“Don’t these need to be buried underground?”
“I’m not a plant…”
Do people in this world still not understand the difference between fungi and plants?
The pack mule Pujis had already transported all the fire mosquito fragments and their larval remains back to the mushroom garden.
Fire mosquitoes were magical beasts that specialized in agility and evasion, so their bodies weren’t particularly strong. After being hit by mushroom cannons or crushed to death by the armored Pujis, it was difficult for them to leave complete corpses behind.
Now they were spread evenly across the cultivation area, with mycelium already beginning to sprout from the first batch that had been brought back.
After these magical beast corpses were decomposed, they would simultaneously provide Lin Jun with skill proficiency and magical power. While individual fire mosquitoes didn’t contain much magical power, the sheer quantity more than made up for it.
Lin Jun would invest all this magical power into producing new Pujis.
The mushroom garden could currently support about 300 Pujis through natural magical power absorption, with 100 of them being logistics personnel needed to maintain the garden’s daily operations. Only the remainder were combat Pujis.
This time, Lin Jun planned to exceed the limit and mass-produce 400 combat Pujis in one go, then deploy them all in the upcoming earthworm hunting operation.
After all, if too many survived the operation, he could always downsize later. Ensuring success was the most crucial factor.
There wasn’t a second fire mosquito nest nearby that could so easily provide him with such abundant nutrients. If this attempt failed, who knew when he’d be able to organize a second round.
“Lin Jun, look! I seem to have gained a new talent!”
At some point, Inanna had conjured her Water Serpent technique nearby. Lin Jun had seen her use this skill in combat, and if he couldn’t call it invincible, he could at least say it was completely useless.
Not only did it have short range and poor power, but even a direct hit couldn’t take down a fire mosquito in one strike. Its only advantage was that it could be controlled to some degree after being cast, but under Inanna’s appalling technique, this became a negative trait instead.
Compared to Ice Blade, it was utterly outclassed.
Inanna probably realized this herself, as she stopped using it after casting it twice.
But now, the water serpent Inanna had summoned was nimbly swimming around her, like a small protective azure dragon.
This definitely wasn’t Inanna’s normal level. Lin Jun immediately pulled up her status panel.
Sure enough, her level had risen to LV30. Even just receiving a small portion of the experience from hundreds of fire mosquitoes had caused her to level up twice.
Among her fixed effects was a new entry: [Elemental Spirit’s Favor: Elemental spirits will assist the caster in controlling spells].
“Try using Ice Blade to attack that rock.”
The target Lin Jun indicated was 100 meters away from Inanna—a distance where a Puji would almost never miss.
“Eh? I’ll try.”
The moment the Ice Blade was launched, Lin Jun knew she had missed wildly again, but the Ice Blade miraculously adjusted its course during flight and actually managed to clip the corner of the rock.
“I… I actually hit it!”
Even Inanna looked incredulous.
Actually, if she hadn’t aimed so ridiculously off-target, the Ice Blade should have hit the bullseye. To still graze the target despite such a terrible angle—elemental spirits really were impressive.
Lin Jun also noticed that when Inanna used Ice Blade, the Water Serpent technique circling around her wasn’t canceled.
So it was like an AI-assisted control ability?
Except here, elemental spirits replaced the AI’s function.
Speaking of which, this world actually had the concept of elemental spirits. He had thought magic was just pure magic.
Additionally, Lin Jun now understood that humans, like himself, naturally gained a compatible fixed effect or skill every ten levels, just like his Mushroom Cannon and Fungal Network.
Inanna called it a talent.
It seemed this wasn’t unique to him—humans were like this, and presumably other races or magical beasts were the same.
However, there were still some differences. Whether it was because she couldn’t see status panels, Inanna’s talent was automatically acquired, while he had the additional step of choosing from three options.
Lin Jun glanced at his own LV44, still far from his next talent selection.
————
For the following period, Lin Jun threw himself completely into the massive project called mass production.
The good news was that his long-stagnant Mental Integration skill finally reached LV6, otherwise Lin Jun truly wouldn’t have been able to control so many Pujis at once.
Even so, he had no time to chat idly with Inanna.
But Inanna didn’t mind this at all—she had recently become obsessed with exploring her new talent.
Besides helping her adjust trajectories for auto-aim, the elemental spirits could make her Illumination spell actively follow targets, and Water Mirror refraction could automatically defend 360 degrees in all directions. In any case, they were far more skilled than she was.
However, spells like Purification and Marsh technique showed no change—elemental spirits didn’t enhance the spells’ inherent power.
Days passed one by one, and just when everything was about to be ready, intense magical power fluctuations came from outside the mushroom garden.
“Lin Jun, what’s happening? Why does it suddenly feel so oppressive?”
Like aftershocks from a magnitude-8 earthquake traveling from afar, even Inanna, who lacked magical perception skills, sensed something was wrong. Lin Jun directly observed magical power vibrations surging in waves, making him uncomfortable.
Lin Jun checked the surveillance he had set up outside. These scattered small mushroom clusters couldn’t provide Lin Jun with vision, but they could sense surrounding magical power fluctuations.
Soon Lin Jun determined the source of the disturbance—the direction of the Flame Demon’s nest.
Since he knew it was coming from the Flame Demon’s direction, Lin Jun relaxed. He casually reassured the startled Inanna and continued burying himself in the final stages of mass production.
It wasn’t that Lin Jun didn’t fear the Flame Demon. Quite the opposite—as the strongest magical beast discovered so far, Lin Jun had always been vigilant about the Flame Demon’s movements.
If he ever detected the Flame Demon moving toward the mushroom garden, he would definitely grab his belongings and run at the first opportunity.
Fortunately, this had never happened.
In fact, through Lin Jun’s observations, the Flame Demon was essentially a shut-in.
Unlike himself, who was rooted in place and couldn’t move easily, the Flame Demon was simply too lazy to move, as if just soaking in lava could satisfy most of its needs.
But being a shut-in didn’t mean it would never go out. So far, Lin Jun had recorded three instances of the Flame Demon venturing out.
Each time it left, it caused magical power fluctuations in the vicinity, just like today. Lin Jun suspected it was going out to fight.
But with whom it fought and where exactly remained completely unknown. He also didn’t know what opponent could engage the Flame Demon in fierce battle. The portion Lin Jun had explored was still too small relative to the entire deep layer.
Lin Jun’s original smuggling plan had been to take advantage of the Flame Demon’s absence to sneak through its nest and escape to the upper layer.
However, this plan was quite risky, with the most important factor being his inability to predict when the Flame Demon would return.
Among the three recorded instances, the shortest lasted only a few hours, while the longest was estimated at three to four days.
The smuggling plan was literally gambling with his life, so it had been replaced by the tunneling plan.
He wondered how long the Flame Demon would be away this time. Hopefully it wouldn’t cause any complications that would interfere with his earthworm hunting.
Its those adventurers, arent they?