Mushroom Lord in the Underground City-Chapter 346 - 338: Chaos Unleashed

Lin Jun discovered that the combination effect of [Colorful Radiance] and [Charm] skills was surprisingly compatible!

The effect of [Charm] itself is quite excellent, but its trigger condition has a significant limitation, usually requiring the target to gaze at the charming Puki for a long time to gradually take effect.

This tactic might work against clueless werewolves, but if faced with an experienced adventurer or other highly alert targets, it would be difficult to succeed.

The opponent often shifts their gaze immediately upon sensing something off, interrupting the charm process.

However, once paired with [Colorful Radiance], the situation becomes entirely different!

This skill seems useless on its own, merely turning Puki dazzlingly colorful and eye-catching.

But this sudden intense visual impact causes the target to subconsciously attribute the strange feeling in their heart to being "amazed," "curious," or "attracted," thus extending the gaze time before rational judgment kicks in, greatly increasing the success probability of charm.

As for why Lin Jun specifically sought out Solalin, it was naturally because her recent unusual behavior caught Lin Jun’s attention.

Although the overall attitude of the human upper echelons seems clear now, having this single-minded captain of the Wing of Judgment keep reporting is troublesome.

Lin Jun plans to use a "gentle" way to let her understand "the beauty of Puki."

This attempt, although unexpectedly interrupted, has ample opportunities in the future.

...

Currently, the development of the Puki Master group is progressing smoothly as anticipated, and even without Lin Jun’s direct promotion, its expanding momentum has formed its own system.

The "Strange Dream" battlefield, however, has entered a new stalemate phase.

It’s unclear what methods the opponent uses, but recently, every night infiltration no longer encounters direct confrontation but rather a huge, complex, yet empty and dull, lacking substantive content giant dreamscape.

It seems like an extremely tough protective shell, firmly enclosing the opponent’s core consciousness. Without breaking through this shell completely, it’s impossible to touch the real essence of the dream.

With Lin Jun’s current nightly spiritual power penetration, forcibly breaking this defensive shell before the dream duration ends seems somewhat strained.

Not sure how long the opponent can maintain this turtle-shell tactic, Lin Jun is more counting on upgrading the [Spiritual Guidance] skill to the next level quickly; perhaps then there would be enough power to break through this annoying defense.

On the contrary, there have been some new developments in the exploration of the Divine Wood Dungeon recently.

-----------------

A team of seven elite elves is swiftly traversing the Divine Wood Dungeon.

Salian himself, who discovered the anomaly and reported it, did not participate in this operation due to the need to stay in the city and fully arrange the crucial "Surveillance Array."

The configuration of this team alone suffices to show the importance elves place on this investigation.

An experienced Palace Level captain leads the overall situation, with five elite members of Diamond Tier strength as the main force, and additionally, a Druid of only Golden Tier but with special perception abilities is specially equipped.

"Speaking of which, don’t you all feel the mushrooms we’ve seen along the way are abnormally numerous?" One agile hunter posed the question while maintaining a vigilant movement speed, "I remember last year when I came down, the ecology here wasn’t like this."

"It’s not just the mushrooms," added another team member, "the initially common Firefly Grass has almost disappeared, and those Glowing Mushrooms provide significantly less illumination brightness."

"This indicates there truly are unknown mutations deep within the dungeon, and we shouldn’t return empty-handed this time."

"Empty-handed? I doubt it! We’re on the seventh floor and haven’t even seen a shadow of the so-called ’Tree Demon with red patterns on its body.’"

"Silence!" The captain running at the front raised his right hand suddenly, signaling everyone to stop.

He kept his gaze locked in front, a dark area without even Glowing Mushrooms.

At that moment, a scarlet glow suddenly brightened in the darkness!

Almost the moment the red light appeared, a sharp piercing sound had already reached the captain’s face! It was a sticky long tongue fast as lightning, tens of meters long!

"It’s a Giant Forest Frog!" A team member instantly identified the attacking demon.

The captain’s expression didn’t change at all, and with a light turn of the Elf Scimitar in his hand, carved with complex runes and flowing with moonlight-like luster, he split the incoming long tongue right in the middle!

No chance was given for the frog to retract the severed tongue or launch a second attack, as the mage and the hunter in the team had already made their move. A sharp stone cone and two arrows pierced into the darkness ahead.

A painful wail erupted from the darkness, quickly silenced.

Soon, the seven arrived beside the massive corpse of the forest frog, and under the orange-yellow glow of the Lighting Technique, it was clear to see that under this creature’s rough skin, some meandering, twisted dark red patterns were vaguely visible.

The captain stepped forward, and a spiritual protection barrier was applied to him by the mage behind him in perfect harmony.

Upon touching those dark red patterns with his fingertips, a familiar and unsettling stirring came, almost identical to the feeling on that piece of dark red tree demon skin fragment before.

"The issue is more serious than we expected," the captain said deeply, "the problem extends beyond just the tree demons."

"The forest is in fear..." A druid at the end of the team firmly pressed his palm against a giant tree and said.

"Proceed forward." The Elf Captain swiftly cut off a piece of forest frog flesh containing patterns and tucked it into his bag before standing up.

They must find out how severe this thing’s influence is before reporting it upwards.

...

Meanwhile, having gone as deep as the thirteenth floor and skillfully hidden among the twisted branches of a giant ancient tree, half-demon Bastardos acutely realized the true horror of this infection.

Among the woods below him, countless figures with dark red luster roared and fought madly, the chaotic howls and the sound of flesh tearing seemingly endless.

Above him, the flying demons that should have adhered to the hunting order also fell into total chaos. Hunters killed their prey but left them untouched; even weak prey dared to launch desperate charges at their natural enemies.

Every bit of norm and order had collapsed, and the rich accumulated ecological foundation of the Divine Wood Dungeon, built over countless unknown years, was rapidly being consumed and squandered in this all-consuming frenzy.

In such an extreme environment, even Bastardos, with Palace Level strength, felt significant pressure, forcing his movements to be exceptionally cautious and his speed considerably slowed.

"Waste! What a waste!" Witnessing all this, Lin Jun was deeply pained.

He wished he could lay out a Fungal Mat on the scene immediately to save these confused souls.

Whoosh!

Bastardos calmly shot an arrow, dropping a frenzied giant bird attempting to dive toward him. He touched the dwindling arrows in Puki’s backpack and asked, "Boss, should we continue going deeper?"

In the early stages of the action, he still had the leeway to reclaim the fired arrows.

But now, in this completely out-of-control scene, any attempt to reclaim them might cause greater risks and consume more arrows.

The remaining arrows, strictly calculated, only supported the quantity needed to safely retreat.

If continuing deeper, close-quarters combat might be necessary.

And having witnessed firsthand the terror of the [Frenzy] infection, Bastardos had no desire to dirty his claws.

In fact, even without close combat, merely being in this bloody inferno vaguely made him feel his calm mind was being corroded by a subtle trace of agitation.

Fortunately, Lin Jun was not an unreasonable person.

Faced with Bastardos’s retreat request based on the real-world situation, Lin Jun readily agreed.

"Retreat, Dylan No. 2. However, before retreating, grab that!"

Following the direction the fungal tendrils from Puki’s backpack were pointing, Bastardos’s gaze penetrated the gaps between layers of leaves and saw an extremely peculiar small tree.

It was covered with veins like liquid starlight, glowing with a soft and mysterious radiance.

The small tree seemed to be moving slowly on its own, and any demon daring to approach it, regardless of strength, would painfully collapse shortly and die from poisoning.

On some of its winding branches were a few plump, smooth, crystalline translucent fruits that seemed utterly juicy at a glance!

[Juicy]!