On this day, the master of the mushroom garden had once again returned to his faithful former capital!
However, the place had been completely transformed by the cave dwellers, to the point where even Lin Jun could barely recognize any traces of its former appearance.
Fortunately, the rock wall embedded with high-quality magic crystals was still there—these magic crystals were probably the most valuable things left from the old mushroom garden.
Although these cave dwellers cultivated mushrooms, they clearly lacked Lin Jun’s expertise in breeding. They didn’t understand how to use magic crystals to fertilize the soil, nor had they bothered to mine the crystals. Several magic crystals in the warehouse had been carelessly tossed into corners—truly ignorant of their value.
In this battle, the puffshrooms’ losses were negligible.
The greatest casualties were the twenty-odd puffshrooms that had been crushed by the stone fragments blasted out by Louisa. The other puffshrooms stabbed to death by cave dweller spears simply lay still for a while before automatically repairing themselves.
The cave dwellers’ resistance, aside from being somewhat spirited at the beginning, had devolved into pure cat-and-mouse play afterward.
This outcome didn’t surprise Lin Jun in the least.
Just like Lin Jun’s old mushroom garden, their existence was only possible because they were located in a remote area where no high-level magical beasts had taken notice of them.
In terms of combat strength, they were even inferior to the old mushroom garden, and the cave dwellers’ luck was clearly insufficient—they had caught Lin Jun’s attention…
If Lin Jun hadn’t needed to capture them alive as much as possible, the battle would have ended much sooner, rather than allowing them to struggle for as long as they had.
Of course, one couldn’t say their luck was entirely bad—Lin Jun wasn’t planning to exterminate them after all.
Lin Jun simply wanted this slave-owning race to achieve internal equality!
Each bound cave dweller was first stupefied with hallucinogenic spores, then beaten to near death, and finally had spores scattered on them by specialized puffshrooms, completing their fusion with the mycelium network while they slept.
When they awakened, they would discover that their former caste system based on pheromone concentration no longer existed. All cave dwellers now shared the same identity—Lin Jun’s slaves… subordinates!
Of course, the above treatment was reserved for valuable ordinary cave dwellers. As for those worthless fat cave dwellers…
Louisa was quite satisfied. Although their blood fat content was a bit high, at least it was the blood of intelligent beings, tasting considerably better than that of lesser magical beasts.
The Yellow Codex was also pleased, having received two more souls than it had anticipated.
As for Norris, Lin Jun promised to pick out some equipment for him later.
Under Lin Jun’s distribution, everyone achieved happiness.
What about the fat cave dwellers?
Although they kept wailing while being drained of blood, they didn’t voice any particular objections.
Several corpses of cave dweller elders—still fat but now drained of all color—were tossed by the puffshrooms into their mushroom fields.
The mycelium devoured and decomposed the corpses, ultimately yielding nothing but some magical power and nutrients, without gaining any skills.
One could only say… as expected?
Lin Jun had already suspected through the Yellow Codex’s soul-stealing that skills were likely related to souls, and this time the results confirmed his theory.
Simply put, this Yellow Codex was competing with him for food—if it wasn’t going hungry, who would?
This reconnection with the old mushroom garden also made Lin Jun realize that the parts of himself that had spread out, no matter how long they’d been separated, could smoothly return to his control once reconnected to the mycelium network.
However, after breaking free from his control, the fungal carpet would only naturally generate some primitive, skill-less puffshrooms. If the cave dwellers hadn’t been maintaining them, they would probably have been devoured by slimes and the like.
Lin Jun thoroughly searched the cave dwellers’ lair from top to bottom, and the result could be summed up in one word: poor.
Apart from food like moss mushrooms, there were only some bone implements.
Lin Jun even spotted a minotaur skull, suggesting they’d had some battle achievements in the past.
If one had to mention what Lin Jun had gained besides this batch of cave dwellers, it would probably be the cave dwellers’ fortress itself.
[Race: Snail Wood]
[Level: 25]
[Skills: Toughness LV6, Hardening LV5, Physical Resistance LV4, Rapid Growth LV4…]
This thing emphasized being as tough as possible—Louisa’s ordinary strike earlier hadn’t been able to directly break through its wooden shell.
Moreover, once this wood had grown to maturity, its shape lived up to its name, resembling a supersized snail shell. No wonder the cave dwellers had used it as their lair.
It seemed to grow quite quickly too?
Taking several seeds from the snail wood’s center, Lin Jun planned to continue the snail wood-cave dweller model, just with some additional puffshrooms mixed in.
Cave dwellers were low-level and died easily. In Lin Jun’s thinking, they weren’t suitable as members of expeditionary forces for frontline consumption.
They couldn’t afford such losses either. Frontline puffshrooms were replaced in batches, and those that could survive from beginning to end through three large magical beast lairs were rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.
In Lin Jun’s plan, he intended to have cave dwellers lead puffshrooms in guarding the lairs that had already been conquered.
These lairs had low danger levels and little defensive pressure. By entrusting these guardian puffshroom nodes to the cave dwellers, Lin Jun could free up more capacity to support the expeditionary forces.
Originally, he’d needed to consider how to solve the cave dwellers’ settlement problems in new lairs, but now it seemed he could simply use snail wood!
Of course, these were all future arrangements. This batch of cave dwellers still needed proper instruction first.
He wasn’t in a hurry to relocate the cave dwellers—other lairs really weren’t as safe as this old mushroom garden’s location.
Moreover, Lin Jun had discovered the cave dwellers’ nursery within the snail wood. These creatures were actually oviparous…
Every cave dweller was precious, including these unborn ones!
Lin Jun arranged for several cave dwellers who had awakened but were still in a state of terror to care for their eggs.
The other awakened cave dwellers were handed over to Norris and the Yellow Codex.
They trembled as they awaited their fate.
By this time, Louisa had already departed with the main force under Lin Jun’s arrangements to re-conquer the lair that had been reclaimed by the serpent monster.
Norris was left with only the personal guard Lin Jun had assigned him—two minotaur puppets and a dozen elite puffshrooms.
The minotaur puppets were tall and imposing with tremendous presence, indeed having an intimidating effect on the cave dwellers.
But compared to nearly three hundred cave dwellers, Norris’s subordinates were too few in number.
This led some quick-thinking cave dwellers to contemplate escape.
However, when one cave dweller who chose to flee hadn’t run far before mushrooms burst from all over its body, transforming it into a puppet, the remaining cave dwellers all learned obedience.
Lin Jun had given Norris and the Yellow Codex only one new task.
Teach the cave dwellers to use the mycelium network, manipulate puffshrooms, and most importantly—understand and obey their master’s commands.
Even if Norris didn’t know exactly how to do this, the Yellow Codex certainly would.
To prevent the Yellow Codex from slacking off, Lin Jun had dangled the carrot of soul-devouring before it.
…
From his omniscient perspective, Lin Jun was planning which lairs to assign the cave dwellers to first once their training was complete.
The first batch should preferably be relatively safe lairs where they could accumulate experience.
While contemplating, a tremor sensation transmitted through the mycelium network.
This tremor was so familiar… one might even say nostalgic!
Earth worm?
Lin Jun wasn’t the only one to sense the tremor. Louisa, who was passing by that riddled lair with her expeditionary force, also stopped in her tracks as she watched the small stones at her feet continuously bouncing.
The tremors grew increasingly obvious. While Louisa could stand perfectly still, the puffshrooms were being jostled about.
At a certain moment, earth and stone burst outward as an abyssal maw emerged, instantly devouring twelve puffshrooms while even more puffshrooms were killed by the impact or crushed by flying debris.
This scene was identical to the punitive expedition of old.
And beside the giant worm’s mouth, the scars left by the puffshrooms’ great self-destruction were still clearly visible.
[Race: Earth Worm]
[Level: LV51]
We meet again, old adversary!
Do you have any helpers this time?
The snail tree seemed to have some pretty useful skills.