Mushroom Lord in the Underground City-Chapter 411 - 402: We Need More Pukis

"Retreated? They... just retreated like that?" On the wall, a soldier with a face full of dust supported himself against the battlement, staring in disbelief at the Snake-men’s ranks gradually disappearing in the distance.

The next second, a wave of ecstasy swept across the entire wall.

"We survived! We won!"

"Hahaha! What bullshit Demon Race, just like that!"

"Did you see? My Puki that self-destructs blew a Snake-man’s tail to bits!"

Everyone was cheering, the most excited being the Puki Masters, while others had much less sense of participation; not that they particularly wanted it anyway.

Angela leaned against the cold brick wall, letting out a long breath.

With tense nerves finally relaxed, she realized her hand gripping the sword was still slightly trembling.

Not long ago, she had braced herself for death in battle, as she was not interested in experiencing a slave’s life.

Now being able to survive...

"Puki Masters are quite useful, aren’t they?" she murmured to herself.

Of course, this "useful" was referring to the potential of this emerging profession itself, not the bunch under her command.

These rookie Puki Masters perfectly demonstrated what it meant to be "green recruits."

Completely lacking in tactical acumen, undisciplined, they became flustered in chaos once engaged with the enemy.

Today’s victory was entirely due to the troublesome nature of Puki as Magic Pets.

Not only the Puki Masters, but even the crossbowmen on the walls performed poorly.

Judging by the corpses of Snake-men, fewer than twenty were truly dead from arrow wounds, while quite a few Puki ended up mis-killed by friendly fire.

Even with such chaotic cooperation, they still managed to repel the seemingly invincible Snake-men forces!

This was enough to prove the enormous potential of the Puki Master unit.

Angela thought, if the Snake-men had disregarded everything and prioritized attacking the city to kill the Puki Masters, it might have been a better choice.

But clearly, even they did not fully understand the characteristics of Puki Masters, let alone the enemy.

Anyway, a narrow escape!

For now...

"Is there a way to replenish these Puki?" Viscount Nate’s voice pulled Angela back to reality.

This Lord had evidently already begun considering subsequent defense issues; the number of Puki halved left him feeling insecure.

Angela exchanged a glance with another commander, they didn’t know either!

The original Puki Master commanders had run off long ago.

Unable to find a solution, they finally called in a few Puki Master squad leaders for a discussion.

"Feed the fungal mat in the Pujie Dungeon with Demon corpses, and Puki will grow out."

"Who can return to the dungeon now?"

"What about the fungal mat in the city?"

"Probably not... I heard that Puki’s nurturing mainly depends on environmental magic power, and the surface’s concentration isn’t high enough..."

"What if we feed it more corpses?"

"Where are we going to find Demon corpses now? We can’t risk encountering Demon Race forces just to search the wilderness, right?"

"It doesn’t seem like the corpses necessarily have to be from Demons..."

Everyone exchanged words until they all fell silent, their gazes collectively directed at the Snake-men corpses outside the city.

Using the enemy’s corpses to cultivate their own strength seemed perfectly justified; no one had the slightest psychological burden about it.

Not only were the Snake-men’s corpses all collected, but even the piles of Puki remains at the foot of the city walls were carefully gathered and transported to that piece of fungal mat within the city, spreading them evenly.

As for the few Winged People who died in battle and the garrison troops whose lives were taken by magic or spears on the walls, they were buried in another part of the city.

Without Lin Jun accelerating with magic power, the fungal mat’s decomposition speed was not particularly fast.

Angela and Viscount, among others, came to check several times a day.

Fortunately, no other Demon Race forces showed up nearby in the coming days.

On the first day, fine strands of mycelium quietly covered the surface of the corpses like a spider’s web, and mushrooms began to sprout around the fungal mat.

On the second day, the mushroom clusters significantly increased, even interspersed with a few tempting "delicious mushrooms." These fungi nourished by the corpses were untouched during the day, yet in the dead of night, were stealthily harvested by two unabashed Beastman soldiers, becoming their midnight snack. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

On the third day, change finally arrived. Within the pile of corpses now half-decomposed, the first newborn Puki poked out its rotund body. Around it, more not-yet-fully-formed Puki embryos began to emerge from the fungal mat.

When a Puki Master successfully established a spiritual connection with this newborn Puki, everyone present collectively breathed a sigh of relief.

In the following days, the new Puki kept popping up like bamboo shoots after spring rain.

Before the corpses were fully consumed, the lost number of Puki was not only completely replenished but even slightly exceeded.

With combat strength restored, everyone’s hearts, which had been hanging for days, finally settled.

What they did not know was that, in terms of magic power alone, the decomposition of more than a hundred Snake-men could not produce the more than three thousand Puki. The missing part was naturally supplemented by Lin Jun.

Having no choice, Golden Valley City was the first appearance of Puki Masters. The more impressive the battle results, the more attention they would get afterward.

In terms of magic power, Lin Jun accepted the loss, considering it as buying skill proficiency with magic power.

A few days later, another group of Demon Race arrived outside Golden Valley City, but they were fewer in number than the Snake-men.

After a probing attack left behind dozens of corpses, they, too, quickly withdrew.

For a long time afterward, no Demon Race approached Golden Valley City, but a lot of humans came instead.

The reason Golden Valley City could hold was thanks to the Puki Masters; the surrounding towns did not have such advantages and fell one after another under small groups of Demon Race attacks.

With the Demon Race forces scattered, every time a settlement was breached, some survivors managed to escape, some of whom made their way to Golden Valley City.

Refugees and routed soldiers continuously poured in.

The arrival of these people did not bring Golden Valley City much substantial improvement in combat forces; instead, it aggravated an already tight supply of food.

Simultaneously, Golden Valley City’s target became larger.

The Birdman responsible for reconnaissance recently discovered quite a few Demon Race scouts appearing nearby.

In the previous two encounters, Golden Valley City was able to make the enemy withdraw, not because they were stronger than the enemy.

If those two waves of enemies had decided to fiercely fight to the death, they could have captured Golden Valley City. They chose to retreat simply because they deemed it not worth the cost.

But now, with the influx of many refugees, Golden Valley City’s "value" in the eyes of the Demon Race is rapidly escalating.

Angela realized that it might not be long before this city becomes a target worth the Demon Race’s full efforts.

"The worst-case scenario," her voice low, her gaze sweeping over everyone present, "could involve several Demon Race forces simultaneously besieging the city."

In the council hall, besides Viscount Nate and the commander colleague of the thousand-man unit, there was a new face, Baron Morton.

He had fought his way out injured from his own fallen territory, with his forces almost entirely annihilated, but by virtue of Diamond Level strength, he narrowly survived.

"We need more Puki Masters," the Viscount said.

Angela reminded them, "We tried using Symbiotic Mycelium before; although its success rate isn’t as high as in the dungeon, it can produce new Puki Masters, but now there’s no excess corpses to cultivate Puki with."

The Viscount’s fingertip slowly moved across the map, finally stopping at a mark on the western side of Golden Valley City.

Warrior’s Cape Bay, a small port once frequently trading with Golden Valley City.

"It fell a few days ago," Baron Morton reminded, familiar with the region’s fall as it was near his domain.

Viscount Nate shook his head slowly, "Precisely because it has already fallen, we must send people there."

"Viscount, you mean..." Angela vaguely guessed his intention, yet still found it hard to believe.

"We need corpses," Viscount Nate’s voice was terrifyingly calm, "more corpses."

Baron Morton suddenly stood up, "You’re mad? Those are human remains! You intend to use them to... to..."

"They’re already dead!" Viscount Nate suddenly raised his voice, "But we’re still alive! So many people in the city still want to live! Without enough Puki, we can’t defend against the next assault! At that point, everyone would die!"

Baron Morton opened his mouth but ultimately sat back in his chair, unable to voice further objection.

Viscount Nate surveyed everyone present, his voice returning to calm, "A round trip will take at least two days... Who will go?"