Mushroom Lord in the Underground City-Chapter 289 - 281: Xiao Hai’s Predicament

[Mushroom Cannon Level 10]

A Level 10 skill, achieved not through greedy devouring, but purely through personal effort, has emerged!

Once I train all the mushroom-related skills to full level, perhaps I can fuse them into an "Extreme Mushroom"?

The power of the Mushroom Cannon has increased several times over the Level 9 base level.

When combined with the effects of [Resonance Level 4], it becomes even more terrifying!

Speaking of [Resonance], as the level rises, the number of Puki it can coordinate with also increases.

The Resonance Cannon used previously was a combination of over a dozen Puki.

In this battle, several problems with the Resonance Cannon were exposed.

For instance, due to its length, it had to be carried by multiple ’ji-gi’, resulting in slow turning and difficulty in hitting high-speed targets.

This thing is basically positioned like a cannon, focusing on fire suppression rather than precision sniping.

With more of them, a barrage on the battlefield is still quite exciting.

However, this leads to the second issue—magic power consumption!

The magic cannon fired by two Puki resonating together consumes not merely twice the magic power.

The more Puki resonate, the more terrifying the magic power consumption becomes.

This explains why after the first two shots, the attack interval of the Resonance Cannon becomes longer.

That’s because Puki’s own magic power gets depleted, and the rest relies on temporary recharging from the Fungal Mat, which naturally slows it down.

Of course, in the face of excellent firepower, these are merely minor issues. Lin Jun is not someone who lacks magic power!

...

Only two days after the battle, the area on Xiao Hai’s forehead, once shattered by Gallon’s heavy punch, is now sprouting dense black scale tips.

It’s expected to fully recover in about ten more days.

Lin Jun procured a batch of gemstones from human channels for Xiao Hai. Though not as exquisite as her prized pure green gemstone, they are crystalline, colorful, and far superior to ordinary glass marbles, much to Xiao Hai’s satisfaction.

Lin Jun’s cost was merely some [Delicious Level 6] red mushrooms, with even some left over, which Edin used as activity funds.

Notably, on the human side, the price of delicious mushrooms, typically around Level 2, has started to consistently decline.

Although the output ratio of delicious mushrooms isn’t high, due to the rapid expansion of mushroom fields, this once rare item is gradually becoming "affordable."

This price drop wave not only impacted the delicious mushrooms themselves but also affected the market value of other fruit with the [Delicious] attribute, reducing their prices as well.

Some nobles who suffered losses were furious, attempting to pressure Fa’er to restrict the expansion of mushroom fields.

Unfortunately, Fa’er completely ignored them.

The ever-expanding mushroom production, continuously exported, is Fa’er’s greatest political and economic leverage right now.

Especially given the elves no longer willing to provide more food aid, Dumb Wind Town’s importance to the United Kingdom is increasing daily.

Moreover, with Fa’er’s father being the president of the Adventurer’s Guild, even without favoritism, his mere existence makes those plotting against Fa’er reconsider whether it’s worth the risk for some gold coins.

Fa’er exchanged food trade for the much-needed management talents and high-quality construction materials, gradually transforming Dumb Wind Town into a genuine city.

Meanwhile, Xiao Hai now faces a new problem—the amount of Bright Crystals is too much, and the Mushroom House is almost overflowing!

Every time she tries to open the Mushroom House’s crack, a few Bright Crystals roll out with a clattering sound.

She has to squat, carefully picking up each fallen treasure.

But when she opens the door crack again... history repeats itself.

Xiao Hai isn’t a fool ignorant of change; after dozens of times, she simply stops entering the Mushroom House!

She wraps herself around her thick tail, finds a comfortable spot at the Mushroom House’s entrance, curls up into a ball, and sleeps outdoors...

Thanks to Xiao Hai’s strong adaptability, her [Cold Resistance] has reached Level 8, otherwise, she might have frozen silly.

Not to mention, sleeping outside makes it easier for her to snarl at nearby demon races approaching her Mushroom House!

Lin Jun doesn’t intend to proactively help her expand the Mushroom House, as this only addresses the symptoms, not the root problem.

In just six months, it’s filled up a house, and with her improving collection skills, even if the Mushroom House were expanded several times, it wouldn’t last long.

Should there be a dedicated "Bright Crystal Storage Area" with a row of Mushroom Houses for her as a warehouse?

It’s said that life will inspire wisdom to solve problems in adversity; Lin Jun chooses to believe in Xiao Hai’s wisdom!

...

Even though Gallon’s matters have diverted much of Lin Jun’s attention, the Fungal Mat’s development in the Divine Wood Dungeon has not ceased. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

At this moment, on the surface of the highest spiral structure at the Divine Wood Dungeon entrance.

A small pile of soil is pushed open, and several Puki skillfully emerge from the newly dug tunnel.

Ignoring the few demons nearby disturbed and peeking curiously, they quickly scatter specially-made fungal spores as markers around the entrance, then swiftly retreat into the dark underground network.

Having reached the surface area, Lin Jun plans to angle downward, maintaining a depth of one to two hundred meters to avoid possible detections upon entering the Elf Scout’s reconnaissance zone.

The two hundred meters of rock and earth layer provides an excellent natural barrier. Even Lin Jun’s own scout Puki can’t sense the surface situation at this depth; he doesn’t believe the elves could do the reverse.

This isn’t questioning the potential of elves possessing stronger detection technology, but such powerful detection tools absolutely couldn’t cover an area as wide as the entire Elf City!

If they can closely monitor the grandeur of the Elf Royal Palace, that alone is already quite impressive.

Of course, Lin Jun had prepared for the worst-case scenario.

The Puki assigned to this mission were carefully selected; besides the Drilling Puki looking peculiar, all others appear rather ordinary, and none have demon crystals in symbiosis within.

Even if unfortunately discovered by the elves, it could be fully explained as "normal underground activities of a group of mutated wild Puki."

Surely the elves wouldn’t eradicate all the natural burrowing creatures like rats and moles in the city underground?

As it turns out, Lin Jun’s caution was needless.

The entire excavation process was exceptionally smooth, with no interference from the elves on the digging team.

Apart from occasionally encountering underground water veins, forcing the Puki to temporarily reroute, there were almost no other obstacles.

Just when Lin Jun started contemplating how to help the graveyard elves return to nature faster, the rock layer resistance before the Puki suddenly disappeared, and a Drilling Puki couldn’t stop its momentum and directly fell into a cavern.

Not a natural cave, but an obvious man-made, crudely hewn underground chamber.

The space isn’t large, less than ten square meters, with no inhabitants; if there were people, Lin Jun would have sensed them in advance.

A wooden bed covered in a layer of dust, a tightly closed chest, an empty table, and a small magic crystal lamp in the corner.

It’s clear someone once lived here but left some time ago.

The key point is, this place is near two hundred meters underground!

What kind of underground chamber would be built at such an improbable depth?

In any case... let’s start by rummaging through the chest!