"Boss! The dungeon is about to disappear!"
Inanna, who had just reconnected to the mycelial network, immediately transmitted this explosive bad news.
But... why was there a hint of barely concealed excitement mixed in with her emotional fluctuations?
Your boss is about to become homeless and you're happy about what exactly?
"Boss, if the dungeon disappears, do you want to move? I've got a forest over there..."
"First tell me what's going on. How is the dungeon about to disappear?" Lin Jun asked.
"It's... it's what that Scholar Guge said!" Inanna struggled to organize her words. "He said the core isn't working... can't be fixed with magic power or whatever... um... and something about structural collapse... collapsed? Or locked up?" She desperately tried to recall Guge's obscure professional terminology, her little face scrunched up in concentration, but the information that finally came out was still fragmented and chaotic.
"Stop! Enough!" Lin Jun quickly called a halt to this disastrous information relay.
Fortunately, she wasn't the only one who went to the core this time.
"Aiding, what's the actual situation with the dungeon core?" Lin Jun privately messaged.
"Ah! Boss!" Suddenly hearing Lin Jun's voice in his consciousness, Aiding's eye corner twitched almost imperceptibly.
He quickly composed himself, returning to his expressionless demeanor, and calmly, clearly repeated Guge's complete analysis and conclusions through the mycelial network.
Though not word-for-word, all the key information—the core's impending shutdown, missing underlying technology, complete failure of human maintenance methods—was accurately conveyed.
Truly worthy of a mage who reached Diamond rank through his own abilities! This reliability and organization was worlds apart from a certain little fool who relied entirely on family resources and couldn't even speak clearly!
Among the terminology Aiding relayed, Lin Jun didn't understand many of the professional terms either, but he was now clear on one point: humans couldn't save the core.
Tch!
Useless humans!
Seeing the Sword Saint leading the team with such fanfare, he thought they had real capability, but turns out they're completely helpless and preparing to pack up and leave?!
Lin Jun cursed internally, but actually had no confidence himself—if human experts couldn't fix the core, what could a mushroom like him do?
If he had fingernails, Lin Jun would be biting them right now.
Worried! Truly worried!
He pulled out a certain yellow book that had been cushioning under some self-destructing otaku puffshroom's butt for half a month.
[Norris! You've finally come for me!!!]
However, before it was only a voice puffshroom serving as a transmitter.
[Hm? Ah? Boss!]
[What... what is it?]
"Just asking about a small matter." Still that voice so unpleasant it made one shudder.
[How small?] the yellow book cautiously probed.
"Just a small matter concerning... whether or not to casually toss you into that spatial rift nearby." The tone was as flat as discussing the weather.
[...]
After a long while.
[You... You speak! This humble one will tell you everything without reservation!]
"You said before that the dungeon's problem was in the core. Now it's confirmed—it really is caused by the core. But the problem is," Lin Jun's voice carried a trace of irritation, "even those so-called human experts are helpless, declaring the core beyond salvation. Even if we find the core, what can we do?"
[Humans went to fix the core?]
Having been suppressed for over half a month, the yellow book knew nothing about outside situations.
Lin Jun concisely explained the current situation and Guge's core conclusions.
[Ha! Useless humans!]
The yellow book seemed full of contempt for humans.
[The United Kingdom with only three hundred years of history—what foundation could they have? Just a bunch of frogs in a well! Boss, you should never have placed any hope in them from the start!]
Its pages trembled slightly with excitement.
[Take me there! I'm eighty percent confident I can restore the dungeon to its original state!]
"Eighty percent?"
[Cough... one must leave some room for unpredictable accidents...] the yellow book explained.
"Then tell me how you plan to fix it?" Lin Jun pressed.
[If there's a problem inside the core, naturally we find the broken parts—repair what needs repairing, replace what needs replacing! But the specific operations... I'd need to see the core's internal situation firsthand to decide, right?]
It changed its tone, taking on a somewhat fawning quality.
[That... Boss, this humble one has a tiny, insignificant request...]
"Speak."
[If we really do fix the dungeon in the future, and you master the core, regarding souls, could you...]
"If you can truly accomplish this, I won't restrict your feeding anymore."
[Boss is wise!! Long live the Boss!!]
"One last question."
[Boss, ask anything!]
"After the core is repaired, will all the rifts disappear instantly?"
[No, just as the rifts gradually expanded, during repair they would naturally gradually close up.]
Having finished questioning, he stuffed the yellow book back under that elastic puffshroom butt. This time it didn't even complain.
If possible, Lin Jun still very much hoped humans could fix the dungeon—at least they wouldn't pull any tricks.
As for the yellow book?
Lin Jun only had no choice regarding core repair, otherwise abandoning the yellow book and slowly researching the core himself would be safest.
Unfortunately, time waits for no mushroom.
However, entrusting the key task concerning the entire dungeon's survival to a guy who seemed unreliable no matter how you looked at him... Lin Jun had to prepare other contingencies.
At minimum, during the crucial moment of executing repairs, his main body absolutely could not remain in Amethyst Dungeon!
Otherwise, if things went wrong and some delightful dungeon disintegration occurred, there might not even be anywhere to run.
With good luck, he might be flung to some unknown corner and start from zero; with bad luck, he'd drift directly into the void, personally experiencing the desperate journey of those vanished puffshrooms.
Safety! Safety! Still safety!
This was what Lin Jun always wanted!
Currently there seemed to be two temporary shelter options. One was naturally the surface, but with humans so sensitive to puffshrooms now, this choice carried considerable risk.
The second... naturally those rifts that had already opened.
The void needn't be mentioned, and the cursed environment under that slime's butt was still too harsh to consider for now.
Comparatively, Qis's side seemed just a bit cold... During his own dungeon's "renovation" period, borrowing lodging at good neighbor Qis's territory for a while—surely it wouldn't have any objections?
Of course, though he prioritized choosing Qis's place, Lin Jun wouldn't abandon the surface option either.
The more backup options, the better.
So, even though Amethyst Dungeon's impending destruction meant humans' reasons for crusading against puffshrooms had virtually disappeared, Lin Jun still decided to perform that predetermined show!
---
In the expert team's queue with slightly lowered morale, Aiding, gripping a specially crafted crystal, suddenly stopped.
"My miniature illusion scout... may have caught traces of the Puffshroom King." Aiding scanned the group, his gaze finally settling on the Sword Saint and Fifteen.
"In the deep layers?!" Fifteen's surprise escaped involuntarily, filled with disbelief.
Though knowing puffshrooms existed here too, running from the fifth floor to the deep layers...
"I believe so." Aiding didn't waste words. Magic power flowed in his palm as he projected the crystal's images.
In a cavern filled with mycelial carpet and puffshrooms, a special puffshroom equipped with a red cloak, silver pendant, and great shield sat regally atop an otaku puffshroom's cap like a king.
When Fifteen's gaze touched that familiar round shield, especially the two clear, intersecting deep sword marks on its surface, he immediately confirmed: "That's it!"
Aiding looked toward the Sword Saint, seeking guidance: "So... do we still follow the original plan to try 'subduing' it?"
The implication was clear: with the dungeon's destruction now inevitable, there seemed no need to waste more energy on puffshrooms—letting them perish together with the dungeon seemed easier.
But the Sword Saint was clearly interested: "Oh? This is the puffshroom that defeated Fifteen? It looks... quite interesting indeed." He casually flexed his wrist. "Since we've encountered it, let's take a detour and have a look."
Though the dungeon was doomed to destruction, it wouldn't collapse tomorrow—according to Guge, the process would take about half a year, so no one objected to the Sword Saint wanting to make a detour.
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