Louisa pulled her fangs from Karen’s neck and silently stepped aside, frowning as she fastidiously teased out gray wolf hairs stuck between her teeth with her fingertips.
When the Boss first said she could taste werewolf blood, she had been excited—after all, they were a legendary race on par with vampires.
But the moment she bit down, the furry mouthfeel made her regret it. Who knew how many hairs she had accidentally swallowed just now…
Nearby, a Puji elegantly sprinkled spores evenly over the dazed Karen. Mycelium threads seeped into her skin, beginning to grow and coil.
[Fusion Parasitism LV8] had now leveled up; the blood requirement for parasitism had risen to 20%, no longer needing the target to be on death’s door like before.
There were many ways to lower someone’s blood volume, but having Louisa draw it was clearly the most “painless.”
Thus Lin Jun appointed the little pig as the Mushroom Garden’s “exclusive blood-drawing nurse.” The only pity was that this world didn’t have nurse outfits… perhaps a priest outfit would do?
As the parasitism completed, Karen heard Little Blue’s voice in her mind:
“I can feel you in the Mycelium Network—can you hear me?”
Karen weakly lifted her eyelids, glanced at the nearby Little Blue staring at her in excitement, and carefully savored the strange sensation of being linked by an invisible net.“Ah… I can hear you.”
The other werewolves underwent the same “baptism” one after another, proudly advancing to become “half-mushroom wolves.” In front of Louisa, the wolf hairs she had plucked from her teeth had already been rolled into a tiny fur ball.
Once they had all recovered from their weakness, Lin Jun kept his earlier promise—he would take them to see the real sun and moon!
Before setting out, Lin Jun kindly reminded them:
“It might be a bit cold outside. Do you want to put on some clothes?”
These werewolves wore nothing above the waist—only ragged hide trousers below. Karen was no exception; thick fur was, after all, warm.
“No need! I’ve never felt cold!” Little Blue was clearly confident in his coat, and the others chimed in as well.
Half an hour later, after passing through the freshly torn rift in the stone fortress, the werewolves instantly learned what “an unprecedented sensation” meant.
“S-s-s-so c-c-cold!” Little Blue hugged his arms, teeth chattering, and sniffed hard.
He had to suck the snot back fast, or he’d end up like the companion beside him—nostrils entirely plugged by frozen mucus.
“W-where is this? Why is it so cold?” Karen was shivering too.
“The Far North. But that probably means nothing to you… here, hold this!”
A demon-blooded led over a dozen Burrowing Pujis and handed one to each werewolf.
The Burrowing Pujis gave off steady warmth. The werewolves clutched them to their chests, and their frozen bodies slowly thawed.
“Big Mushroom truly can do anything…” Little Blue buried his face against the Puji’s warmth and sighed from the heart.
In a new environment, their curiosity reignited. They entered “a hundred thousand whys” mode—statues, bricks, icicles of the fortress—anything unfamiliar had to be sniffed and asked about.
When they finally left the stone fortress and reached the open canyon, they looked up at the sky. Three vast, pure-bright moons were about to dip below the horizon, and all the werewolves fell silent at once.
Their gazes were seized by that chill, mysterious glow; something deep in their blood stirred awake.
“Awooooo—”
No one knew which wolf began the long howl. The rest joined in as if commanded. For a time, bleak and far-reaching howls rose and fell through the canyon, echoing without end.
And amid the excited chorus, their already-burly bodies visibly swelled once more. Muscles bulged; their auras turned fiercer still.
Their status panels changed accordingly:
[Full Moon (Strength & Agility +10%)]
Empowered under a full moon? That made sense enough.
But the problem was… those three huge “discs” in the sky never waxed or waned—they were full every day!
What a baffling status name…
The howls tore through the quiet, startling the captives in Mushroom Garden No. 3 awake.
The half-demon leader Bastardos sat at the edge of his makeshift prisoner cabin, peering toward the sound and muttering,
“Lizardmen, demon-blooded, vampires, dragonkin… and now werewolves. This side must be the real demonfolk base…”
“ROAR—!!!”
Just then, a dragon’s roar rang from deep within the fortress, its piercing power overwhelming every wolf howl.
The werewolves’ throats seemed seized; the howling cut off at once.
Only a single head poked from a mushroom hut—Gray. After confirming the world had gone quiet again, she withdrew, satisfied, and returned to her nap. As a growing dragon, she needed at least twelve hours of sleep a day.
Gray could rest easy, but Norris was jolted fully awake.
Wolf howls were one thing—distant and faint by the time they reached the garden.
But Gray’s roar had been nearby, rattling his insides and banishing all sleep.
Face fallen and eyes bleary, Norris trudged to the canyon entrance, grumbling,
“What in the world is—”
“Little Lizard!” The moment he appeared, Karen cried out excitedly through the Mycelium Network, her voice ringing directly in his head.
[Mating threshold reached.]
The line on the yellow book made Norris feel like he’d plunged into an abyss.
He looked up. In the moonlight, Karen had stretched to nearly two and a half meters tall and was striding straight toward him.
She spread her arms, about to give him an “affectionate” embrace. Norris shivered and sprang back, nimble as a cat.
“What’s wrong?” Karen looked genuinely puzzled.
“Um… K-Karen,” Norris stammered, hands flailing as he tried to explain. “We’re different races, and this kind of… intimate behavior might not be appropriate…”
“Oh! I get it!” Karen seemed to understand at last. Her eyes dimmed a little; her voice grew subdued. “If you don’t want to, then I can only…”
Seeing her so downcast, Norris softened and wanted to say something comforting—but he had zero experience with such situations, and no words came.
[Aggression rising. She’s coming!]
“What?” He stared at the words on the yellow book, still processing, when he heard the sound of claws shearing the air.
Norris was no longer that frail miner boy. He reacted in a flash, ducking; her claws skimmed just over his head.
He retreated quickly to open distance, both shocked and angry.
“Karen! What are you doing?!”
[Idiot! Only the strong have mating choice. That’s basic werewolf common sense.]
“What kind of common sense is that?!”
But that was indeed how werewolves saw it. Karen flicked her claws, tone grave and earnest.
“Relax, Norris! I’ll only knock you out. I won’t use a heavy hand!”
“Boss! Boss?!” As expected—no response at all!
By now Norris fully understood his Boss’s rotten personality.
If Karen meant to kill him, the Boss would intervene. But to “capture him for mating”… the Boss was definitely hiding and enjoying the show!
And if he really got caught—would the Boss save him…? Norris didn’t dare bet.
Possible allies—Blood Sis, Dragon Sis, Qiong—none were nearby. He could only rely on himself!
“Damn, damn, damn!” Never in his life had Norris imagined he’d one day fight to protect his chastity.
“Jida!”
Thud, thud, thud, thud—
Heavy footsteps like war drums rolled from the fortress’s dark corridor.
The next instant, the four-meter-tall Jida charged from the shadows, wreathed in an unstoppable momentum!