless Puchi!”
“If you succeed, you reap the rewards. If you fail, we all perish together. You’ve enjoyed all these years anyway. No loss for you, right?”
“Only you live a happy tree life. I disagree!”
The Puchi struggled to move. Trembling tentacles stubbornly wrapped around Sirian’s boot tip once more.
Sirian looked down expressionlessly at the mushroom lump that seemed to have suffered a great injustice. “Straight to the point. What do you want?”
The tentacles clinging to the boot tip instantly loosened and rubbed together nimbly. The grief and indignation vanished, replaced by a crisp and decisive tone. “Divine artifact.”
“Impossible.”
The expected rejection.
Lin Jun was not discouraged and immediately began to bargain. His shrewd demeanor was completely different from moments ago.
“Then you can help me take down a troublesome enemy. Or give me a special skill without level restrictions. Or at the very least, teach me how to control these ancient trees…”
She made several requests in a row, but all of them were rejected.
“This won’t work, that won’t work,” Lin Jun’s mind voice carried a hint of complaint. “Then I want to study abyssal magic. Can you at least help me think of a way?”
Sirian showed no surprise or disdain for the dangerous and taboo act of studying abyssal magic, which most beings considered forbidden. He simply asked in a normal tone, “What specific problem have you encountered?”
“Controlling the risks! I’m afraid I might accidentally create something unmanageable and destroy my own home. Do you have any good solutions, or something to fall back on? Like… a one-key clearing and expulsion system?”
“There’s no such thing…” Sirian thought for a moment. “Why not do it in a secondary space within the dungeon? If something goes wrong, it won’t affect the outside.”
Puchi tilted its mushroom cap. “That makes sense!”
Puchi extended its mycelial tentacles, spreading them out in front of Sirian. Its movements carried a sense of expected entitlement.
Sirian looked down at the swaying tentacles. “What do you mean?”
“You have to give me a ‘key,’ otherwise how am I supposed to get in?” Lin Jun said, pointing with a Puchi to the sapling in the distance that connected to the abyss space of the Divine Tree Underground City.
Sirian’s flawless elven face instantly darkened. “When did I say I’d lend you my place as an experimental field? Doesn’t Dungeon Thirteen have its own auxiliary space?”
“I need to keep my own space as a last resort. I can’t just ruin it,” Lin Jun replied matter-of-factly.
For the first time, veins that hadn’t appeared when the tentacles entangled appeared on the elf’s forehead. With a squeeze of its roots, the little creature was crushed.
But the next second, another identical Puchi popped out of the nearby fungal mat.
Completely oblivious to the fact that he had killed one, it simply stretched out its tentacles, emanating an expectant aura.
Sirian took a deep breath, calming himself. “I can’t let you use my territory, but there is indeed an unclaimed one that might be suitable.”
He picked up a piece of wood from the ground, closed his eyes, focused intently, and then tossed the wood to the Puchi.
The moment the Puchi touched it, a piece of information flooded into its consciousness.
The feeling was quite similar to the information cubes encountered in the abyss space, the difference being that this time the information was solidified on a physical wooden block, and after being read, the block itself lost all its special fluctuations, reverting to a piece of ordinary wood.
In Lin Jun’s mind, a detailed diagram of a pair of complex magic arrays and a geographical coordinate appeared.
“This is…?”
“Normally, the abyss space beneath a dungeon collapses with the destruction of the dungeon’s core,” Sirian’s voice returned to its initial calm and detached tone. “But there… there was once a dungeon that was destroyed in an abnormal way, and its connected ancillary space was unexpectedly preserved, becoming an independent fragment.”
“Find that coordinate point, set up magic array number one there, and then set up magic array number two at your chosen new anchor point, and you can move the connection point between space and the world.”
“Alright, that’s it. If you’re still not satisfied, then do whatever you want. But then, don’t even think about developing in my dungeon anymore.”
With that, Sirian turned and left.
Having said all that, Lin Jun could only accept the situation.
The two magic circles in his mind were complex and profound, difficult to fully comprehend at once, but the accompanying instructions were extremely detailed, making it easy to collect materials and set them up step by step.
However, these coordinates…
weren’t they within the Empire’s borders?!
And they didn’t seem to be within little Sigmund’s territory, but rather toward the north… This felt a bit troublesome.
Lin Jun was pondering this when Sirian returned: “Since things have come to this, just tell me where Vera and the others are now, so I don’t waste time looking for them.”
Vera?!
Lin Jun really didn’t know his location.
After all, to Lin Jun, Vera was just an ordinary adventurer with a bit of personality, not someone he would bother to pay special attention to.
Of course, now that he knew that Shenmu, whether it was his true form, an avatar, or a clone, was with the team, he would definitely keep a closer eye on him in the future.
The big boss had just given him a benefit, so helping him search was only natural.
His will swept over Mushroom City, Oath City, the Fallen Territory…
Hm?
Nothing.
They expanded the search area and looked again, but still found no trace of Vera or any member of his team.
Could they be dead?
“Where are they?” Sirian asked, his gaze falling on Puchi.
“Didn’t find them,” Lin Jun could only tell the truth.
Sirian grabbed Puchi’s mushroom hat and lifted it up, his face full of displeasure. “You don’t even know where they are, and you dared to threaten me with them?”
“I’ll help you find them! I’ll search carefully for you! I can roughly guess where they might be!” Puchi’s two short legs kicked helplessly in the air a few times before Sirian let go, allowing it to fall back to the ground.
“They’re likely active on the west coast; many adventurers have been going there recently,” Lin Jun analyzed.
There are many slimes there, which is Lin Jun’s blind spot.
“You’re quite quick,” Sirian snorted, his tone unreadable, whether it was praise or something else.
This old man from Shenmu clearly knows a lot, but he’s unwilling to share. This riddle-maker’s behavior will be noted.
Puchi eagerly moved closer, its mycelial tentacles waving ingratiatingly. “Please be patient, boss. Allow me a day or two, and I’ll definitely find that person for you!”
Sirian could only sit down, casually grabbing Puchi and, with a slight frown, began to rub it in a vengeful manner.
Several scout Puchi quickly spawned in the fallen kingdom’s territory.
Objective: Find the adventurer Vera!
(End of Chapter)
