Fifth Level of the Purple Crystal Dungeon, Swamp Area.
Mud mixed with blood seeped through the cracks of his fingers into the swamp. Dylan leaned against the slippery rock wall with a bent stance, the penetrating wound in his abdomen making every step difficult.
He had failed; he failed right from the start.
He couldn't control the lone parasitic tree with narcotic powder before being discovered.
Now he was severely injured, and his weapon was knocked away. The other parasitic trees at a distance had also received the signal and were closing in.
"Bella."
Whispering his daughter's name, a burning desire to survive blazed in Dylan's eyes—he couldn't die yet.
Bella was the only child from him and his late wife, intelligent and sensible, with quite the talent.
At a young age, she had already achieved Silver Level strength, and she was destined to become much greater than him, her useless father, in the future.
She still had a bright future ahead, and she shouldn't die now, much less turn into something as hideous as a bloodsucker and live in agony.
So he couldn't die yet; he still had four bags of narcotic powder. He still had a chance, as long as he could escape the swamp…
"Dead end…"
At some point, the path ahead was blocked by a stone wall.
Dylan wanted to retreat, but five parasitic trees had already surrounded the path from afar. Pale roots twitched eagerly, waiting to capture Dylan.
If he were in perfect health, he might still attempt a charge before the trees surrounded him completely, but now, with his abdominal injury, it was impossible.
He grabbed the climbing vines hanging from the stone wall, trying to climb up. However, the vine was completely torn off, revealing a stone door it had covered.
"Ha… cough cough… haha… a hidden room…"
In all these years, this was the first time he stumbled upon a hidden room. Under other circumstances, he would have been thrilled because valuable items usually lay within.
But now…
The parasitic trees were less than twenty meters away behind him. Dylan couldn't care anymore; he fumbled around, found a protruding mechanism, and pushed it in.
Now all he could do was pray that the inside held a legendary divine artifact to help turn his misfortunes.
Amid the falling green-gray debris, the heavy stone door opened inward.
Bang bang bang—
Several magic bullets shot out from the shadows, hitting a parasitic tree reaching its roots toward Dylan, breaking it in half.
In the darkness, fluorescent mushroom caps lit up one by one, revealing a series of round, peculiar Puki in front of Dylan.
I have been imprisoned for ten thousand years,
and now you dare trespass on my territory,
This is—What the heck! Such disgusting tree men!
———
Life in the treasure chest room offered no want for food or drink; it was truly… quite boring…
The Mushroom Garden was much better; at least there he could battle demons daily.
Life was so dull here that Lin Jun ended up eating all the fluorescent grass in the room, gaining a fluorescent skill that consumed almost no magic power.
Indeed, leveling up here was quick.
With the pool full of high-concentration magic power, Lin Jun nearly drained it, raising his level directly to Level 47.
He also took out a tenth of the Heart of Lava he had picked up.
No wonder it was the Flame Demon's essence; even after being shattered, it still radiated incredible heat.
If Lin Jun's high-temperature resistance weren't already at Level 7, the mycelium wouldn't even stick.
After breaking down the Heart of Lava, Lin Jun gained another level and acquired a new skill through plunder: [Self-Destruction Level 3]
He no longer needed a Demon Crystal to play with the self-destructing Puki…
Thankfully, the Flame Demon died suddenly. If it had a sliver of blood left for one more chance to use self-destruction, perhaps Lin Jun would be in danger, but those three adventurers in front would certainly not survive.
Now the question is how to get out?
He'd already produced 40 Puki.
Due to limited space, he couldn't focus on quantity but had to enhance quality, equipping each Puki with five to seven skills.
He had tried collectively bombing the stone door without success.
The treasure chest room must have had special reinforcement measures, otherwise, blasting this stone with such firepower should have been easy.
As for using self-destruction to blow up the door, Lin Jun dared not, fearing the explosion's power in such a tight space might backfire on him…
After an unknown period of confinement, something interesting happened—the treasure chest refreshed!
After a wave of magic power, the stone lid returned to its original position, and upon opening, a ring tumbled out.
Unfortunately, it was an offensive magic ring with no attribute additions, only capable of casting Ice Cone Skill three times a day.
Its power was barely on par with the Mushroom Cannon, making it pretty much useless to Lin Jun.
So Lin Jun could only watch anxiously, waiting for the chest to refresh again, hoping it would yield something to help him escape.
It would be great if a classic teleportation scroll appeared.
However, before Lin Jun could wait for the chest to refresh a second time, the stone door was opened from the outside…
———
The light from outside streamed in, shining on Lin Jun's body by the pool.
This was the scent of freedom!
But the next moment, the Puki blocked the doorway tightly, ensuring no possible attack harmed the core.
Once the strongest Puki had secured the core within its shell, Lin Jun had the leisure to observe the outside situation.
A severely injured adventurer lay by the stone door, too terrified to move.
Was this person the one who released the fungus? Well done.
Further outside, several tree… people… were there. Such disgusting demons.
Upon opening the panel and seeing the [Fusion Parasite] skill, Lin Jun figured out what it was.
Instinctively unleashing a barrage of firepower, the parasitic trees attempted to counter with skills, one even cast a Fireball Technique.
But it was all futile in the face of Lin Jun's firepower. The Fireball Technique disintegrated before forming, backfiring onto the caster.
Having easily dealt with the parasitic trees, the only one left was the weak adventurer.
Don't get me wrong; Lin Jun didn't intend to kill to silence anyone.
As long as the matter concerning the core wasn't exposed, he didn't care about rumors like "a strange group of Puki appeared in the labyrinth."
This person released Lin Jun, so Lin Jun casually saved his life, making them even.
The problem was this man's condition looked about to die; his blood volume on the panel steadily and slowly decreased.
Letting him naturally perish didn't align with Lin Jun's mushroom ethics; at least an effort should be made to save him.
The challenge now was that Lin Jun didn't know any healing skills…
The Puki were expendable; if damaged, they were simply discarded. If necessary, patching them up with mycelium was sufficient, but humans couldn't be patched the same way…
Should he call for other adventurers?
Not to mention he didn't know where he was; even if he found other adventurers, a fight would likely break out first.
Lin Jun recalled the introduction about [Fusion Parasite] and glanced at the parasitic tree remnants soaking in the swamp; it seemed the only way.
The Puki dragged the unconscious Dylan and the parasitic tree remnants into the treasure chest room.
Lin Jun accelerated the decomposition of the parasitic trees with the mycelium.
It was a costly operation, the magic power consumed to expedite far exceeding the magic acquired through decomposition.
But Lin Jun obtained what he wanted.
[The Seven Sins of Greed Triggered]
[Plunder Skill: Fusion Parasite Level 1]
The core itself dispersed spores on Dylan's fatal abdominal wound, where the mycelium, aided by magic power, slowly fused with flesh and blood to seal the wound.
It even partially restored Dylan's life force.
In the end, it really involved patching humans with mycelium…
Feeling the presence of this neither human nor fungus entity in the fungal network, Lin Jun couldn't help but find it odd.
Did the purity of his organization perhaps diminish?