What was the greatest failure of Lin Jun’s career?
It wasn’t being chased and eaten by slimes when he first arrived—that was just part of the novice period.
Nor was it nearly being killed by three Gold-ranked humans—aside from an arrow wound, he hadn’t really lost anything.
The greatest failure was the Earthworm Hunt!
He had consumed all the resources generated by his fire mosquitoes, overextended himself to unleash a 400-Puji army, and even gambled away a massive stockpile of magic crystals saved up over two years.
And the result? He got nothing. Worse, only a few Pujis returned from the expedition, and even his general Inanna had nearly fallen there.
Rebuilding afterward was a distant dream, and it directly led Lin Jun to make the risky decision to relocate.
One could say that fate had toyed with mushrooms—if not for those two earthworms, Lin Jun wouldn’t be where he was today.
But he had never forgotten the shame.
The Deep Layers were vast, and Lin Jun had assumed that meeting them again would only happen after he controlled the core regions and searched for them deliberately.But who would have thought?
Was it because their hunting grounds were nearby?
Or had it sensed the presence of the Pujis that once left it grievously wounded and come out intentionally?
Whether coincidence or intent didn’t matter.
Today, he would not let it escape!
“Little Pig, work with me—we’re going to kill this earthworm with everything we’ve got!”
“Boss?” Louisa had never heard her boss sound so worked up. Still, she voiced her concern. “But most of our Pujis this time are melee types!”
It was true—there weren’t many artillery Pujis.
But there were still a few hundred. Better than back then.
“With everything you’ve got, Louisa! Kill this earthworm, and I’ll let you drink your fill! I’ll even reward you with equipment! But if you let it get away… you’d better be ready to have mushrooms pulled out of you at night!”
This time she wasn’t called “Little Pig,” but Louisa was even more afraid.
The boss was clearly not joking!
She didn’t dare hold back. Blood quickly gathered in her hands, and she even pulled out the blood she had stored from those fat cave dwellers to use in battle.
The artillery Pujis unleashed their firepower without restraint. The melee Pujis, though unable to deal much damage, still swarmed forward to distract the earthworm.
At the same time, vast amounts of mana pulsed through the fungal mat into the cavern.
Lin Jun naturally wasn’t relying only on Louisa.
[Puji Creation LV8]
With mana spent recklessly, Pujis were rapidly produced.
The first one to drop was a magic Puji!
Its mycelium tendrils linked with the fungal mat, and Lin Jun set a magic crystal scavenged from the cave dwellers’ warehouse atop its cap.
Through it, Lin Jun began casting a spell—Quagmire!
As a Tier 1 spell, Quagmire wasn’t hard to learn. Of course Lin Jun had learned the spell that had left such a deep impression on him!
Though his casting wasn’t skilled and his chanting time was even longer than Inanna’s, Lin Jun still succeeded in releasing it!
The earthworm, darting rapidly between the Pujis, suddenly faltered. That familiar sensation gave it a bad premonition.
And that was just the beginning.
With the magic Puji linked to the fungal mat, there was no need to worry about mana. Lin Jun cast Quagmire over and over, softening every patch of ground the earthworm touched.
Meanwhile, more and more Pujis were being produced.
Aside from the first magic Puji, all the rest were artillery Pujis.
Occasionally, a few bat Pujis spawned and flew over to self-destruct.
Louisa, too, was fighting with all her strength. At first, she had struggled to keep up with the earthworm’s frantic burrowing.
But now that its movements were slowed, she decisively shaped her blood into a massive axe and hacked relentlessly at the same spot on its carapace, as if determined to cleave it in half.
The earthworm countered with its colossal body. A single swing sent Louisa crashing into the cavern wall.
But with her high regeneration, she would quickly charge back, even latching directly onto the earthworm to draw its blood.
The entire battle was anything but elegant—primitive and brutal.
But it was clear she was giving her all.
Even so, asking a vampire to take on a colossal monster of the same rank head-on was unfair. After another crushing blow into the wall, Louisa failed to get back up right away.
Lin Jun glanced at her status panel—one-third HP remaining.
She still had strength left, but she’d done her part. Lin Jun let it go.
Louisa had succeeded in tearing a massive wound into the earthworm. Under Lin Jun’s command, the Pujis focused all firepower on the injury.
The earthworm had lost its earlier arrogance of plowing through Pujis. It now struggled desperately to retreat into the ground.
At last, it remembered—this was the same humiliation it had suffered before.
If not for the other earthworm back then…
Would that other one appear now?
Lin Jun wondered as he attacked with everything he had.
The ground beneath the Pujis shook constantly, but it was from this earthworm’s thrashing, not from another tunneling nearby.
More than a dozen bat Pujis dove into its gaping wound, and with a chain of explosions—
The earthworm’s body was blown clean in half, flesh and organs spilling, its rocklike armor barely holding its two halves together.
As it lay there twitching, Lin Jun didn’t waste a second. He commanded the Pujis to finish it off.
Only when its HP bar hit zero and its status panel vanished did Lin Jun stop the assault.
This time, the earthworm’s champion had not come!
…
He halted Puji production. Even with his abundant mana, this battle had consumed more than half his reserves.
As for the expeditionary force?
More than half had died. A few replacements had spawned, but their numbers were far fewer now. Returning to the front lines would have to wait a few days.
The Pujis dug Louisa out. From her status, Lin Jun could see she could have gotten out herself.
“I wasn’t strong enough. I let you down, Boss,” Louisa said weakly.
“Not at all, Little Pig. You did very well. Rest up. As promised, there will be blood aplenty!”
“Boss!”
“Little Pig!”
Though Louisa had slacked off a little, she had contributed.
Having just slain the earthworm, Lin Jun was in high spirits and didn’t mind playing along with her act of loyalty and gratitude.
He ordered Pujis to carry Louisa to rest, along with two captured minotaurs.
Now that he had cave dwellers, Lin Jun no longer bothered wasting effort on those thick-headed brutes.
…
The magic Puji stood atop the earthworm’s corpse.
Lin Jun savored the fragrance of victory, letting it seep through every strand of mycelium.
This taste was far sweeter than conquering ten caves.
Beneath him lay the carcass of the ugly worm—a symbol of his break with the past. The weak, struggling mushroom that once barely survived in the shadows had been crushed forever.
Now, Lin Jun not only controlled his own fate, but his every action shaped the fates of others—earthworms, cave dwellers, even Louisa…
If he had one regret, it was that his greatest terror of the past—the Flame Demon—had already been slain by adventurers.
To personally end the monster that had haunted him for two years… just imagining the sweetness of that scene made his very soul tremble!
What a pity…
Even as he basked in triumph, Lin Jun didn’t forget to claim his spoils.
The Pujis spread spores, the mycelium creeping across the corpse, slowly breaking down everything but the rocky armor.
He didn’t hasten the process, but let himself savor the harvest.
A few days later—
[Seven Sins: Greed Triggered]
[Skill Plundered: Rock-Eating LV5 → LV7]
[Skill Plundered: Heat Resistance LV7 → LV8]
…
…
[Skill Plundered: High-Temperature Burrowing LV1]