To guard against any tricks from the new guildmaster, Lin Jun split part of his attention to strengthen surveillance around the dungeon entrance.
Yet several days passed without incident, making Lin Jun wonder if they really only wanted to taste what a Lighting Puji was like.
What he didn’t notice was that, on the fifth floor, an ordinary adventurer had opened a small pouch and released a few inconspicuous insects.
…
Of course, Lin Jun couldn’t just stare at the entrance these past few days.
[High-Temperature Drilling] was indeed powerful. In just a few days, the mycelium tunnel network had made remarkable progress.
Except for the stairways, which were reinforced by some dungeon array and couldn’t be dug through, everywhere else—rock, brick, or soil—could be tunneled easily.
The fifth and sixth floors now had the most underground passages.
With the Knight carrying his main body and using [Rolling Charge] within them, there was absolutely no way anyone could catch up. Unless the entire floor was overturned, Lin Jun was safe.
Unless… the enemy also excelled at digging.Gray stared at a freshly dug round hole in the ground, still unpaved with mycelium.
She had just seen a Puji’s cap poke out of it before retracting.
Through [Mana Perception], she sensed that the tasty Puji was moving underground.
Lately, she had felt many little magic-rich things underground, but she hadn’t expected them to all be Pujis!
She simply had to try one.
Gray tried to squeeze into the tunnel but only got her head inside—it was too small, built for Pujis.
Luckily, she had [Sharpness LV9] claws!
Like a mole, Gray clawed open the dirt and squeezed in.
Since she only smashed through the soil without reinforcing it, the tunnels collapsed wherever she passed.
Chasing the tunneling Puji deeper and deeper, she was about to catch up when suddenly she stopped.
Her senses had picked up something much bigger, much tastier—a dazzling lump of magic!
Gulp—
Swallowing her saliva, Gray couldn’t resist digging toward it, breaking out of the mushroom forest’s underground and into the swamp.
Normally, she hated the swamp’s stench and never came here. But today, drawn by magic, she ignored the discomfort.
Halfway there, Lin Jun’s voice came through the mycelium network, but Gray was too fixated to listen.
At last, she found a ball of mycelium woven tight in the swamp. She clawed it open, shoved her head inside—and saw her familiar Knight…
The Knight Puji looked even tastier than before. But she remembered its strength—last time it had knocked her unconscious. (Gray’s memory scrambled after that blackout.)
So instead of lunging, she cautiously edged closer, hoping maybe the Knight would let her nibble a foot.
Seeing Gray drooling and inching forward, the Knight extended one foot to push her head aside. Then mycelium tendrils shoved into her mouth, feeding her magic like a baby being spoon-fed.
Gray normally disliked recharging through the Mycelium Carpet—no sense of fullness.
But when the magic was this concentrated, it was different.
Direct Knight infusion!
Not just magic, but hallucinogenic spores too.
Soon, the overwhelming energy left Gray “stuffed,” her eyes hazy. Without caring that half her body still soaked in swamp water, she fell asleep on the spot.
Lin Jun had some Pujis drag her away. Then he personally patched up the punctured mycelium sphere, so no more swamp water would seep in.
Before Gray arrived, Lin Jun had already tucked his true body inside the Knight. He didn’t dare face her directly—if that fool suddenly took a bite, it would be a disaster.
The Knight, hidden deep under the swamp, was usually beyond Gray’s sensing range. Who’d have thought she would chase a tunneling Puji and stumble right into it…
Maybe it was time to move. Otherwise, if Gray came sniffing around every few days, it would be a nightmare.
Still, it gave Lin Jun another idea: besides Puji tunnels, he should build human-sized tunnels.
Gray wouldn’t use them, but Norris, Dylan, and Piggy could in emergencies.
…
While repairing the mycelium sphere, a small bug crawled through the breach and caught Lin Jun’s attention.
There were plenty of bugs in the swamp, harmless to Pujis, so normally he ignored them. But this one was different.
Through [Mana Perception], it shone as a tiny magic point!
A scout bug?
He realized its purpose instantly.
The Knight’s blade-whip lashed out, slicing it in half. The insect corpse blurred—and vanished.
Suspicious indeed!
He hadn’t noticed them before. Though faint, they weren’t beyond his sensing—he simply hadn’t imagined insects being used for reconnaissance.
Now that he’d seen one, he needed only two seconds to flush out every single reconnaissance bug still lingering on the fifth floor.
Bat Pujis dropped from the ceiling, hunting them down.
They didn’t even need to self-destruct. Just a squeeze of their stubby legs, and the illusion bugs were dead.
Within ten minutes, they had wiped them all out.
Such a familiar method… it had to be that illusionist.
At this point, Lin Jun knew he had been discovered.
But he only meant the Knight!
Even without hiding inside, the enemy would see nothing but a blazing solar-powered Knight and an ordinary green mushroom with almost no magic, surrounded by a few identical ones.
Unless they could pull up his status panel, they would assume the Knight was the true core!
Still, Lin Jun hadn’t expected the enemy to use so many bizarre tricks.
Reconnaissance first… what next?
An assassination?
This new guildmaster really wasn’t giving him a moment’s peace!
Looked like it was time to build Knight Number Two…
——
At the Adventurers’ Guild.
Solarin and the others surrounded Aiden, waiting quietly.
Eyes shut, Aiden held a processed magic crystal tightly, his brow furrowed.
Controlling over ten bugs at once was taxing, even for a mentalist like him.
“Crack.”
A sudden sound of fracturing startled everyone. Aiden’s expression twisted, though he didn’t open his eyes.
Cracks spread across the crystal. His face grew uglier by the second.
Finally, with a final sharp snap, the crystal shattered into powder. Aiden’s eyes flew open, and he promptly vomited right on the spot.
Being crushed to death a dozen times over as bug after bug died left his stomach heaving.
Fifteen turned his head away, quietly stepping back two paces.
Solarin and Fahl simply waited in silence, while Liliane offered Aiden a glass of water.
After rinsing his mouth, Aiden looked to Fahl with feverish excitement.
“I found it! I didn’t locate the mage behind it, but I discovered the Puji’s king bug! That powerful aura, and the hiding place—I can’t be mistaken. It must be the Puji King! But the bad news is… it also discovered my bugs…”