Honestly speaking, Lin Jun felt his level shouldn’t be considered low—he was Level 44 after all!
But why had he been constantly running for his life ever since coming out here?
Thinking about it, in the same environment, his survival difficulty seemed much higher than that of the adventurers.
Not only did magical beasts want to devour him, but any humans he encountered also wanted to kill him.
Moreover, these adventurers clearly had strategy guides. Otherwise, how could they smoothly navigate through the teleportation array maze while he got lost inside it?
Heaven knows how many days had passed, but judging from the previous journey’s timeline, Inanna had probably already successfully escaped the maze by now.
Corridors led to teleportation arrays, teleportation arrays led to magical beasts, and after the magical beasts came branching corridors again…
Just like right now.
With one blast, he obliterated the last Rotfang Hound that kept barking ferociously yet didn’t dare approach, sending it to join its fallen companions.
Then he randomly chose a corridor to walk through, casually selecting a teleportation array at some midpoint or endpoint to enter.
Fortunately, the magical beasts on this floor didn’t exceed Level 40, and more accurately, most ranged between Level 20 to 30.
Even when truly surrounded, he could always rely on his high evasion and Rolling Charge to escape.
But continuing like this wasn’t a sustainable solution. He had first fought a great battle with the adventurers, and now had been lost in this maze for so long that his magical power reserves were running low.
Simply put, he was nearly starving to death.
Moreover, for some unknown reason, the magical power in this floor’s atmosphere was abnormally thin. Even if he wanted to root himself in place, he couldn’t gather much magical power to replenish his consumption.
Decomposing magical beast corpses was another source of magical power, but it was too unstable.
Finding magical beasts was simple—randomly enter a teleportation array and there would likely be several magical beasts waiting—but how could he transport them back?
He couldn’t very well become a nomadic mushroom, eating wherever he went. The consumption from rooting alone probably wouldn’t be worth the recovery.
He still had to try finding an exit, or at least locate an environment with abundant magical power.
Once again, he found a teleportation array.
No gambler loses forever—he had to encounter a way out eventually!
Green teleportation light flared up.
Oh?
This time the color was different.
*Drip—*
A drop of water fell from the inverted stone spire into the small pond.
This magical power concentration!
Even without spreading his fungal mat, just being in this environment caused Puff to slowly begin recovering magical power.
It felt like swimming in magical energy!
No, he needed to stay alert. After teleportation, there would likely be magical—
Under the enclosed dome, gray-blue stone walls embraced a pool of clear water.
In the space that could be seen at a glance, there wasn’t a single magical beast.
However, he did see something that was both unexpected yet perfectly logical—a treasure chest.
A treasure chest made of stone material yet with fine textures!
Although logically Lin Jun couldn’t figure out who had placed it there, underground dungeons should indeed have treasure chests to truly be called dungeons!
After confirming once more that aside from a stone door, there were no hidden spaces concealing magical beasts in this place.
Having confirmed safety, Lin Jun eagerly pressed against the treasure chest.
[*Native Magical Beast, contact with treasure chest denied*]
Similar information, the familiar invisible barrier.
This underground dungeon’s discrimination and oppression against native magical beasts was truly omnipresent!
Lin Jun didn’t give up, instead pressing tightly against the invisible barrier.
Sure enough, after a short while—
[*Hero, restriction lifted*]
He had originally thought that after the Hero granted him the [Greed] title, it would be used up.
He hadn’t expected that after coming up here, he’d need it everywhere.
How wonderful!
Jumping up, he kicked open the stone slab cover above, then landed and cautiously performed two backward jumps to create distance.
Nothing happened—it wasn’t a trap.
Now it was time to see what good things were inside!
He extracted a cyan-blue high-collared cloak.
It was equipment, which was within expectations.
However, this size was clearly designed for humans. When draped over the half-human-height Puff, half of it dragged on the ground.
The high collar was compressed into a flat ring by his mushroom cap…
Opening Puff’s attribute panel, he discovered that his original agility of 42 had increased to 47.
The feeling was quite subtle—it seemed somewhat useful, yet not particularly so…
Were there any active skills?
If so, how should he use them?
He tried channeling magical power into the cloak. Both sides became blurred, and two identical Puffs wearing cloaks appeared on the left and right, both under his control.
Doppelgangers?
The Puff on the right performed a Rolling Charge against the wall under his command.
*Pop—*
Like a burst bubble, it vanished without a trace.
Ah, illusions.
Not bad at all. Since it was found for free anyway, Lin Jun was quite satisfied with the 5 attribute points plus a skill.
He just hoped this cloak wouldn’t get too dirty from dragging…
The cloak was just an additional gain; the real treasure was this place rich with magical power!
Under his magical perception, the most concentrated magical power was in the small pond in the center, and the dense magical power in the air was merely a small fraction of what emanated from the pond water.
Simultaneously, the dome above continued to drip magically-infused water droplets into the pond—who knew where they seeped through from.
In any case, he’d truly struck it rich. If he could harvest all the magical power here, Lin Jun was confident he could even assemble another grand army of 400 Puffs!
When that time came, leading a crowd of bodyguards, why worry about not being able to charge straight out of the underground dungeon?
Whichever adventurer dared trouble him would face hundreds of mushroom cannons—who could withstand that!
Of course, this space was too small and definitely couldn’t accommodate 400 Puffs.
Lin Jun looked toward the only stone door, wondering what lay beyond and whether there was space to house the Puffs.
He pushed the stone door lightly—it didn’t budge.
He increased his strength—still didn’t budge.
Rolling Charge!
Lin Jun, who had knocked himself dizzy, stared somewhat dumbfounded at the stone door that hadn’t even lost half a stone fragment.
What did this mean? This door couldn’t be opened?
Or could this door only be opened from the other side?
Then if he was stuck here, what should he do? Wait for someone to open the door from the other side?
After some consideration, Lin Jun decided to search around more thoroughly.
This was one of the teleportation array maze’s traps; others should have entered here before.
Perhaps he could find some mechanism or clues left by predecessors.
Soon he made a discovery. Though he didn’t find clues left by predecessors, he found the predecessors themselves…
From the grass, he unearthed a skeleton half-buried in the soil. Who knew how long it had been dead—the leather clothing on its body was tattered and worn.
Looking at this skeleton, Lin Jun seemed to see his own future…
However, he was a mushroom. As long as the magical water droplets from the dome continued, he wouldn’t starve to death.
Since he was here, he might as well make the best of it. Stay optimistic.
This journey had been full of various dangers, leaving him physically and mentally exhausted.
This place had food and drink—he’d consider it a vacation.
Perhaps foot traffic nearby wasn’t small, and someone might discover this room someday.
Or maybe after gathering dozens of Puffs, he could blast open this stone door.
Super Puff extended tentacles from under his mushroom cap, extracting Lin Jun’s true form from within his body—a mushroom that appeared utterly ordinary—and placed it beside the water pond.
Spores slowly dispersed, and in the dense magical power, the mycelia began proliferating at tremendous speed.
Someone really constructed a game dungeon here on this planet. And i thought dude found the entrance to a boss room. I mean, gaining loot right before the boss room is a classic trope. Though ig those would be replenishments and not loot usually.