The morning sunlight penetrated the wisteria curtain, weaving golden patterns on the oak floor.
The girl curled up in the velvet soft cushion was still asleep.
"Mmm... so satisfied..."
Three rhythmic knocks awakened the girl from her sweet dreams.
"Good morning, miss," Eric the butler's voice sounded from outside the door, "The new magic teacher should arrive shortly, please make preparations in advance."
Since Inanna was found, Eric was assigned by the Duke to serve her exclusively, taking care of her daily life and ensuring her well-being.
As for the Duke himself, he was forced to remain at the border due to the Hermit Empire's continuous small-scale military harassment.
"Uncle Eric, I know, I'll be there soon."
As the footsteps faded away, Inanna stretched lazily and climbed out of bed to start grooming herself.
Customarily, the Duke's Mansion had maids responsible for dressing the young lady, but ever since Inanna returned, she insisted on doing it herself.
Everyone speculated that this was the young lady's increasingly cautious behavior following betrayal, and the entire household deeply sympathized with Inanna's ordeal.
But that wasn't the case.
Inanna reached into her pink hair, touching the back of her head—there grew a very, very small pink mushroom cap, the same color as her hair.
Inanna hadn't told anyone about her experiences in the Underground City or this mushroom cap.
The former was due to Lin Jun's instructions, the latter she wasn't sure why she had to hide.
Perhaps once it's spoken, everyone would try to remove this little mushroom cap, but she wanted to keep it.
With her hair pinned up, Inanna came to the window, feeling the warmth of the sun.
"The weather is so good, I wonder what Lin Jun is doing now. Did he succeed in conquering an earth worm after I left?"
————
Hahaha!
Yes, yes, blast them, blast these disgusting things apart!
In the fifth layer of the Swamp Area, a war between Puki and the parasitic trees was in full force.
Over a hundred lightly armored Puki, equipped with Evasion Level 7, were in fierce battle with hordes of parasitic trees.
These days, Lin Jun grew increasingly suffocated fighting them, primarily due to profit issues.
The Fusion Parasite skill was decent, as long as humanoid creatures with flesh and blood could be parasitized.
In the parasitic tree ranks was a small portion of trees using gnolls as hosts (the easiest to deal with).
The problem with the skill was there was no difference between Level 1 and Level 10!
The skill could only parasitize dying creatures, and the only upgrade was parasitizing when they're not so close to death.
It's almost like adding nothing, since Lin Jun would certainly capture those to be parasitized—isn't that controlling their blood volume however he wanted, needing no additional support?
Therefore, this skill brought no gain.
Entanglement was the same, having it was enough; advanced was useless, since fighting depended on elegant bombardment, not on primitive mycelium tentacle tactics.
In the end, it's Resilience that offered some use, making mycelium tougher, thus naturally increasing Puki's defense, making tentacles sturdier.
Useful, but not much.
For this little gain, the loss was huge...
In recent days, Lin Jun encountered several higher-level parasites, each causing him considerable loss.
Now these parasitic trees were like cockroaches to Lin Jun; disgusting to look at, yet he had no choice but to crush them—after all, he wanted their swamp.
Swamp and mushrooms indeed made a perfect match.
Humidity and temperature were ideal, and more importantly, the swamp was rich in magic power!
This swamp seemed made for establishing a Mushroom Garden, only requiring a bit of cleaning.
After today's battle, he would occupy half of the swamp area, progress was thrilling.
Watching the parasitic trees turn to ashes in the mushroom cannon, Lin Jun proudly shook his main body deep in the occupied swamp.
Under the fierce attack of Puki, the parasitic trees seemed to be retreating.
Just as Lin Jun thought the battle was over, a spinning figure emerged from the parasitic tree ranks.
Just its appearance, spinning roots severed two blocking parasitic trees.
Blade Storm Level 8?!
The parasitized entity was Level 45!
Dude, you're a Gold Level adventurer flipping over on the fifth layer? Shame, isn't it?
In fact, most melee skills used by parasitic trees undergo severe deformation with reduced power.
But Blade Storm was evidently not among them.
Like a tornado, it rushed into Puki's ranks, turning surrounding Puki into a sky of mycelium.
Puki's mushroom cannon shots were intercepted by the rapidly spinning roots, causing only minor damage.
That wasn't all; magical fluctuations in the parasitic tree ranks generated two muddy water elements from the swamp, looking filthy.
Summoning Magic?!
This was the second time Lin Jun had seen Summoning Magic—the first was with the Flame Demon, summoning a few seemingly strong but ultimately unhelpful puppets.
The summoner hid within the parasitic tree crowd, indistinguishable.
Damn!
The two water elements were Level 35, but their water attacks could blow away a swath of Puki.
More critically, they were summons, and could be called again after dying—were the Puki meant to deplete the summoner's mana?
Suddenly attacked by two masters, Lin Jun was caught off guard, with other parasitic trees starting to counterattack.
Tsk.
Retreat!
A few Puki attacked the water elements and Blade Storm parasitic trees, distracting them while running to the sides, luring them away.
The rest of the Puki retreated at full speed.
Fortunately, parasitic trees weren't very smart; after eliminating the bait Puki, they reverted to their slow-moving mode.
After the battle, Lin Jun counted only about forty out of the hundred or so deployed Puki returned, half of which were lost during the final ambush.
Most unfortunate, losing meant he couldn't harvest parasitic tree remnants to replenish supplies.
The next wave of offensive will be forced to delay.
Damned parasitic trees, still some high-level capabilities they can use!
No matter, it's the hidden ones that are the trump card; now that they're exposed, there are ways to counter.
Yet Lin Jun also identified a problem: his Puki, despite having Evasion Skills to easily avoid individual attacks, were ineffective against Blade Storm or water flows with wide attack ranges.
They couldn't run fast with short legs, easily catching up and getting crushed.
Having an Acceleration Skill would be great, just like the Gold Level werewolves on the tenth layer offering the most unpretentious and practical Acceleration.
His Rolling Charge didn't count, requiring preparation to curl up, needing time to revert, besides being inconvenient for attacking with other skills while rolling.
No idea if there's an effective Acceleration Skill on this layer, might as well explore during the restocking of Puki.